Perhaps the most shocking thing about the vote on the ballot referendum amending the District’s Home Rule Charter to claim budget autonomy is that 12.28 percent of people actually voted against it.
“Who are these people?” asks Eugene Kinlow, the public affairs director of DC Vote, the voting rights organization that sponsored the initiative.
That D.C. residents would vote in favor of an amendment under which the city would claim for itself the ability to spend its indigenous revenue without congressional oversight was never in question; the real decision will be made in the next 35 days when, as all D.C. laws do, it goes through Congress for a final sign-off. Despite the overwhelming popular support for the District grabbing direct control over 70 percent of its $9.6 billion budget, nothing will be official until the visitors up on Capitol Hill give it their rubber stamp of approval.
And that’s been the potential snag all along—that a boisterous statement by D.C.’s voters might incur Congress’ boot heel. Mayor Vince Gray, though supportive at the end, was always a tepid backer of the referendum, as was Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton. Kinlow, enjoying the vote totals while chomping a cigar on the roof deck of the Brixton, begs to differ about Gray.
“Don’t confuse him with his attorney general,” Kinlow says, referring to D.C. Attorney General Irv Nathan’s brief push in January to scrap the referendum. As for Norton, Kinlow calls her “a cautious leader at times.”
Kinlow says the Brixton get-together, which is thin owing to the six At-Large candidates’ parties going on elsewhere in town is not a victory party but a moment to pause before gearing up for the next several weeks. With the referendum passed by D.C.’s electorate—or, at least the less than 10 percent of voters who showed up—the next target is House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), whose purview over the District’s domestic affairs will be critical to this initiatives chances of surviving the House of Representative.
And though Issa has been repeatedly supportive of granting D.C. budget autonomy, he, too, has been skeptical of the amendment. Issa’s previous attempts to introduce a budget autonomy bill into the House were brought down by his amendments attached by his fellow Republicans that would restrict abortion rights for D.C. women.
But with 83 percent of a vote—albeit one with one of the lowest turnouts in District history—behind his group, Kinlow sees an opening. “It’s a time to regroup, perfect time to have a conversation,” he says. “We’re going to be reaching out. We want to embrace his support, see how we can help.”
