A Groundswell of Activism
D.C. Vote Gaining Champions Nationwide, but Will It Help?

By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 14, 2007

The District's campaign for representation in Congress is reviving with the biggest flowering of activism in more than a decade, as people locally and across the nation try to build support for a voting rights bill that could pass the House of Representatives next week.

"People have sensed the opportunity of a generation to do something," said Ilir Zherka, executive director of D.C. Vote, an advocacy group.

The D.C. government, churches, the city teachers union and taxi drivers are mobilizing residents for a march Monday on Congress, to be led by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D). Activists have championed the cause by holding voting rights happy hours and handing out T-shirts at colleges.

Nationally, hundreds or even thousands of activists -- many identified with the Democratic Party -- are writing and calling their lawmakers. Voting rights supporters are holding talks on the D.C. issue this month in Pennsylvania, Florida and Hawaii and throwing a mock tea party in Seattle. Four Washington area rock bands are doing an East Coast tour billed as an effort to "turn a 200-year-old issue into the flavor of the year."

The question is: Will the burst of activity bring the city any closer to success in its decades-long effort? Liberal activists won't easily change minds in the Republican House leadership and the White House, which strongly oppose the D.C. vote legislation.

And, in organizing Monday's march, activists face another challenge: the apathy of many city residents who've heard it all before and doubt that change is likely.

Still, a confluence of factors has prompted the renewed energy: the D.C. vote bill's success so far in the House, the Democratic takeover in Congress and the new mayor's gung-ho attitude. The Internet has allowed activists to enlist allies nationwide via e-mails and blogs.

"We are now building the momentum from years of work," said Lloyd Leonard, head of the League of Women Voters lobbying office.

The city has seen other surges of enthusiasm about voting rights, notably when Congress passed a constitutional amendment in 1978 to give the District representatives in the House and Senate. But when the measure failed to win ratification from enough states, interest in the issue "went through the floor," Leonard recalled.

As recently as a few years ago, Zherka called a meeting of local groups to discuss strategy. "Two people showed up," he said.

What changed? In 2003, Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) proposed a political compromise that would add two seats to the House of Representatives -- one for the heavily Democratic District, another for the next state in line to pick up a seat, Republican-leaning Utah. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the city's non-voting House delegate, signed on to the bill last year, bringing her party onboard.

This year, the new Democratic House leadership pledged to move the bill quickly. With that, national grass-roots groups swung into action. Organizations such as MoveOn.org and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights sent e-mail alerts in recent weeks as the bill faced votes in House committees. That prompted thousands of people across the country to contact their legislators, the groups' leaders say.

On Friday, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said in an interview on Washington Post Radio that he expected the House to pass the bill "this coming week."

But what happens after that remains in question. Democrats don't appear to have enough votes in the Senate to avoid a filibuster. And if the bill somehow makes it through that chamber, White House aides want President Bush to veto it.

"Demonstrations don't change the constitutionality, or lack thereof, of a bill in Congress," said Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio).

House Republicans, the White House and a number of legal experts say the D.C. vote bill violates the constitutional requirement that representatives come from states. Other scholars disagree, calling that an overly literal interpretation. Some Republicans also accuse Democrats of using the bill as a lever to eventually get two senators for the District.

Organizers have estimated in their permit application that 5,000 people will gather for the march, which will begin at 3 p.m. at Freedom Plaza and end with a rally near the Capitol Reflecting Pool. The city government and D.C. Vote say they have handed out about 50,000 fliers promoting the event at schools, offices, baseball games and Metro stations. The city has advertised it on billboards and banners and in newspapers. It even printed an appeal for marchers on District employees' paychecks.

Those efforts come on top of phone banks, happy hours and other activities organized by local and national groups in an effort to enlist marchers. Blogs including the liberal Daily Kos have publicized the demonstration.

"There's a new energy in the city, with the mayor and D.C. Vote," said Bob Johnsen, 66, a retired Unitarian Universalist church worker who volunteered one recent evening at a phone bank.

Some organizations are taking the issue farther afield. Last summer, the League of Women Voters launched a program to educate citizens across the country about the District's lack of representation. Among its upcoming events: a mock "tea party" in downtown Seattle on Monday, featuring protest songs by the Raging Grannies.

Closer to home, four local indie rock groups launched a D.C. Voting Rights Tour this week with stops along the East Coast.

The idea was the brainchild of Rob Getzschman, 29, a resident of 16th Street Heights who runs a multimedia company. He read an article last year about many Americans' ignorance of the D.C. vote issue, and a light bulb went on.

"It occurred to me . . . this is why the issue hasn't been resolved," he said. "Because people don't know."

On Tuesday night, the tour opened in a dimly lit bar tucked between a KFC, some dilapidated rowhouses and a Chinese takeout place in northern Philadelphia.

"None of us have a vote in Congress," Getzschman, in a T-shirt and jeans, explained to the audience. "Twelve or 13 of us are actually going to turn the tide of American history by making some music."

His band, Analog Jetpack, belted out its new D.C. vote song:

It's been two centuries, you have to think eventually

We'd bid this legal peasantry farewell . . .

The Philadelphia audience applauded -- all four of them. They were friends of the musicians'.

It was a disappointing start, Getzschman acknowledged. But, like many longtime D.C. vote activists, he was undaunted by an initial setback.

"This is the first show ever of this concept," he said. "We're going to learn and evolve."