Vincent Gray: I Will Decide on Mayoral Run Next Week was originally published on City Desk on March 25, 2010 at 11:34 a.m.
UPDATED 12:25 P.M.
D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, appearing on WPFW-FM this morning, says he'll decide on a mayoral run next week, bringing to an end prolonged deliberations that have kept city political observers on edge.
Gray acknowledged that the delays might have something to do with the deliberations of another legitimate challenger, multimillionaire developer R. Donahue Peebles. In other words, Gray realizes that only one of them can run and hope to win.
Under questioning from hosts Jonetta Rose Barras and Eugene D. Kinlow, Gray deployed the "One City" rhetoric he ride to the chairmanship in 2006.
"When you look at the polls...what you see is a city divided," he said.
UPDATE, 12:25 P.M.: LL spoke to Gray as he left the WPFW studio. Gray repeated that he's had "two or three conversations" with Peebles about ensuring that only one of them runs.
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He discounted the widely-discussed possibility both could run, with Peebles spending big bucks to soften Fenty then dropping out ahead of the Sept. 14 primary. "He's told me, 'If I get in, I'm in for the duration,'" Gray says.
Gray also tells LL that, if he decides to pull the trigger, he'll have the immediate support of "as many as six" of his council colleagues.
File photo by Darrow Montgomery
