DCist reports on tensions between DC Vote and DC Watch. What it boils down to is that DC Vote has been offered a cool $1M to educate people outside of DC on the lack of voting representation here in the nation’s capitol. DC Watch learned about this and thought that was swell and everything, but how come this was offered as non-competitive grant? DC Watch’s other issue is that the director of DC Vote has moved out of DC into Montgomery County, MD.
Nice reporting job by DCist. Netroots journalism should be like this more often.
Here’s my take on the situation. While DC Watch is right in principle, I’m just having a hard getting worked up over this. Most people don’t understand how frustrating it is not to be able to vote for a member of Congress, or to have someone to turn to when action is needed. I just don’t have a problem throwing a few bucks to an organization dedicated to changing this.
In case you happen to be reading this, and live outside the area, here’s a few fun facts:
- Washington, D.C. has a population of 572,059.
- Wyoming has a population of 493,782.
- DC has no Senators, and a shadow Representative in the House. The shadow Representative, Eleanor Holmes Norton, votes in comittee, and does not return phone calls or emails.
- Wyoming has two Senators and one “normal” Representative.
- All of Wyomings Representatives are white, Protestant, and Republican.
- Funding for DC is controlled by the Senate Appropriations Committee for the District of Columbia.
- The chairman of this committee, Sam Brownback, is objectively christofascist.
AH, Eleanor Holmes Norton isn’t the shadow rep. The shadow representative is Ray Browne. He — like the shadow senators, Florence Pendleton and Paul Strauss — holds a local elected office established by the District to lobby for representation. None of the shadow congressional delegation are federal officials.
Norton is a federal official, the DC delegate to the US House of Representatives, and the important point you skipped above is that she has no vote on the House floor. In that respect she is just like the delegates from the territories (Guam, Puerto Rico, etc.), but the residents of those places do not pay federal income taxes. DC residents have the worst of both worlds: paying taxes but having no voice in how those taxes are spent.
—Keith • 2:36 pm