The Low Priority of Statehood
Dear Advocates:
There are other important events happening in the world this evening,
so I’ll be brief. To most readers’ relief, I am sure, this is the
last thing I’ll say about DC statehood for a while, and the last
message on statehood I’ll run in themail until and unless there’s a
new development. I started this conversation by writing that I thought
that the District of Columbia could achieve statehood, but that the cost
would be higher than most of its most passionate advocates would be
willing to pay. The ensuing comments have convinced me that that’s
true.
To me, it is obvious that DC would get statehood much more easily by
being nice to Congress than by alienating it. That seems to be the
general rule for legislative success — make allies to get enough votes
to pass a bill. Second, new states generally have to convince Congress
that they will not upset any political balance that exists at the time
they are admitted to the union. But the strongest advocates of statehood
are the most adamant about not compromising any of the radical political
stances that put DC on the fringes of US politics. My conclusion is that
DC isn’t ready to make any sacrifices to gain statehood, and that
statehood isn’t really that high a priority among the many other
political causes that statehood advocates value more.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Tomorrow, May 2, the next and perhaps the final chapter in the Office
of Campaign Finance’s investigation of Council Chairman Kwame Brown’s
2008 campaign finances will take place. At 10:00 a.m., OCF will question
Kwame Brown and take his sworn deposition at his attorney’s Fred Cooke’s
law office at 1201 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 200.
The deposition of Kwame Brown is OCF’s final effort to secure
information under oath so that the agency can complete its investigation
and audit of Brown’s 2008 campaign. As I have noted in previous
postings in themail, on April 5 the DC Office of Campaign Finance issued
an audit report highly critical of Brown’s campaign finance reports (http://ocf.dc.gov/pdf_files/FAA/RAAD-04-04-2011_79.pdf).
Following the release of the audit, a “show cause” hearing was then
held at OCF’s office in the Reeves Building on April 18, to receive
sworn testimony from Dawn Cromer, the treasurer of Brown’s campaign
committee. Last Tuesday, April 28, OCF took sworn depositions from
Charles Hawkins (who headed Banner Consulting, which received 30 percent
of all campaign funds in 2008), Che Brown (Kwame’s brother, the owner
of Partners in Learning, and the recipient of most of the campaign funds
that had been funneled through Banner Consulting), and Marshall Brown (Kwame’s
father). At tomorrow’s deposition, Kwame Brown will be asked to
respond to specific charges contained in OCF’s “notice of hearing,
statement of violations and order of appearance.” In that notice, OCF
alleges that the 2008 Committee to Reelect Kwame Brown “failed to
amend its Statement of Organization to include a bank account,” “failed
to initially report 210 contributions totaling $102,763 that were
received by the Committee,” “Failed to initially report 53
expenditures totaling $169,431.49 that were made by the Committee,”
and “failed to maintain proper records of receipts and expenditures.”
For most of the months that OCF’s audit was underway, Brown refused
to secure private legal counsel after his attempt to make the case that
he should be represented by a DC government attorney was rejected by OCF.
Since the release of the final audit in April, Brown’s legal counsel
has been Fred Cooke, who is also the attorney for the Committee, Dawn
Cromer, Charles Hawkins, Che Brown, and Marshall Brown, despite the
obvious potential for conflicts of interest. Also troubling is the
location of tomorrow’s deposition at Fred Cooke’s law office. I
firmly believe that OCF’s decision regarding the site of tomorrow’s
deposition smacks of special treatment for Chairman Brown. In the many
years that I have followed the work of OCF and the Board of Elections
and Ethics (BOEE), I have never known OCF to conduct a show cause
hearing or take a deposition except at its offices in the Reeves
Building. For example, in past OCF cases involving Mayors Barry and
Williams, they both came to OCF’s office for a hearing or to be
deposed. However, according to William Sanford, OCF’s General Counsel,
in the past year or so, OCF has on two other occasions acceded to
requests by attorneys who represented councilmembers to hold depositions
in their (the attorneys’) offices.
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In the April 27 edition of themail, Harold Foster gave us a good
history of efforts to become states. He makes some suggestions on how we
can effectively work for statehood. Statehood for DC is constitutional
because the Constitution only mandates the maximum, not the minimum size
for the seat of government of the United States. Congress previously
reduced the size of the District of Columbia by a third in 1846 when it
approved retroceding the City of Alexandria and the County of Alexandria
(now Arlington County) to Virginia. To make the rest of DC a state,
Congress would have to carve out a smaller seat of government of the
United States.
Congress has already defined the “Federal City” part of the
current District of Columbia. It did it in 1973 in the DC
Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act, otherwise known as
the “Home Rule Act,” Public Law 93-198. Section 739 of that act,
defined and created the “National Capital Service Area,” which
includes the principal Federal monuments, the White House, the Capitol
Building, the United States Supreme Court Building, and the Federal
executive, legislative and judicial office buildings located adjacent to
the Mall and the Capitol Building. In the statehood constitution
approved by DC voters in 1982, this same area is carved out as the new
seat of government of the United States, otherwise known as the District
of Columbia. Every statehood bill introduced in Congress since then,
including H.R. 265 which our nonvoting Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton
introduced on January 12, defines this area as the new seat of
government of the United States and defines the state of New Columbia as
the remainder of the current District of Columbia, that is the
residential and commercial areas of the DC which are not included in
what Congress defined as the National Capital Service Area. It is in the
latter area where the 602,000 residents of the current District of
Columbia reside.
