Polls Show Williams Edging Past Fenty

A Western Strategy

House Government Reform Committee Chairman Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) said he hopes Jim Matheson , Utah's sole Democratic congressman, can be persuaded to sign on to Davis's effort to give the District a vote in Congress.

"Jim Matheson could very obviously be helpful to us to get a significant number of other Democrats. That would open the floodgates to this" and more Republican support, Davis told D.C. lawyers at a luncheon on Friday.

Matheson might seem like a longshot to support the Davis bill. Dubbed the D.C. Fairness in Representation Act, it would temporarily expand the House from 435 members to 437, adding seats for D.C. and Utah. The House would revert to 435 seats for the 2012 election after reapportionment following the 2010 Census, with the District keeping its vote. Democrats worry that Utah's Republican-dominated legislature might use the change to gerrymander Matheson out of Congress. Davis concedes that Matheson has reason to be suspicious. "This is probably not the best time. We just spent $4 million in the last two elections to defeat him," said Davis. "Maybe he'll be forgiving."

Davis said he has some ideas about how to address Matheson's concerns. Maybe, he said, Congress could create a statewide, at-large House seat for Utah that would not affect the boundaries of Matheson's district.

Matheson says he supports the idea of four House seats, rather than the current three, for Utah, but he notes that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) opposes the bill. "If the majority leader doesn't want a bill to come up for a vote, that's a big problem," Matheson told KSL radio, according to sister station WTOP. "That's your stumbling block."

Moving and Shaking

· Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi celebrated his fifth anniversary as chief tax collector and fiscal analyst with a party Friday outside his second-floor offices in the John A. Wilson Building. He thanked "the hard-working people of my team" for helping the city climb into the black after the dark days of deficits and the financial control board. "I never thought we would get here," said Gandhi, whose term expires in 2007.

· Some D.C. Board of Education members are going back to school. Carolyn N. Graham, Jeff Smith (District 1), Carrie Thornhill, Robin B. Martin and Victor A. Reinoso (District 2) will travel to Los Angeles on Saturday for seven intensive days of leadership training by the Broad Foundation. The invitation-only session will focus on ideas for boosting student achievement.

· John Wallace, 53, has replaced Anita Bonds as director of the mayor's Office of Community Affairs. The 20-year city employee most recently was director of systems and technology for the Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking.

Staff writer V. Dion Haynes contributed to this report.