May 29, 2009  |  By: Lou Chibbaro Jr.  | COMMENTS     

More than 80 prominent political activists — gay and straight — have joined a committee to persuade the gay former director of the city's Department of Parks & Recreation, Clark Ray, to run next year for D.C. City Council.

Gay Democratic activist Peter Rosenstein, the lead spokesperson for the Draft Clark Ray for D.C. Council At Large Committee, said Tuesday that a group of supporters are committed to raising at least $200,000 for a Ray campaign in the September 2010 Democratic primary. An early list of supporters is at the draft committee's newly launched web site, ClarkRay4Council.com.

“We believe that Clark Ray as a member of the D.C. Council will serve based on his dynamic vision for what our city can become,” says a statement released by the draft committee.

“He is someone who has proven that he is a man of action and that he can get results,” the statement says.

If elected, Ray would join gay D.C. Council members David Catania (I-At Large) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) as the third openly gay member of the 13-member Council.

A Ray campaign is expected to pose a dilemma for at least some gay and progressive political activists, as he would challenge incumbent Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large). Many activists consider Mendelson a champion for LGBT rights and other progressive political causes.

Mendelson is the author and lead sponsor of a series of domestic partnership laws in the city that collectively provide same-sex couples with nearly all of the rights and benefits of marriage under D.C. law.

Earlier this month, he drafted and shepherded through the Council a bill authorizing the city to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions. That measure is now undergoing a required review of 30 legislative days on Capitol Hill.

Jason Shedlock, Mendelson’s chief of staff and spokesperson, said Mendelson had no immediate comment on the formation of the draft Ray committee.

“In all honesty, Phil is focused on being a Council member — a job he was overwhelmingly elected to do by the residents of this city,” Shedlock said. “He’s prepared to run on his record and build upon the already-broad support he has across the District.”

Mendelson is completing his third four-year term as a Council member and would be running next year for a fourth term.

“This is not an attack on Mendelson,” said Rosenstein, who praised Mendelson for his longtime support of LGBT civil rights. “We feel three terms is long enough. I believe we need new blood to reinvigorate the Council.”

Ray called the developments surrounding the draft committee “intriguing” and said he’s carefully weighing his decision on whether to run.

“I was aware that certain individuals were encouraging me to run,” he told the Blade in a telephone interview. “But I never thought the depth and breadth of support from across the city would be what it was as announced today,” referring to the 86 people who signed on to the draft Ray committee.

Rosenstein said he’s hopeful that Ray will officially announce his candidacy in September, giving him a full year to campaign aggressively across the city for the September 2010 primary.

Mayor Adrian Fenty abruptly replaced Ray as head of the city’s Department of Parks & Recreation in April. Fenty, who appointed Ray to the position in August 2007, praised Ray for his work as an agency head and mayoral cabinet member, but said he wanted to change the direction of the department. He has declined to say why Ray should not have been given a chance to make those changes.

Among the LGBT activists who signed on as members of the draft Ray committee are Darrin Glymph, attorney and board member of the city’s LGBT chamber of commerce; Everett Hamilton Jr., former president of the D.C. Coalition of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Men & Women; Sheila Alexander Reid, vice president of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club; David Perruzza, general manager of the Dupont Circle gay bars Cobalt and JR.’s; and Brad Luna and Trevor Thomas, communications director and deputy communications director, respectively, for the Human Rights Campaign.

Luna and Thomas are serving on the draft committee “strictly” as individuals and are not representing HRC, Thomas said.