Cropp and Fenty Have Pursued Their Legislative Agendas By Opposite Means

"I've never seen a person who has more political savvy than Fenty," said Bonnie Cain, a parent and school activist. "Everyone in the city was saying they wanted this, but he was the only one who touched the imagination."

Fenty and his colleagues also have argued over who deserves credit for the smoking ban approved in January. Fenty first proposed the idea in 2003, but his bill died in a council committee. Not until two other members redrafted the legislation last year was it adopted, but Fenty takes credit on his Web site.

Ed Lazere, executive director of the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, praised Fenty, who has chaired the Committee on Human Services for two years, for increasing the child-care budget and putting into law protections for the homeless.

But Fenty's relationship with his colleagues is so strained that none has endorsed him and some have suggested that Fenty would be unable to move his agenda as mayor. Reciting his successes, Fenty said: "The simple fact that those bills got passed is a repudiation of that."

Art of Compromise

Cropp assumed the chairman's job during the late 1990s, when the bankrupt city was overseen by the financial control board. Like Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), she believes that pleasing Wall Street and fostering economic development are paramount, friends say.

Cropp rules legislation out of order if it is not blessed by the city's finance chief. She demanded a spending cap on the baseball stadium at the request of business leaders, who were funding the bonds.

As chairman, Cropp exerts her influence by carefully doling out committee assignments and summoning members to her suite for bargaining sessions. When developers and tenants' rights advocates were in a standoff over how many affordable housing units should be required, Cropp met with them for a year to work out a compromise.

"What drew our endorsement was her balanced leadership," said Barbara Lang, president of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce. "Her role on the council is like herding cats. They all have different agendas, but she listens and, when there are diverse points of view, tries to work out a compromise."

But detractors say Cropp's greatest skill is finding middle ground rather than leading down new paths.

When Williams lobbied for an appointed school board in 2000, Cropp balked. Having spent 10 years on the D.C. Board of Education in the 1980s, she would presumably be in position to offer creative options.

Instead, it was Sharon Ambrose (D-Ward 6) who came up with the alternative: a hybrid board with five elected and four appointed members. Latching on, Cropp won the mayor's support, and the concept was adopted.

In 2004, Williams sought to assume full control of the schools, which Cropp again opposed. This time, she settled on an "education collaborative" in which she, Williams and the school board worked together to select a new superintendent.

"She's done a good job bringing council members together," said Iris Toyer, president of Parents United for the D.C. Public Schools. "But she lives for consensus, and I don't get a sense she's passionate about anything but consensus."

At times, Cropp's personal positions seem muted or unformed as she seeks input. During the stadium deliberations, Ambrose tartly told Cropp to make up her mind when Cropp, for the second time, floated the idea of rebuilding near RFK Stadium.

Greg Rhett, a community leader in Eastland Gardens in Ward 7, recalls trying to win council approval for the mayor's proposal for a hospital at the site of the old D.C. General. Although Cropp supported the plan, she told Rhett that she would send the legislation to five council committees -- a tactic Rhett believed would bog the bill down in bureaucracy.

"On first blush, we thought she was trying to kill it," Rhett said. Cropp explained that she was following bylaws and asked Rhett to lobby other members.

Although Cropp has gained the respect of her colleagues -- four have endorsed her -- some supporters say that as mayor, she would have to be bolder.

"If she has any failings, she has not articulated the way," said the Chamber of Commerce's Lang. "The ideas and programs are there, but others have taken credit."