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D.C. Fights For A Vote

The District of Columbia inches closer toward achieving its age-old goal of representation in the House

By Ben Adler

The line to enter the May 23 Senate Judiciary Committee session stretched well down the hallway. Packed inside were activists wearing stickers and t-shirts emblazoned with the image that has become their movement’s trademark: a D.C. license plate bearing the wry motto: “Taxation without representation.” Sens. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) presided over a pleasant,… return to article

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    Great article, Ben--although you made one important omission. 

    The League of Women Voters of the US has also been at the forefront of this issue, working here in DC and nationwide to educate communities about this basic lack of civil rights. 

    In fact, DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton was a special guest speaker at this weekend’s League of Women Voters national Council, where she thanked members for their incredible leadership in fighting for the rights of DC citizens.

    To find out how you can get involved, and read more about the historic progress we’ve seen over the last few months, visit www.lwv.org/dcvotingrights.

    United States Posted by MaggieDuncan on Jun 12, 2007 at 7:33 AM

    If we really think that DC should be treated as a state and given a representative (i do not), what is the justification for NOT also giving them a couple of senators?

    The taxation without representation claim rings quite hollow in the argument, given that DC is so very heavily subsidized by the US government (as a federal district should be, imho).

    At least the article pointed out that this is strictly a partisan issue, not one of any true significance. Which might make one think that maybe, just maybe, it would be better to address real issues if there are any (Darfur, global warming, energy independence, shoring up our sagging infrastructures, health care to name just a few possible candidates).

    United States Posted by wolf on Jun 13, 2007 at 7:35 AM

    Taxation without representation is as bad as taxation with representation, especially when one’s representative is more interested in getting more bucks from special interests.
    Plus, from what I’ve heard and read about the DC school board and the city government, why should more incompetents be added to the House?

    United States Posted by farmer on Jun 19, 2007 at 3:32 AM

    Delegate Norton (D-DC) is already in the House, just with a vote that’s hardly consequential. And one vote is rarely the deciding factor on most votes in any case.

    Interestingly, what was not pointed out in the article was that Prescott Bush, the current President’s grandfather, was the main sponsor of a constitutional amendment which would have changed the District’s status vis-a-vis the “state” question for full representation in Congress when he was a Republican member of the U.S. Senate. There used to be a time when this was a matter of fairness on which both parties could agree rather than the partisan/racist arguments which seem to prevail today.

    And on the “rings hollow” argument, the point is that District voters pay federal income tax (unlike the other US terriroties which also have non-voting delegates to the House), but have no voice in how those funds are spent. Yes, the District receives subsidies, as do most areas of the country these days, but the citizens who live there have no voice in how those subsidies are allocated.

    Getting full representation in the Congress won’t solve all of the District’s problems overnight, but it will repair this ridiculous situation whereby over half a million citizens of the United States have no real representation in the national legislature. And before folks bring up the argument that the territories also have no representation, they have a constitutional means to gain such representation - apply for and be granted statehood. The District has no such option.

    United States Posted by Moose on Jun 19, 2007 at 2:40 PM
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    The District of Columbia inches closer toward achieving its age-old goal of representation in the House
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