D.C. Delegation Convention Agenda? Voting Rights, Stupid
One month left until Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and D.C. Democratic State Committee Chair Anita Bonds lead the city's delegation to Denver for the Democratic National Convention. They'll set up headquarters at the Crowne Plaza (and a few overflow hotels for the roughly 100 delegates, staff, voluteers and other hangers-on). For the most part, the week will be filled with delegation meetings, breakfast buffets, caucus meetings, luncheons, committee meetings, parties and, oh yeah, the business of officially nominating Barack Obama as presidential candidate.
The highlight for the D.C. delegation, though, is its voting rights luncheon and, later, an evening reception to which other state delegates will be invited. Bonds tells D.C. Wire that the state committee has a budget of $138,000, which will be raised with help from Fenty (whose staff has pledged to collect between $30,000 and $40,000 in donations) and the 13 members of the D.C. Council (who have committed to raising a total of $70,000).
That money will go largely to paying for the luncheon and party. Bonds said the delegation also is planning a trip to the U.S. Mint where delegates will pass out wooden quarters with the city's unofficial motto: "no taxation without representation." The group is hoping Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton will be successful in her latest attempt to get the U.S. Senate to take up the city's Voting Rights bill, which would give a House seat to Democratic-leaning D.C. and an extra one to Republican-leaning Utah.
"We're hoping it's a victory party," David Meadows, D.C. state committee spokesman, said of the Mint visit.
As grand as the ambitions sound, the truth appears to be that they were scaled down. Sources said the original budget was something closer to $180,000, but some fiscal belt-tightening was in order when it came time to figuring out how much the committee could reasonably expect to raise from businesses and residents.
By David A Nakamura |
July 24, 2008; 3:48 PM ET
| Category:
2008 Presidential Race
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David Nakamura
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Posted by: Jonathan R. Rees | July 24, 2008 4:05 PM
Son, you still haven't paid me your rent for the past 3 months. I like that you live in the basement. But you need to start acting like an adult.
Posted by: Mrs. Rees | July 24, 2008 4:41 PM
I live in the basement of Mayor Fenty's home and I was promised it would be rent free.
Posted by: Jonathan R. Rees | July 24, 2008 5:49 PM
Indeed it would be "carziness" to let municipal governments vote in congressional elections.
Posted by: rwlevy | July 24, 2008 7:07 PM
No. No. No. The District is a CITY not a state and not even a LARGE city. The city cannot even handle municipal affairs with any consistent competency. I'll be demanding my Senator and Congressman to vote NO!!! on this initiative. It is so good not to be FROM here.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 25, 2008 9:16 AM
psst, psst
Will Media Report Concert Before Obama's Berlin Speech?
News busters.org
By Noel Sheppard July 24, 2008 - 13:38 ET
Remember back in May when media gushed and fawned over a huge crowd in Portland, Oregon -- supposedly gathered to hear the words of Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama -- but chose not to report the free concert given before his speech?
Well, it has been learned that before the presumptive Democrat nominee spoke to a crowd in Berlin Thursday, two popular German acts -- reggae artist Patrice and rock band Reamonn -- entertained the gathering audience.
Will media report this tonight, or just gush and fawn over the huge crowd again?
While you ponder, here's what was reported by Spiegel Online moments ago (h/t Hot Air and Gateway):
++ Pop Concert for Obama Fans ++
6:33 p.m.: The tens of thousands of Obama fans are being entertained as they await the senator. The reggae musician Patrice kicked things off, followed by the rock band Reamonn.
I'm sure this will be part of ALL media reports concerning this speech...not!
Posted by: Al from NJ | July 28, 2008 7:17 AM
I doubt all 13 members of the Council will be participating in the fundraising drive considering two of them aren't Dems. One of the two might, but that's another issue altogether.
Posted by: Numbers | July 28, 2008 11:16 AM
No, the District is a district, not a city. The District contains a city. It is constitutionally unique, and thus cannot be thought of in terms of either states or cities, because it is neither (although Congress certainly has no problem treating it as a state when they want tax money or combat troops). If we're going to build an argument for the merits of crassly denying democracy to fellow citizens based solely on constitutional technicalities, we might as well have something of a grasp of our legal vernacular.
Posted by: Aggressive Mediocrity | July 28, 2008 3:45 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
Granting a congressional vote to the most corrupt government in the USA is carziness.
Anyway David Nakamura is a paid hack for the Fenty administration and nothing he says goes untainted.