Late Summer Lethargy Hits D.C. Voting Rights Movement
Jeez. For someone who prides himself on ranting about the District's lack of voting rights on a regular basis, I realized today that the last thing I had to say about the city's longstanding disenfranchisement was on June 10. On that day, we found out that Congress was laying to rest -- at least for the time being -- legislation that would grant the city a voting seat in the House. Since then, well, it's been radio silence from DCist HQ. (OK, so there was that one piece on June 24 about President Obama's license plate, but let's be honest -- that's not terribly substantial, now is it?)
It's not that nothing has been happening in the world of D.C. voting rights. The folks at DC Vote traveled to Mississippi to target Rep. Travis Childers, a Democrat who last year orchestrated another move to gut the District's gun laws. They also launched the "I Am D.C.: I Demand the Vote" campaign, which, as Sommer noted recently, includes ads of yours truly freaking people out on buses. But hey, it's for a good cause, right? Members of the D.C. Council also attended the National Conference of State Legislatures 2009 in Philadelphia in late July, where they hosted a "D.C. Statehood Reception" for 350 attendees.
Otherwise, though, it's been quiet on the voting rights front, which we can trace to the fact that no one really knows where to take it next. The specific legislation that Congress has debated over the last two years is unlikely to come to the floor again, not when it could simply be weighed down by another amendment concerning the District's gun laws. Not to mention that one of the bill's main selling points -- an additional seat for Republican Utah -- becomes null the closer we get to the 2010 Census. Without the voting rights bill to focus the energies of D.C. voting rights activists, we're again stuck debating the larger issue of what we should really be fighting for. Statehood? Just the one seat in the House? Lumping the District back into Maryland? Opting out of federal taxes?
Guidance on where to go next might come out of the Council's Special Committee on Statehood, which was created in March to better focus the voting rights efforts of the city's legislative body. In July, committee chairman Michael Brown (I-At Large) put out a newsletter that was heavy on the statehood advocacy. (One article was titled, "The Case for D.C. Statehood is Clear.") Brown himself has long been a proponent of statehood, making it a central part of his electoral campaigns in years past. Of course, whether or not Brown can get his fellow council members, Mayor Adrian Fenty and Eleanor Holmes Norton on board is the question.
Activists may also focus their efforts on the less sexy but just as important issue of home rule and budget autonomy. Trying to find a way to make local decisions and funding priorities stick without congressional interference would be a key step to actually being able to govern ourselves. The first battle looks like it will be on needle-exchange programs. Congress has finally allowed the District to spend its own money on them, but some Republicans are trying to impose geographic restrictions that would limit the exchanges to, well, basically nowhere.
Finally, there's always trying to get President Obama to say or do something for D.C. voting rights. When it came to getting Mayor Fenty's endorsement, Obama was all about statehood. Since then, though, he's been surprisingly quiet on the issue, and the White House remains stubbornly opposed to sending an intern to swap out the license plates on the man's limo. There might be a glimmer of hope in the recent news that some White House officials, including adviser Valarie Jarrett, have been tasked with establishing a good working relationship with the District.
But maybe it's just August, and maybe even we all need a break from being reminded that District residents are second-class citizens. Fear not, though. Come September, DCist will be back on the prowl and waiting to howl in protest every time the city is wronged. Looking back on recent years, there are always plenty of wrongs to go around.