Vince Gray

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December 1, 2010 | 6:38 PM | By

Gray has Lunch with a VIP Constitutent

The White House

Long tables are more Presidential!

It sounds like Mayor-elect Gray’s lunch with President Obama went well (via The Hill):

Speaking alone to reporters outside the White House, Gray described his lunch with the president as “delightful” and said that it was “Even better than I could have hoped for.”

“One of the most important things to me was that the president really wants to work closely with our city,” he said. “We’re going to — in the days and weeks ahead after I’m sworn in — are going to work very closely together.”

I had a feeling D.C. schools would come up, after that infamous interview the President did with Matt Lauer for TODAY, which referenced his daughters attending private school…

Gray said that the president and he spoke about improving public education and early childhood instruction in Washington, as well as funding for infrastructure around the proposed new Department of Homeland Security headquarters in impoverished Southeast Washington. They also discussed solutions to the city’s high unemployment rate.

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FILED UNDER: Government, Obama, Politics, Vince Gray
November 4, 2010 | 4:36 PM | By

Mayor-Elect Gray Prioritizes Lunch over a Funeral

My twitter feed is buzzing about Mayor-Elect Vince Gray missing the funeral of a police officer who died while serving, last week. Gray was having lunch downtown:

It’s going to be a long day for Vince Gray, Mayor-Elect of the District of Columbia.  Instead of attending the funeral of Officer Paul Dittamo, who died last week in the line of duty, Gray was in the dining room at the 4th Estate, the restaurant in the National Press Club, according to the restaurant’s Twitter account.  We called The Fourth Estate, and he arrived at 1pm for a lunch with Council Chair-Elect Kwame Brown, where he still sits at press time.

According to the Post’s Mike Debonis, Fraternal Order of Police chief Kris Baumann was “apoplectic” at the no-show.  You can understand his frustration and anger, given that Baumann and the Police union were leading supporters for Gray on his campaign.

Local blog We Love DC deserves credit for spotting the restaurant’s tweet and figuring out where the Mayor-Elect was. Even outgoing Mayor Adrian Fenty, who was criticized in the past for being a no-show at high-profile funerals, managed to make an appearance and offer remarks, though he was late.

The comments under this We Love DC post highlight why this was a bad move for Gray. “Welcome back to Barryland!“, a reader said, comparing the Mayor-Elect to Mayor-for-Life, Marion Barry. Here’s another:

Is anyone at all surprised by this? Vince’s first two days post election have been a disaster. It’s not going to get any better, people.

It’s been years since I worked on a campaign, but I feel qualified enough to offer this wee bit of advice; don’t give your detractors fuel with which to flame you, if you can help it, especially when you’re trying to eliminate division and lead “one city”.

FILED UNDER: Government, 2010 Elections, Fenty, Politics, Vince Gray
November 1, 2010 | 11:33 AM | By

“I think the bike lobby liked Fenty.”

merfam

Random cab in D.C. I was too busy typing to photograph mine!

I opened the door and threw my laptop bag and purse down the expansive backseat of a weathered American sedan. “NPR, please”, I said. The driver looked at me in his rear view mirror, eyes crinkling.

“They are building a new building.” His voice was low and lovely. I instantly relaxed, as I often do, when I hear the lilt of an accent.

“NPR? Yes, they are.”

“I hope they tear all the walls. It’s just a warehouse, that thing was old.” He pronounces thing like “ting”. I love it.

“You’re awfully opinionated about a company you don’t even listen to,” I teased. “Isn’t this WTOP I’m hearing?” He decisively punches one button on his radio, and the car is filled with the Diane Rehm Show. “I work for WAMU,” I tell him.

“I switch from time to time. Whole thing is great. Rehm is doing well, Kojo is doing fine. You work with Kojo from time to time?”

I mention that I work on the same floor but that no, I don’t work with him. He changes the subject.

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FILED UNDER: Around the City, 2010 Elections, Fenty, Gentrification, Immigrants, NPR, Vince Gray
September 24, 2010 | 4:18 PM | By

Serene Gray, Uncomfortable Rhee

Screen capture from Washington Post video

When I told a good friend of mine about my new job blogging for WAMU, he gave me one piece of advice: read Bill Turque. Turque is an education reporter at the Washington Post and my friend is made out of integrity, honesty and puppy dog tails, so I took his endorsement very seriously. He wasn’t wrong. So now you know why there is much love for Mr. Turque on DCentric (that link in the first sentence will leave you filled with respect for him too, seriously).

Last night, Turque reported on the Meeting with a capital “M” between Mayoral primary winner Vince Gray and DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee, which focused on education issues vs. whether Rhee would stay or leave:

Gray said the two will likely meet again within the next couple of weeks, a message reinforced by Gray advisers, who emphasized that the meeting was never intended to resolve the issue of Rhee’s tenure. Gray won the Democratic primary Sept. 14 but still faces, at least nominally, a general election vote Nov. 2.

“This was always supposed to be just a first meeting to discuss where school reform goes from here,” said Mo Elleithee, a senior Gray campaign strategist. “But he’s been pretty clear: On his end, he’s not making any decisions until after the election.”

