Now is the time for DC voting rights
By Ed Davis
Posted on Thu Nov 20, 2008 at 01:03:00 PM EST
Obama's New Plates?
This is time for change in Washington. Not just in Washington, the capital, but in Washington, DC, the city. This is the moment to finally bring 580,000 Washingtonians into our democracy. The DC Voting Rights bill has demonstrated majority support in both the House and Senate. In the Senate, where it was stalled by a filibuster, there may now be up to 64 votes - more than enough to break a filibuster. Congress needs to bring this issue to a vote. The new Obama White House needs to tell Congress this is a priority. A symbolic step by the new president would be make sure his presidential limousine has the real DC license plate (pictured), not the generic plates Bush ordered. Barack Obama knows the right thing to do. As Senator, he said: "As a community organizer in Chicago and as a civil rights attorney, I learned that disenfranchisement can lead to disengagement from our political system," he said. "In many parts of D.C., you can look down the street and see the dome of the U.S. Capitol. Yet so many of these streets couldn't be more disconnected from their government."
Veterans for DC Voting Rights
By Ed Davis
Posted on Tue Nov 11, 2008 at 03:01:52 PM EST
Just got back from a rally on Capitol Hill for DC voting rights. A good crowd on a beautiful fall day, literally in the shadow of the Capitol. It's Veterans' Day and a number of DC vets spoke, including one about to go off to Afghanistan. They spoke of serving their country proudly, but having no voice in decisions to go to war. In a crowd filled with Obama supporters thrilled with the new President
and a newly-empowered Congress, no one was taking for granted that this
200+ year struggle would end next year -- they'll still be fighting,
Demanding the Vote. And, as always at DC Vote events, a few special "performances": DC Vote staffer Erica Spelling's fabulous voice singing the national anthem, a young poet from Ann Arbor reciting his own DC voting rights poem and, as I walked away, hearing Joe L. Da Vessel's "Demand the Vote" go-go song.Partial Voting Rights
By Ed Davis
Posted on Mon Nov 03, 2008 at 10:40:32 AM EST
Thanks to the 23rd Amendment, passed in 1961, Americans living in the District of Columbia have a right to vote for President of the United States. But for more than 200 years, they have had no vote in Congress. Tomorrow, they can vote for a nonvoting Delegate in the House. And they can vote for shadow Senator and Rep - meaningless positions. There is majority support in both the House and Senate for legislation to give DC a vote in Congress. Following an election with expected record voter participation, a great example of democracy at work, the next Congress and the next President needs to take democracy one more step and give DC the vote in the first 100 days of the next Congress.
Alaska and DC
By Ed Davis
Posted on Wed Sep 03, 2008 at 03:23:26 PM EST
Bud McFarlane, DC Republican Delegate
The Republican Convention seems to be all about Alaska. Amid all the other "stuff", I noticed that the state's population is only about 680,000. They have a voting representative in the US House and two Senators (though they're all in some legal/ethics trouble). Back here in DC, population about 580,000, there's only a non-voting delegate in the US House (she's not in any trouble at all). So, I was pleased to hear that there is a champion for DC voting rights inside the convention hall. Former Reagan National Security Advisor Robert "Bud" McFarlane has reportedly been lobbying Republican delegates to support voting representation in Congress for DC. Keep it going, Bud!
MD & DC
By Ed Davis
Posted on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 11:35:46 AM EST
Al Wynn walking away
US Rep. Al Wynn, defeated in a primary, announced this week that he is quitting his seat in June, six months before his term ends. He's taking a job as a partner in a Washington lobby firm. This comes as no surprise. I'll let the WaPo comments stand by themselves: Mr. Wynn has done his constituents a disservice and demonstrated contempt for the legislative body to which he was elected. ... If any of his constituents were wondering whether they made the right choice in voting to dump Mr. Wynn in the Democratic primary, his contempt for public service should set their minds at ease. But there's something else in the Post editorial that's worth noting: If [the Governor] does not call a special election, the district's residents will have no voice in the House of Representatives for more than half a year. I agree that's an injustice. And, how about this injustice: DC residents have had no vote (and only recently a voice) for more than 200 years. Maryland can fix the 6-month injustice easily. The US Senate can undo the injustice to DC's residents - three more Senators can vote to end the filibuster blocking a bill giving DC a vote in the US House of Representatives. Top Ten: DC Voting Rights Act
By Ed Davis
Posted on Wed Jan 02, 2008 at 05:53:28 PM EST
Huffington Post recently named the top ten public policies of the year -- the DC Voting Rights Act was among them. Congress can pass the bill this year and add some much-needed lustre to the 110th's thin record of achievement. Here's the post: 6. D.C. in the House! Forget the tacky mottos on the typical state license plate, Washington D.C.'s slogan, "Taxation Without Representation", is a stinging indictment of the District's lack of even one federal representative empowered to vote in Congress. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C's indomitable delegate, can debate with the best of them, but without the D.C. Voting Rights Act, neither she nor anyone else D.C. residents elect to Congress can cast a binding vote. No matter that the District's population is greater than, say, Wyoming's (two senators and a representative, thank you very much) or that its residents pay taxes and serve on juries, or even that the U.S. is a signatory to international treaties guaranteeing full voting rights. The D.C. Voting Rights Act passed the House this year for the first time in decades. Supporters even had a plan to win over GOP Senators spooked by what would likely be a new Democratic seat: balancing it with another seat for the heavily Republican state of Utah. Alas, the deal still failed to overcome a partisan filibuster. We cast our ballot for the D.C. Voting Rights Act, an affirmation of America's deepest democratic values, as one of the best policies of 2007.
Hiding Behind the Constitution
 By Bob Edgar
Posted on Wed Sep 26, 2007 at 01:29:31 PM EST
Cross-posted on Talking Justice.
The U.S. Senate was designed by the Founding Fathers to ensure thorough deliberation of the important issues facing the country. The Senate is known for its lengthy debates on the issues of the day.
So, it was puzzling and disturbing several days ago when the Senate took up an important voting rights legislation, the DC House Voting Rights Act, and with virtually no debate, cut off consideration of the bill. The bill would give the citizens of the District Columbia voting representation in the U.S. House of Representative. As Senator Orrin Hatch said, "My gosh, when has the Senate been afraid to debate a constitutional issue as important as this one?"
Why has the Senate failed to pass, or even consider, legislation specifically designed to address an injustice while avoiding partisan division?
McConnell's Folly
By Ed Davis
Posted on Mon Sep 17, 2007 at 01:23:34 PM EST
DC Voting Rights Rally
DC voting rights is on the line tomorrow: Senate vote to end the filibuster on S. 1257, DC House Voting Rights Act. Today, a press conference and rally in support of the bill outside Senate office buildings. Fuzzy photo shows the bald head of Mayor Adrian Fenty, the white head of Jack Kemp, a Republican champion of DC and to the right Ilir Zherka, head of DC Vote and the head of the Kentucky NAACP, here to lobby Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader who's leading the opposition. McConnell is well-known to Common Cause. He fought campaign finance reform for years - tenaciously, smartly, but wrongly. He's tough to beat, but we did it then - we can do it now. Call you Senator today and urge them to vote NO on the filibuster. NO to a filibuster blocking the fundamental right of Americans to taxation without representation!
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