As to what DC residents must do to get statehood, we have to educate
each other and Americans all across the country about our lack of rights
and how that can be constitutionally corrected — i.e.,
statehood. We have to educate every organization to which we all belong
about the need for statehood and get them to endorse it and join us in
lobbying Congress to get it. We have to organize our friends, relatives,
fellow organization members (unions, fraternal organizations, alumni
groups, veterans groups, political parties, political issue oriented
groups, civic and citizen associations, sororities, fraternities, etc.)
to support statehood and lobby their Congressional delegations. We have
to support politicians around the country who will support DC statehood
and work to defeat those who don’t. We need to refuse to give money or
volunteer our time to any candidate, whether for Congress or President,
who does not actively support and promise to work for DC statehood. DC
residents give millions in campaign contributions to candidates all over
the country and tens of thousands of hours of volunteer labor.
Similarly, we should not give money to any national issue group that
does not also work for DC statehood. These are all the groups that ask
us to contribute and go lobby our Senators and Congressional
Representative. Folks are gearing up for the 2012 elections. So should
we. We have clout. We just need to use it, starting now.
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Gary Imhoff makes an innovative argument on behalf of DC statehood,
asking the residents of our city to reinvent their political principles
and social leanings in order to persuade moderate and conservative
Americans to grant them basic political and social equality. But my
question to Mr. Imhoff is this: where would America be today if the
citizens of the original thirteen colonies had recast their political
principles and social leanings in acquiescence to King George the Third’s
more, shall we say, conservative demands? Surely, it would not be the
country it is today. In fact, it would not likely be a country.
The people of the District of Columbia should continue to demand
equality as well as remain true to their own social and political
values. Such is the essence of America and its lasting dream.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Pre-Court Rally of Solidarity for DC Democracy
Activists, May 5
Karen A. Szulgit, FREEDCNOW (at) gmail (dot) com
Please stop by Superior Court of the District of Columbia (500
Indiana Avenue, NW) between 7:45 and 8:45 a.m. to show support for some
of the DC democracy activists who were arrested last month. On April 11,
twenty-five members of the “DC 41” (http://tinyurl.com/3avyq65)
chose to “post and forfeit” (pay $50 collateral and forfeit their
right to a court date). But fifteen were issued citations to appear in
court to answer the charge of “Unlawful Assembly - Blocking Passage.”
(One activist was taken to the hospital.) This misdemeanor crime may be
prosecuted by the District’s acting attorney general. So, how will
fifteen of the “DC 41” plea? Visit Courtroom 115 at 8:30 a.m. in the
H. Carl Moultrie Courthouse to find out. Either way, your fellow DC
residents need your support!
On April 15, US (Statehood) Senator Michael D. Brown (D-DC) and
activists Adam Eidinger and Bob Johnsen were arrested and charged with
“Disorderly Conduct - Blocking Passage” after participating in a
youth Tax Day protest. The three are also scheduled to appear the same
day in Courtroom 115 at 9:30 a.m. Will the “DC THREE” plead guilty,
or not? Stick around the courthouse to witness DC colonial history in
the making. Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (SMD 6C01) Keith Silver
is due in court later this month, following his April 18 arrest. If you
have contact information for the fifteen members of the “DC 41” that
are to appear in court, please send word. Free the DC 15 of the “DC 41”
and the “DC Three!”
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Molly Smith at Woman’s National Democratic
Club, May 12
Tonya Butler-Truesdale, gotonyago@gmail.com
Thursday, May 12, luncheon with Molly Smith, Artistic Director of the
Arena Stage. When Molly Smith last spoke at the Woman’s National
Democratic Club she told of us her hopes and dreams for leading a
reinvention of Arena Stage. She has focused her creative life on the
programming and the architecture of the new Mead Center for American
Theater. She has been a passionate leader in new play development for
the past thirty years and has worked with many other theaters. Smith has
just returned from the Shaw Festival in Canada, where she directed My
Fair Lady. She has served as literary adviser to Sundance Theater Lab
and formed the Arena Stage Writers council, composed of leading American
playwrights. Oklahoma was completely sold out and is being held over.
Smith has invited other theater companies to perform; for example, Whose
Afraid of Virginia Wolf was a stunner, performed by the Steppenwolf
Theater of Chicago. She has brought artists of international renown to
the theater, and is the recipient of many awards as well as doctorates
from Towson and American Universities. If you haven’t seen how the old
theaters are enveloped inside a beautiful bubble you have missed a real
treat.
The luncheon will be at the Woman’s National Democratic Club on May
12. The bar opens at 11:30 a.m.; the lunch will be at 12:15 p.m.; and
the presentation and question and answer period will be from 1:00 p.m.
to 2:00 p.m. $25 members; $30 nonmembers; $10 lecture only.
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National Building Museum 2011 Honor Award Gala
Celebration, May 17
J. Cochran, jcochran@nbm.org
The Board of Trustees of the National Building Museum invite you to
attend the anniversary gala “Celebrating Our Past, Building Our
Future: 25 Years of the Honor Award.” Tuesday, May 17, at the National
Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW. The keynote speaker will be David
Rockwell of the Rockwell Group, and the gala will feature musicians from
the New Orleans Habitat Musicians’ Village.
Since 1986, the National Building Museum has presented its Honor
Award to leaders who shaped our heritage, defined our culture, developed
our communities, and crafted our built environment. On May 17, a special
twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the National Building Museum’s
Honor Award will unite our history and our future. Together with our
past honorees, we will celebrate the importance of the world we build
and look to the inspiring possibilities of the next twenty-five years.
Please join us for an extraordinary evening in the Museum’s historic
Great Hall with the designers, developers, builders, and advocates who
will become our future Honor Award recipients as we continue the journey
of creating the nation’s building legacy.
Event Schedule: 5:30 p.m., President’s Reception; 6:00 p.m., VIP
Reception; 7:00 p.m., Great Hall Reception; 7:45 p.m., dinner and
program; 9:15 p.m., dessert extravaganza. Learn more about the 2011
Honor Award Gala or register now at http://tinyurl.com/3woce4y
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