How the Game Gets Played in D.C.

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John Ray also is always looking ahead. Let's look with him.

See Kathy Patterson, Democratic council member representing Ward 3.

See Kathy Patterson, Democratic council member representing Ward 3 who is running hard for chairman of the D.C. Council.

See Kathy Patterson, Democratic council member representing Ward 3 who is running hard for chairman of the D.C. Council and who needs lots of money for her pursuit of higher office.

See Kathy Patterson next Monday morning as she runs to the downtown office of Ray's law firm, where he -- Major League Baseball's man in Washington -- and Tony Williams -- baseball's and the business community's man in the mayor's office -- host a fundraiser for Patterson, who's hankering to be the city's legislative leader.

Go and see the men and women who will turn out at the John Ray-Tony Williams fundraiser. See who gets to be crowned a "host" for Patterson -- at $1,500 a throw, or a "patron" at $1,000, or a "friend" at $500. Yes, 'tis also true, 500 bucks can buy friendship in this town.

Finally, a $250 contribution to Kathy Patterson will get you listed as a "supporter." Does that come with scrambled eggs and grits, too? Once upon a time, Patterson didn't support baseball financing legislation. Now she does.

Tony Williams likes that. So does Major League Baseball. And John Ray, paid petitioner of government and benefactor of a possible future council chairman, probably likes it most of all.

Last week's column correctly noted that Leah Sears of Georgia is the first African American woman to head a state supreme court. It should have noted, however, that Annice Wagner and Judith Rogers, both African American women, were chiefs of the D.C. court system before Sears's elevation and that Theodore R. Newman was the first African American of either sex to become chief of a jurisdiction's highest court: the D.C. Court of Appeals.

kingc@washpost.com

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