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The Current Newspapers, the unofficial read of rich, white D.C. residents, have endorsed D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray over Mayor Adrian Fenty in the race for mayor. That’s a nice feather in the cap for Gray, who doesn’t need to win the majority of the Current’s 52,874 readers’ votes, but probably can’t afford to get shut out by them either.
And if you’re keeping score at home, the endorsement comes out the same day that Team Gray scores a win at the Board of Elections and Ethics. Wednesday Winner: Gray, by a lot.
Current Publisher Davis Kennedy and Managing Editor Chris Kain write (sorry, no link available) that it was a a tough choice deciding between the two candidates, but in the end it was the “distasteful elements of Mayor Fenty’s record,” namely the unseemly smell coming from the parks and rec contracts that enriched Fenty’s fraternity brothers, that helped them make up their minds.
What the Current (which includes the Northwest Current, the Dupont Current, the Foggy Bottom Current and The Georgetown Current) editors really want, though, is the Gray/Rhee ticket:
We, like many others, hope Michelle Rhee remains as D.C. Public Schools chancellor. Throughout the campaign, Mr. Gray has been unwilling to say whether he would ask Ms.Rhee, an admittedly polarizing figure, to be a part of his administration. We hope that, if elected, he will make every effort to get her to stay so that the school system can avoid the chronic administrative turnover that has stalled past efforts at reform.
Even if Mr. Fenty should win, there is no guarantee Ms. Rhee will stay, particularly given her upcoming marriage to the mayor of Sacramento, Calif.
Some voters see this election as solely about Michelle Rhee. Though education is a major concern, this is not an election for chancellor, but for mayor. And both candidates have shown a commitment to the issue: Mayoral control of the school system might not exist but for Mr. Gray’s success in winning approval of the reform legislation.