But some who helped elect him to D.C. City Council say he hasn’t even been able to improve his own.

"Our council member is missing in action," said ANC 7B05 Commissioner Vincent Spaulding. "In this part of the ward, we represent ourselves."

Now, some of the people who elected him to two terms as Ward 7 representative on city council are choosing to support someone else for mayor.

Ward 7 resident Carolyn Gray volunteered for Chavous during his first campaign and at his council office. But at a recent Ward 7 mayoral debate, she manned the table for another candidate.

"When the need came, Chavous wasn’t there," she said. "When you call you get no response. If you can’t manage one ward, how can you expect to manage eight?"

Some ANC commissioners and civic leaders in Ward 7 say Chavous habitually fails to show up at community meetings, arrives late, leaves early and doesn’t return phone calls. They say he has little to show for six years in office.

When the first new shopping center in 25 years was built east of the Anacostia River at Alabama Avenue and Good Hope Road, the impetus came from community volunteers, civic groups and Safeway officials, said Ward 7 activist Lucie Murray.

"Chavous was not out front leading," she said. "He did not take enough of an active role." She said she voted for Chavous twice for council, but will choose someone else for mayor.

"In the last two years, I’ve only seen him in my community once," said Everett Lyles, an ANC commissioner in the northern part of the ward. Lyles said he long ago forged ties with other city council members to try to get things done in his neighborhood.

Still, Chavous’s appeal is strong in some quarters of his home ward.

"He has the right personality for these times," Ward 7 resident James Miles said at a recent rally. "We need the right spokesperson. He makes people feel good."

Ward 7 ANC Commissioner Mary Jackson, who has worked closely with Chavous on neighborhood issues, cites honesty as "one of his best attributes. He hasn’t committed himself to doing the impossible," she said.

Chavous acknowledges quality of life in his ward has declined.

"I feel the same way the complaining residents do," he said. "But on council I am one person out of 13. Frankly, policymakers in the city don’t connect with day-to-day issues east of the river. I know as mayor I’ll be able to do more."

As evidence of his accomplishments, Chavous, 40, points to several legislative initiatives he sponsored — bills to make it easier to shut down crack houses, to ban liquor sales from convenience stores and to create economic development zones in the ward.

He got AmeriCorps volunteers to clean up Woodlawn Cemetery and helped get money to fix a crucial retaining wall on O Street, he said. He sponsored job fairs and adopt-a-school programs and got a long-needed traffic light installed at Benning and Southern avenues.

While Chavous’s mayoral campaign has polarized his home ward, residents in other parts of the city are still trying to figure out who he is.

"For a lot of people, Chavous is a blank slate," said veteran D.C. political observer Howard Croft, a political science professor at the University of the District of Columbia and a former city council candidate. "He is the kind of person you can project your image on. His message has been just vague enough so he can be who you want him to be."

The image of a young man who came to Washington to study law, fell in love with the city and donated his legal services to community groups will play well, Croft predicted.

"Kevin is going to run well in African-American working-class neighborhoods," he said. "He articulates a concern for the needs of the working class and the poor. He has an expansive vision of government as a way of making life better."

By most measures, life in Ward 7 has not gotten better during the past several years. Commissioner Jackson said Chavous’s legislation resulted in closure of several crack houses in her neighborhood, but since then the drug dealers immediately set up shop in other nearby locations, and the neighborhood is still blighted.

But she said Chavous is not to blame for the ward’s problems.

"People are trying to make it look like it’s all his fault," she said. "Anyone who was sitting in that council seat would have a hard time. It’s just that he can’t get the people who are the powerbrokers in the ward to help him."

Jackson, like many Chavous supporters, links her support to the man himself. He’s affable, friendly and can take criticism without losing his temper. He has a good heart, she said, and cares about kids and old folks.

"He even went into the schools and tasted the nasty food they were feeding our children," she said.

Chavous gets a warm reception when he visits seniors, said campaign aide Edward Pearlman.

"He’s got that nephew/grandson thing going," Pearlman said. "He’s like a nice grandson who comes to visit."

Several residents of the Fort Lincoln/Gettysburg senior dwellings in Northeast Washington already have pledged to support him, although he kept them waiting an hour before cancelling a planned campaign stop there Friday. Chavous’s 8-year-old son had locked himself in a car, aides explained.

If personal warmth is Chavous’s trump card, lack of a legislative record is his weakest point, Croft said.

"He has been on the council for some time and it’s difficult to point to anything of consequence that he’s been responsible for," Croft said. "He can’t point to a series of legislative initiatives or programs. He has been talked about as a council member who doesn’t spend a lot of time in council."

City council records show Chavous absent at 138 votes in 1993-1994 and absent from 241 votes in 1995-1996. Since 1997, he was recorded absent at 82 votes.

Chavous said the absences were overstated.

"There have been 133 legislative councils," he said. "I have missed seven."

He said his absences were due to being a half hour or hour late and that most of the votes he missed were not on significant legislation.

Chavous’s strongest opposition comes from the middle-class Hillcrest neighborhood, where supporters gathered in a church basement to draft Anthony Williams, considered by many to be the Ward 7 councilman’s leading opponent.

"We would not have done that if we thought Chavous deserved to be elevated to mayor," said Paul Savage of the Hillcrest Community Civic Association. "We think he has fumbled and dropped the ball. We needed an alternative. Charisma won’t get it done."

Copyright 1998, The Common Denominator