Gray Overcomes Patterson In Race for Powerful Seat

"So many times, it just comes down to what race you are, and we all lose because of that," said Keith Jarrell, 50, a Patterson volunteer. "The District of Columbia voters seem to be a narrow-minded kind."

The council, once considered a rubber stamp of the mayor's office, now flexes its power as an equal branch of government. The difference can be attributed to the chairman, council members said.

The chairmanship is a full-time position, and the holder nominates all the chairmen and members of council committees, which must be approved by the council as a whole. The chairman can serve as acting mayor, if necessary, and is an ex-officio voting member of every committee.

As chairman, Gray said he would make education his top priority, with an emphasis on reviving the city's vocational education programs and reforming special education.

Gray also said he wants to hire more police officers, who would be assigned to scooter, bicycle and pedestrian patrols to increase police presence in D.C. neighborhoods.

But Gray said his overall mission is to create "One City," which also is the theme of his campaign. The phrase refers to merging all races, all classes and the interests of business owners and residents.

"The job of leadership is then to be able to bring us together and to stop talking about east of the river and west of the park and start talking about the District of Columbia," he said last night. In response, the crowd chanted, "One city, one city."

Gray used the same spiel whether he was in his home district, which includes low-income areas, or in Patterson's district, which is the richest in the city. He asked voters to consider "spreading the wealth" from Northwest to Southeast Washington, where the only sit-down, full-service restaurant is a Denny's.

Gray's supporters in Ward 7 saw his candidacy as a chance to increase the power of residents in the eastern half of the city. Kwame R. Brown, a Ward 7 resident, was elected as an at-large council member in 2004, giving communities east of the Anacostia River a third council member, in addition to the two ward representatives, for the first time. With Gray as chairman, there would be four members representing Southeast and far Northeast Washington.

About noon at Dunbar Senior High School in Ward 5, Gray was concerned about the light voter turnout, but he was confident.

"It's actually going well," he said, wearing a baseball cap and mock turtleneck under his campaign T-shirt.

Zachary Cafritz, a Harvard University senior, said Gray would be a better citywide representative than Patterson, because he has worked with underserved city residents and communities.

"Wealthy people's interests are already overrepresented in government," said Cafritz, who lives in Ward 3 and is the son of D.C. Board of Education President Peggy Cooper Cafritz. "If you look at Patterson, that's her constituency in Ward 3, compared to Gray."

"I think it's important for a council member to represent a broader spectrum of the city," he said.

Throughout her campaign, Patterson emphasized that, despite being the Ward 3 council member, she has been representing all D.C. residents for the 12 years she has been in office.

Patterson portrayed herself as a tough-talking council member. She headed the council's committees on government operations, the judiciary and, most recently, education and was credited with bringing a new level of oversight to the council.