District of Columbia: Leaders Commit to Pushing Statehood Question to Voters in November
Photo Credit: Jim Lo Scalzo/EZA
D.C Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s ambitious plan to petition U.S Congress and the next president for full statehood for DC has won early endorsement. The commission-backed proposal calls for a constitutional convention to prepare a statehood ballot initiative to be put in front of voters in November 2016.
Below is an article published by the Washington Post:
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser won an early endorsement Thursday (21 April) of her ambitious plan to petition Congress and the next president for full statehood for the nation’s capital.
A commission that includes D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson unanimously backed her proposal, including calling a constitutional convention to ready a statehood ballot initiative to put before voters in November.
Doing so could require the D.C. Council to convene in summer session and possibly delay action on other priorities. But Mendelson said Bowser had made a convincing case that the District cannot repeat the mistake of being flat-footed when the next president and Congress is elected — especially if Democrats who empathize with the District’s lack of voting rights win control of the White House, Congress or both.
D.C. now has more residents than either Vermont or Wyoming, and its residents pay the highest federal taxes per capita, but the District has no voting representation in Congress and federal lawmakers can dictate how the city spends its own local tax money.
“We could take more time, and taking more time would mean we miss what I think is going to turn out to be a historic election in November,” said Bowser (D). “We miss the opportunity for a new president to have a complete package from the voters of the District of Columbia.”
Mendelson added: “Given how Congress has viewed our effort, I don’t know that we can ask too often ... or demand too often that residents of the District be fully franchised.” However, the council chairman would not commit to finishing a constitution before November. “Let’s see if we can do it,” he said, and if not, he added, voters could pass an advisory measure and the city could continue working toward a vote on a constitution next year. “The main thing here is we want to present a fresh request [for statehood] and we will.”
The comments of both Bowser and Mendelson reflected the fact that crafting a new constitution could become a messy process, and completing the document on the mayor’s proposed timeline will be no easy task.
