DCDL

Judging by Google News search results, journalists seeking a name for the February 12 primary in DC, Maryland, and Virginia are breaking in favor of alliteration:

• Potomac primary: 529 articles
• Potomac primaries: 202
• Chesapeake primary: 59
• Chesapeake primaries: 15
• Beltway primary: 15
• Beltway primaries: 10

I prefer “Chesapeake primary” myself, because it covers the widest area. The vast majority of voters in tomorrow’s primary are not in the DC area. Besides, I don’t want my brother’s head to explode.

At least the odious name “Beltway primary” is losing badly.

Regardless of what you call it, if you’re a registered Democrat in DC or Maryland, or a registered voter of any sort in Virginia, make sure you get to the polls tomorrow. It’s not often that those of us outside the early states actually get a say in who our presidential candidate is, so let’s make the most of it. And if you’re having trouble deciding, the correct answer is Barack Obama!

I should have posted this last week, but for local residents not yet registered to vote, time is running out if you want to participate in the presidential primary. In both Virginia and DC, Monday, January 14, is the deadline for registering to vote in the February 12 presidential primary election. For information, see the Virginia State Board of Elections or the DC Board of Elections and Ethics.

Maryland residents have until Tuesday, January 22, to register for their primary, which is also February 12 (see the Maryland State Board of Elections). The Maryland primary covers other races in addition to president. For example, Democrats in the 4th Congressional District will be deciding whether the progressive Donna Edwards will unseat the more conservative Rep. Al Wynn, so if you live in that district make sure you’re registered even if you think the presidential nomination will already have been decided by the time you get a chance to vote.

Support your local Democratic Party and vote for your preferred presidential candidate:

THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA DEMOCRATIC STATE COMMITTEE (DCDSC)
CORDIALLY INVITES YOU TO A HOLIDAY PARTY
&
PRESIDENTIAL FORUM AND STRAW POLL

MONDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2007
7:00 to 11:00 pm

The 18th AMENDMENT RESTAURANT
613 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE
(one block from the Eastern Market Metro station)

Karaoke, Buffet, Cash Bar

Admission: contribution of $10 and book for youth up to the age of 12.
Make checks payable to the DCDSC.

At 8 p.m. there will be brief presentations from representatives of the presidential campaigns.

HONORARY CHAIRMAN
A. Scott Bolden

CHAIRPERSON
Philip Pannell

SPONSORS

The Honorable Eleanor Holmes Norton The Honorable Marion Barry The Honorable Sharon Pratt The Honorable Arrington Dixon The Honorable Jack Evans The Honorable Philip Mendelson The Honorable Kwame Brown The Honorable Harry Thomas The Honorable Tommie Wells The Honorable Yvette Alexander The Honorable Sandy Allen The Honorable Paul Strauss The Honorable Michael D. Brown The Honorable Robert Bobb

James Bubar Marilyn Tyler Brown Anita Bonds Ward 2 Democratic Committee Ward 3 Democratic Committee Ward 4 Democrats Ward 5 Democrats Ward 6 Democrats Wards 7 Democrats Ward Eight Democrats Gertrude Stein Democratic Club DC Federation of Democratic Women DC for Obama Shelley Tomkins

Washington Teachers’ Union The Fellas (Eugene, Juan, Kemry) Fred Allen Jan Eichhorn Phinis Jones Keshini Ladduwahetty Linda Lingle Jeffrey Norman Jeffrey Richardson Juan Thompson Dan Wedderburn Paige Wedderburn

Our friends at the Sierra Club’s DC chapter are having one of their “Sierra Club and Beer” nights on Tuesday, October 23, from 7 to 9pm at Temperance Hall (3634 Georgia Avenue NW, Georgia Avenue–Petworth Metro):

Enjoy free beer. Meet new people. Protect the planet.

Join us for free beer and become part of Sierra Club’s mission to explore, enjoy, and protect the planet. Meet other folks who care about local and national conservation issues, win prizes, and find out how you can help make DC a leader in the fight against global warming.

I just saw this message on the Cleveland Park e-mail list:

It appears that our neighborhood theater will soon be no more. I just received a call from a City Paper reporter asking what I knew about the sale of the Uptown to the McLean Bible Church (nothing until he
called). Here’s a link to the church’s website with information about their planned use: http://www.mcleanbible.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=18091

Off the top of my head, I don’t see much of a “regulatory hook” for this, other than the fact that the church will have to get Historic Preservation Review Board approval for any changes to the exterior. I believe the commercial zoning that applies to this area probably permits this use, whether it’s considered “religious” or not. […]

Bruce Beckner
Commissioner ANC3C05

That’s certainly depressing news, much worse than Yenching Palace’s imminent transformation into a Walgreen’s. It will be interesting to see how the Cleveland Park community reacts.

