House’s ‘Stealth Whip’ Crosses Barriers to Build Party Pride and Unity

Freshman Rep. Mike Parker introduces House Majority Whip William H. Gray III to his Mississippi Delta district with an analogy between the ways of Washington and life in the wild.

To survive, the gazelle must outrun the swiftest lion, and Gray, he says, “is the slickest and fastest gazelle in Washington D.C.”

As holder of the No. 3 leadership spot in the House, Gray surely is at the front of the pack. After little more than a decade in Congress, the Pennsylvania Democrat is in line to become the first black Speaker of the House and part of a small group of blacks mentioned as possible candidates on a future Democratic national ticket.

He reached that stratum because political opposites such as Parker, a conservative white Democrat, have come to view him as an ally rather than an enemy.

Gray, visiting Jackson on a recent warm, moist day to campaign for Parker, is the first outside Democratic leader that Parker has brought to his district. He is expected to help with what political analysts call “crossover” support.

Parker won his seat in 1988 refusing to endorse Democratic nominee Michael S. Dukakis, never mind Jesse Jackson, the winner of Mississippi’s Democratic primary. But his Delta district is 37% black, and he, like many Southern Democrats, must hold the black vote.

But to say Parker wanted Gray to visit just because of race is wrong.

Gray “confirms the connection with power in the House, which Mississippi likes,” says Ed Cole, Parker’s top aide and the Mississippi Democratic party chairman.

Parker cites his personal rapport with Gray as the main reason for the invitation, especially the Northern liberal’s “understanding that the country is different.”

“Bill Gray exemplifies the type of leadership and substance that attracts Democratic voters,” says Hiram Eastland, a lawyer and cousin of the late Sen. James O. Eastland (D-Miss). Gray has “appeal that crosses racial and party lines,” he says.

Gray, 48, came to Congress in 1979 and, as chairman of the freshman class, quickly learned about the breadth of viewpoints. He cut his teeth on forming coalitions when he won the chairmanship of the House Budget Committee in 1984.

As budget chairman for four years, then chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, chairman of the 1988 Democratic Party platform committee, and for the past year majority whip, Gray has found consensus where critics said it couldn’t exist.

He also has found admirers in odd places.

“Gray is not a standard ideological politician,” says Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), the House minority whip who is Gray’s opposite number on the House floor and in philosophy. “We both have a sense of mutual understanding which might surprise people.”

It wouldn’t surprise them much, though.

Campaigning with Parker, Gray knows how to enhance his own power without flaunting it. How to nurture friendships by avoiding potential arguments.

His job this day is to boost Parker and Mississippi Democrats, not himself.

“Mike is already making his presence felt,” he tells preachers gathered to hear him at the Piney Woods Country Life School, an academy for black children outside Jackson.

The bespectacled, balding Gray, who still fulfills his Sunday duties as minister at the Bright Hope Baptist Church in Pennsylvania, delivers polished rhetoric. The clergymen take notes, no doubt stealing a few lines for their Sunday sermons, and give their Northern colleague an ovation.

Before leaving the school, Gray gives students an impromptu pep talk on personal success and the scourge of drugs. Then he and Parker zip downtown for a luncheon at a local restaurant with state Democratic officials.

Gray “is a reconciliator. . . . He understands it takes 51% of the votes to win elections,” Secretary of State Dick Molpus tells the group. The audience includes Rep. Mike Espy (D-Miss.), a Gray protege who is the only black in the state’s congressional delegation.

Gray delivers a message of party pride and unity. “It’s easy for the other team to get together because they all look alike, walk alike, are crazy alike,” he says. “We come in all colors.”

It was about his only mention of race all day. He talks more of Mississippi, its powerful Democratic House delegation, and his own roots in the South. Gray was born in Baton Rouge, La.

“Mike, where’s the catfish,” he jokingly complains to Parker at event after event where they served trendy banquet food that could have been shipped from Washington.

During an afternoon break, he exchanges his suit and tie for shorts and a T-shirt and plays tennis with Parker and Rep. G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery (D-Miss.), another conservative friend.

Then it’s back into his congressional uniform for more fund-raising and mingling.

State Rep. Bill Wheeler, who is white, said having an “inclusive leader” like Gray come to Mississippi was important. “The conflict between black and white . . . is one of the major reasons” the state is last in national rankings for education and wealth, he says.

Back in Washington, Gray doesn’t give his votes to the conservatives. He represents his district with a record that consistently gets a “zero” in the American Conservative Union ratings.

What Gray does give to conservative and liberal Democrats alike, especially those in tough races, is money.

He has a political action committee, the Committee for Democratic Opportunity, which donated more than $72,000 to other House members and aspirants this election cycle. The list includes Parker and Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), a new House member so conservative that he is frequently rumored to be switching parties.

Gray also has contributed money from his personal campaign treasury to candidates and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which helps all the party’s House candidates.

A sought-after speaker for business and interest-group gatherings, Gray collected $164,098 in honorariums last year, among Congress’ highest.

While appealing to a wide audience, Gray carefully maintains his high profile in the black community. He has been a prime sponsor of legislation to send food aid to Ethiopia and impose economic sanctions on apartheid South Africa.

Other black lawmakers are quick to recognize Gray’s achievements.

“He’s a Jackie Robinson in the Congress of the United States,” says Rep. Ronald V. Dellums (D-Berkeley), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, referring to the great athlete who broke through the color barrier in major league baseball.

Sometimes the political juggling act is delicate.

Gray appeared on behalf of Rep. Gus Savage (D-Ill.) earlier this year and, after he left, Savage told the gathering that Jews were financing his primary election opponent. Many observers considered Savage’s comments anti-Semitic.

Despite pressure from Jewish groups, Gray refused to comment on the incident for days until he could watch a videotape of Savage’s speech. Then he condemned the remarks in a carefully worded statement that mended fences without vilifying Savage.

For all his moderation, Gray has shown that when directly attacked, he can strike back with viperlike quickness.

Last year, when he was running for whip, a Justice Department official confirmed a “leak” that the FBI was investigating financial irregularities in Gray’s congressional office.

Gray immediately denied that he was under investigation and blasted the department, which is led by Attorney General and former Pennsylvania political foe Dick Thornburgh. Gray reacted so fiercely that the leak became as big a story as the investigation itself.

He forced the Justice Department to take the unusual step of issuing a statement that Gray was not a target of the investigation and was cooperating with the probe.

Gray’s response rallied his supporters. He not only survived but won the whip’s job handily over Reps. Beryl Anthony Jr. (D-Ark.) and David E. Bonior (D-Mich).

The whip’s job is that of chief vote-counter and head-knocker for the Democratic leadership as it tries to pass legislation.

Gray’s busy schedule of campaigning, speechmaking and other travel, including his church duties, has made him a less-visible presence on the House floor than his predecessors.

He relies on his staff to carry out the dull but important details of the job, and checks in by phone from the road.

In his first year as whip, Gray also has deferred to Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt and Speaker Thomas S. Foley when it comes to leading the party charge on major issues.

His style has earned him the in-House moniker, “The Stealth Whip,” and a few fellow Democrats grumble privately that Republicans have squeezed through some things they shouldn’t have.

But he has lost only on one major vote so far, when the House last year passed President Bush’s capital gains tax cut over the objections of the Democratic leadership.

“That was one we never could win,” Gray recalls.

His low profile is deliberate, he explains.

“I see myself as the chief of the engine room,” he says. “The speaker and the majority leader are up on the bridge calling for full speed ahead, and I’ve got to give it to them.”