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FILED UNDER: Education, Michelle Rhee, Vince Gray
September 24, 2010 | 12:14 PM | By

The Mayoral Race– by the Numbers

How you voted, via Mike DeBonis at WaPo:

Black turnout went up. It wasn’t just gentrifying areas where turnout rose. In Ward 8, with the highest proportion of African Americans, the number of ballots cast rose 27 percent, and 82 percent of them were for Gray. In Precinct 107, in Ward 7′s Greenway neighborhood, 148 more voters showed up this year than in 2006 – a 46 percent jump. In the wards Fenty won (1, 2, 3 and 6), there were about 9,400 more votes than in 2006. But in the wards Gray won (4, 5, 7 and 8), turnout rose by more than 6,800. Fenty-friendly areas might be growing fast but not nearly fast enough to help him: There were 7,800 more votes in Gray’s wards than in Fenty’s. The city might be changing, but one still cannot win by the white vote alone.

Where Fenty lost. The story of this election can be found in the city’s largest precinct: Precinct 66, voting at Bertie Backus Middle School in Ward 5, next to the Fort Totten Metro station. It’s in the heart of middle-class black Washington; according to 2000 Census figures, the precinct is 96 percent black and the homeownership rate is 75 percent, well above the city average. It’s also the only precinct in the city that saw more than 2,000 votes, and 79 percent of them went to Gray. Gray emerged from 66 with a 1,287 vote lead – more than one-tenth of his total victory margin. Backus, incidentally, was among the 23 public schools Fenty closed in 2008.

I’ll admit, my eyes tend to glaze over when I see that many numbers encased in a paragraph, but I couldn’t stop reading– and learning and confirming.

FILED UNDER: Elections, 2010 Elections, Fenty, Vince Gray
September 23, 2010 | 2:31 PM | By

No answers, after Gray-Rhee meeting.

Vince Gray has repeatedly answered questions about his intentions regarding Michelle Rhee with a measured response; if elected, he would meet with her and discuss things. Well, he just met with her. And there are still questions. Via WTOP:

Gray says the two city leaders did not discuss Rhee’s tenure, and instead focused on education reform, Gray’s education platform and higher education.

I think it’s telling that Michelle Rhee didn’t stick around while he talked to the press.

FILED UNDER: Education, Michelle Rhee, Vince Gray
September 21, 2010 | 10:15 AM | By

Michelle Rhee: America’s great hope?

Jason Pier in DC

Will they suffer if Rhee goes away?

At Foreign Policy, David Rothkopf thinks that political pundits were remiss to focus on the Tea Party in their post-primary soundbites, when the real tempest was caused by the American Federation of Teachers, a union so powerful, it got rid of Adrian Fenty, Michelle Rhee, and our ability to do Algebra in the future:

So they poured money into the campaign of Fenty’s opponent, D.C. City Council Chairman Vincent Gray. The spin on the election was that Fenty lost touch with the city’s black voters, but behind the scenes it was another victory for special interests that care more about their job security than they do about America’s economic future. The side that seems dedicated to ensuring that the U.S. continues to fall behind other countries in academic performance — and thus in terms of competitiveness, growth and by extension, national security, scored a big victory … if anything so cynical and counter-productive could actually be called a victory…

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FILED UNDER: Education, 2010 Elections, Fenty, Michelle Rhee, Vince Gray
September 20, 2010 | 10:34 AM | By

WaPo distorts our Kojo – updated

vincentgallegos

WAMU 88.5's Kojo Nnamdi, last Fall, Busboys and Poets

So yesterday, the Twitterz were burning up with a link to an opinion piece that WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi had written for The Washington Post. It’s a great read– except for one problem. The title. WaPo called it, “For D.C., Vince Gray’s election is a bold step backward”…but that’s not what Kojo wrote:

The District today is becoming more racially, ethnically and culturally diverse than it has been in my 41 years here. The tax base is expanding, something every mayor in every city finds desirable. But this also means more affluent residents are displacing poorer residents. And with our city’s troubled racial history,gentrification can be socially and politically volatile.

That volatility has resulted in Mayor Adrian Fenty’s ouster. Vincent Gray, a decent and thoughtful man, benefited from black voters’ anger at Fenty, a result of four years of real and perceived slights by the mayor toward his black constituents. But that anger has propelled us into a future that concerns me. While the past should inform the future, it shouldn’t handcuff it…

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FILED UNDER: Media, Kojo, Politics, Vince Gray, Washington Post
September 17, 2010 | 4:15 PM | By

Gray: “a cabinet that looks like” D.C.

Democratic Primary winner Vincent Gray was on WAMU 88.5′s Kojo Nnamdi Show today, taking questions and talking about the future. My favorite moment? When Kojo quoted a recent Colbert King column which contained this comedic gold; apparently Ward 8 political activist Philip Pannell once told WJLA that “that the makeup of Fenty’s cabinet, and his nominations to boards and commissions, “makes Tony Williams look like Shaka Zulu.”" After the laughter in the studio subsided, Kojo asked Gray “How will race factor in to the decisions you make in forming your cabinet, what is your sensitivity to the issue?”

Gray: “I want a cabinet that looks like the city. And that would be the template that I will try to use.”

See a video of the whole exchange (via The Kojo Nnamdi Show’s YouTube channel), below the fold.

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FILED UNDER: Government, 2010 Elections, Fenty, Video, Vince Gray