NATIONALS BASEBALL Washington D.C. mayor staking his political career on stadium

The city was trying to make the deadline set by Major League Baseball.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mayor Anthony A. Williams is staking his political career on whether his plan to bring major league baseball to the nation's capital is approved in the next two weeks.
Mayors are elected to lead and not be "a mirror and just reflect what people are saying," Williams said on "Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace."
"Ten, 20 percent of the time you're elected to do what you think is in the best interests of the city," Williams said. "If people don't agree with that they can throw you out next time. And I think this is one of those issues."
The city's deal to transform the Montreal Expos into the Washington Nationals and build a $440 million stadium along the Anacostia River waterfront has a Dec. 31 deadline with baseball owners. The District of Columbia Council approved an alternate plan Tuesday that requires private funding for half the stadium construction costs, a provision baseball rejected as "wholly unacceptable."
Working on deal
Williams is planning to meet with Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp on Monday to try to sort out a compromise that could include private financing as well as guarantees for baseball. City officials are trying to arrange a meeting with baseball as well, he said.
"I actually am somewhat hopeful and optimistic that we can work something out," Williams said.
Williams defended his stadium funding plan, saying it is "public only insofar as the city is involved in it, but it's really private, in that the largest businesses of the city have stood up voluntarily" to pay a special tax to help build the stadium.
Critics have said the deal for publicly financed bonds is one of the most generous they have ever seen for major league baseball.
Cropp said she is willing to call a special council session during the holidays to come up with an agreement, but baseball was not yet on the agenda Sunday for the final scheduled meeting of the year on Dec. 21, said Mark Johnson, a spokesman for Cropp.
The mayor and members of the D.C. Council were invited to participate in a town hall meeting on the issue Monday night, organized by a pro-baseball group. About 350 city residents were expected to attend, representing both sides of the issue, the group said.