Gray Calls For Police On Primary Day

By Patrick Madden

With less than a week until the mayoral primary in the District, passions are running high for the campaigns of Mayor Adrian Fenty and top challenger Vincent Gray.

But some of that energy has led one candidate to call for more police on primary day.

After a Labor Day weekend that featured overzealous campaign supporters shouting at each other and reportedly nearly coming to blows outside one early voting center in Northeast, mayoral candidate Vincent Gray says he's going to ask D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier to place officers at each polling precinct during the peak voting hours on September 14th.

"Certainly we are not trying to suppress the vote or have any impact like that, we are trying to ensure that its a pleasant and safe experience for everyone," says Gray.

Gray also says he wouldn't, in his words, be averse to the Justice Department playing some type of monitoring role on election day as well.

Repeated attempts to reach the Fenty campaign for comment were not successful.