2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHillary Clinton Says She Supports Statehood for DC
Source: Associated Press
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON May 12, 2016, 10:09 AM ET
Hillary Clinton says she'll fight to make the District of Columbia the nation's 51st state if she's elected president.
Clinton wrote about her support for District statehood in an op-ed published Wednesday in the Washington Informer, an African-American newspaper. She says it's unfair that the District's 672,000 residents lack voting representation in Congress.
President Barack Obama did not publicly announce his support for District statehood until 2014, and some advocates have criticized him for not doing more. Republicans generally oppose statehood, in part because the overwhelmingly Democratic city would almost certainly elect two Democrats to the Senate.
Clinton's op-ed indicates that she'll make statehood an issue during the campaign for president. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump took no position on statehood during a recent interview with The Washington Post.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/hillary-clinton-supports-statehood-dc-39064202
Link to Clinton's op-ed: HILLARY CLINTON: Restoring Faith In Democracy (The Washington Informer)
onehandle
(51,122 posts)Washington DC has a greater population than Vermont and Wyoming.
It is also about 90% Democratic.
What Democrat would be against adding 2 Democratic Senators and multiple Democratic House Members?
Give The State Of Columbia A Voice!
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ieoeja
(9,748 posts)I believe the proper course would be to return ownership of the district to Maryland while retaining full Federal control and autonomy over everything except possibly congressional districting since an individual district might have to include areas in and outside DC.
onehandle
(51,122 posts)And for giving a Gerrymandered Republican Congress even more power over the citizens that are unfortunate enough to be subject to their whims to begin with.
Cool. Story. Bro.
ieoeja
(9,748 posts)They would have a voice in electing senators for Maryland as well as state officials. It is roughly the same size as Baltimore which has 4 congressional districts. So figure at least 3 congressional districts in Washington.
I believe that is the truly fair way to handle this.
Eugene
(61,938 posts)Washington is big enough to flip the politics in both Maryland and Virginia
if split in two. Conservatives are not eager to have and influx of hundreds
of thousands of mostly black, overwhelmingly Democratic voters.
ieoeja
(9,748 posts)onenote
(42,745 posts)Merryland
(1,134 posts)R. Daneel Olivaw
(12,606 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)However, we have a far larger problem. DC has become a center of vast wealth and its institutionalized culture of power far, far, far too permanent. The days when citizens came to serve and went home are in the past. They stay and concentrate right there, a grave threat to our democracy right in its center.
We really must need to fix THAT, and removing money from politics would help enormously.
We also might want a mobile national capital -- one that moves about the country every few years. Let the Andrea Mitchells and Alan Greenspans and other "professional" insiders chase it around and duke it out for supremacy with the local legislators, journalists, and Junior Leaguers of Oklahoma City, Madison, and Sacramento. Or not. Lol.
Vinca
(50,302 posts)Jitter65
(3,089 posts)President's limo.