The newly crowned Miss America, Jennifer Berry of Oklahoma, made her first trip to Washington for a black-tie dinner and ended up sandwiched between talk-show host John McLaughlin and former Afghan ambassador Ishaq Shahryar.

If local organizers have their way, she might return next year to pass on her crown right here in the renamed MCI Center.

With the pageant now adrift from Atlantic City—this year it was in Las Vegas—area boosters including tourism chief Bill Hanbury, former Miss Connecticut Jeanne Theis­mann, and SunTrust president Peter Nostrand are talking with pageant officials about holding the event here in 2007 or 2008. Hanbury says, “DC would make a great venue.”