Deconstructing the Baseball Vote
I have had some amazing conversations over the past three days about what really happened in the D.C. Council chambers late Tuesday night and early Wednesday. Even people who were in the room, people who lived the nightmare -- including one council member! -- seem to be a little confused about what actually transpired. And I'm not talking in some cosmic, what-does-it-all-mean sense. Simply rehashing the sequence of events has been surprisingly difficult.
Why does it matter? Because some of our elected representatives are now spinning furiously, painting the baseball debacle in the best possible light for their own political purposes. I've been exposed to two schools of thought: 1. The rejection of the lease was a last-ditch, white-knuckle game of chicken that left both sides facing the abyss of losing baseball, forced everybody to come to their senses and cleared the way for the ultimate compromise. And 2. the rejection of the lease was part of a carefully choreographed deal cut during that secret closed-door meeting that let the baseball boosters (particularly Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), a recent convert to the baseball cause who is running for council chairman) show the flag for the mayor's lease agreement before joining a majority in approving the spending cap.
So, for the record, here are the key moments in the council's baseball debate:
4:35 p.m. The motion to table the lease agreement. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp's plan was to postpone discussion on the lease so the council could go into special session and approve the compromise without formally rejecting the lease. But when the time came to take the vote on the motion to table, baseball boosters joined baseball opponents in foiling Cropp's plan, and the council was thrown into a surprise debate about the lease itself. Tally: 6 Yes (Cropp, Democrats Kwame R. Brown (At Large), Vincent C. Gray (Ward 7), Phil Mendelson (At Large), Vincent B. Orange Sr (Ward 5); and Carol Schwartz (R-At Large). 6 No (David A. Catania (I-At Large) and Democrats Patterson, Jack Evans (Ward 2), Jim Graham (Ward 1), Adrian M. Fenty (Ward 4), and Sharon Ambrose (Ward 6) 1 Present ( Marion Barry (D-Ward 8)
6 p.m. The sudden recess. The council disappeared into a side room to fight amongst themselves.
8:40 p.m. The vote on the lease. When council members returned to the dais, some looked angry, some looked nervous and some looked scared. Evans and Mendelson were bright red. Evans and Cropp acknowledged that they didn't have the votes and made quiet, desperate appeals to their colleagues to change their minds. "We are at the end of the line," Evans said. "When baseball leaves this time around, they will be gone for good." When the vote was called, an extremely nervous-looking Brown and a shaky Gray initially passed, then voted no, temporarily killing the stadium deal. Tally: 5 Yes (Orange, Patterson, Ambrose, Cropp, Evans), 8 No (Graham, Gray, Mendelson, Schwartz, Barry, Brown, Catania, Fenty).
12:47 a.m. The vote on the compromise. The apparent death of baseball set off a mad scramble to patch things back together. Envoys from the mayor's office made the rounds to figure out what the no votes wanted. Cropp ran to her office to print up the latest version of her spending cap bill. Hours before the vote, Barry and others were making revisions to the legislation in ballpoint pen. Final tally: 9 Yes (Orange, Barry, Brown, Gray, Schwartz, Patterson, Ambrose, Cropp, Evans), 4 No (Catania, Fenty, Graham, Mendelson).
By Lori Montgomery |
February 11, 2006; 7:01 AM ET
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Posted by: misschatter | February 11, 2006 08:59 AM
I don't in anyway believe it was orchestrated. I believe it was a result of neither Linda Cropp nor Mayor Williams being able to count votes. This isn't the first time that has happened as the Mayor had to withdraw the lease the first time he presented it to the Council.
This lease is a bad lease and the Council recognized that. They were prepared to vote it down and Linda tried to save it but constructed her first cap legislation so badly that no one was willing to go along with it, including Kwame Brown whom Linda thought she had bought by hiring his father to run her campaign. Kwame apparently didn't consider himself bought and needed something else to allow him to vote for the deal. The midnight cap legislation apparently satisfied him that he could go against the constituents that put him in office. Let's remember that he campaigned against the stadium when the cost was somewhere below $500 million, now that it's at about $700 million he seems comfortable with it. His math is mindboggling. Maybe he went to school when they taught new math.
I hope this all gets worked out and we do keep baseball in DC.
Posted by: dupont | February 13, 2006 01:39 PM
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I got the impression that none of that was orchstrated or planned (the initial failing of the vote). Although, when it happened I was left thinking, "this is it? It dies in this casual way and they move on? Is anything else going to happen?" I agree that it seemed after that, everyone scrambled to find a way to save it, although I would guess that was driven by Robert Bobb and Mayor Williams. It was often very confusing and hard to tell what they were voting on (going to recess, tabling the vote, ending debate, the lease with amendments). It'd be interesting to read the transcript.