Update (11:03pm): See the comments. It appears the situation is not as dire as initial reports suggested. Is this the City Paper’s idea of a practical joke?

Sorry for the late notice, but the New Organizing Institute is having a fundraising party tonight, Tuesday, June 12, 5:30–9pm, at MCCXXIII, 1223 Connecticut Ave NW (suggested donation $12, RSVP [not required]):

(more…)

The DC House Voting Rights Bill, S. 1257, gets a little further today as the Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing, “Ending Taxation without Representation: The Constitutionality of S. 1257″. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) will preside. The hearing will be webcast from the committee’s site live at 1:30pm.

The witness list includes elected officials from DC and Utah, and a panel of constitutional scholars to educate the committee members about how the bill fits into the provisions of the Constitution (or fails to do so). Let’s hope they’re able to convince some Republican senators who aren’t from Utah.

Since my last update, four more senators have signed on as cosponsors:

• Russell Feingold (D-WI)
• Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
• Mark Pryor (D-AR)
• Thomas Carper (D-DE)

That brings the total to 13, not counting Joe Lieberman (I-CT), the main sponsor. It’s good to see support from Democrats from across the ideological spectrum. Now if we can just get enough Republicans to avoid a filibuster. According to local commentator and voting rights advocate Mark Plotkin, former Maryland lieutenant governor Michael Steele is lobbying Republican senators along with Jack Kemp.

DC for Democracy is having a picnic Saturday, May 19, in Rock Creek Park to raise funds to support their efforts, including presidential primary activities, voting rights, and community projects. Special guests include Jim Dean, chair of Democracy for America (and Howard Dean’s brother); Judy Feder, 2006 House candidate in Virginia’s 10th District; and members of the DC council. Suggested donation is $35 for an individual, $50 for a family.

If you’re looking for a local grassroots group focusing on progressive politics, DC for Democracy is the organization for you — and much of the leadership is made up of DCDL regulars (I’m the IT chair), so you should feel at home.

For more information, see the RSVP page (and if you can’t make it but feel moved to donate anyway, you can do it through ActBlue).

The next stage in the DC House Voting Rights Act’s passage through the Congress is a hearing Tuesday. If you’re able to come to the Hill that morning, please do, so we can have a crowd to demonstrate that DC residents care about the issue. Here’s the latest message from DC for Democracy:

As our patron Senator on DC Voting Rights and Chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, Sen. Joe Lieberman has just announced the schedule and witness panels for an important hearing on S. 1257, the DC House Voting Rights Act of 2007, on Tuesday, May 15 at 10:00 AM. All details about the hearing, including the witness list, can be found at http://www.dcvote.org/events/event.cfm?eventID=330.

To demonstrate our overwhelming support for the Senate’s quick response to our demand for full House voting rights, we are calling on all DC For Democracy members who are able to attend the 10:00am hearing, to please do so. We need to make our presence known and pack the room on Tuesday. Please attend the hearing if you are able — and show up early to get a seat! If you cannot make it in person, the hearing will be Web cast live from the Committee’s Web site at http://www.senate.gov/~govt-aff/.

Please RSVP to votingrights{at}dcfordemocracy.org.

Hope to see you all on Tuesday!

Karen Rose
Chair, Voting Rights & Democracy Committee
DC for Democracy

Since my previous post on the subject, two more senators have signed on as cosponsors: Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and John Kerry (D-MA).

If you’re a Virginia resident, please contact Sen. John Warner, who’s a possibly persuadable Republican member of the relevant committee, and ask him to support the bill, S. 1257. For that matter, wherever you are, if you have senators, ask them for their support. One way to send a message is to use the Free and Equal DC site.

This week Joe Lieberman introduced S. 1257, the Senate version of the DC voting rights bill (the House version, H.R. 1905, passed last month). So far he’s got seven cosponsors, and it’s good to see that they include two of the Democratic presidential candidates, along with other Democrats from across the political spectrum, and the two senators from Utah (both Republican):

• Robert Bennett (R-UT)
• Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)
• Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
• Edward Kennedy (D-MA)
• Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
• Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
• Barack Obama (D-IL)

I’m hoping that Lieberman will be able to reach out to more Republicans to increase support and avoid a filibuster. Of course even if the bill passes the Senate it may still be vetoed by the president, but I’m hoping that if enough Republicans go along Bush won’t feel obliged to use one of his rare vetoes to stand in the way of bringing partial democracy to the residents of the nation’s capital.

If you’re one of those Americans who’s fortunate enough to have senators, please contact them and ask them to support S. 1257. You can use Mike Panetta’s Free and Equal DC site to send a message (and DC residents can use it to send messages to their state-dwelling friends).