Mayoral hopeful Muriel Bowser had something she wanted to tell the roughly 20 supporters at the opening of her new Anacostia office Saturday—-if only reporters weren’t there, too.

“We have our eyes set on ‘the next one,’ and you know what I mean,” said a coy Bowser.

Bowser better have something big planned for the office at 1916 Martin Luther King Ave. SE, even if she won’t tell LL about it. Despite beating Vince Gray and other mayoral rivals in the Ward 8 Democrats’ straw poll, she came in behind Gray and Jack Evans in the Washington Post poll in Wards 7 and 8.

Bowser’s looking for the former to help with the latter. “I think voters like to win,” Bowser says. “They like winners.”

And anyway, the bar’s not that high. Bowser campaign manager Bo Shuff tells LL that his boss doesn’t have to win both of the wards, just take some votes in them. “This isn’t an electoral college-type thing,” Shuff says.

Photo by Will Sommer