Getting Out to Get a Vote

A variety of participants arrived in vans, school buses and cars: senior citizens, civil rights activists, union workers, college students and church members. Many were involved either with city-funded groups or with DC Vote, an advocacy group that played a key role in planning the event. Some said the city had provided transportation.

"This was an important day in the history of D.C.," said D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr. (D-Ward 5). "The citizens came out despite the weather to show that this is an important day for us."

Marchers said they hoped the event would further mobilize residents.

"The sad fact is, we've been too passive," said the Rev. Clark Lobenstine, executive director of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, as he approached the Capitol and a light rain began to fall.

The march did encounter some problems. With wind gusts of up to 60 mph downing power lines and closing some schools in the area, the rally at the Capitol was cut short. A number of prominent speakers, including several congressmen, did not make it. Organizers said the weather undoubtedly dampened turnout.

And, as Fenty, Norton and Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) led marchers down Pennsylvania Avenue, holding a banner that read: "First Freed. Then Taxed. Still No Vote," another group of demonstrators repeatedly jumped in front of the procession with their own banner: "Fenty -- Let us vote on the school takeover."

Fenty's security detail and march organizers formed a protective semicircle around the dignitaries and pushed away the demonstrators, who oppose the mayor's plan to assume control of the city school system.

But overall, the mood was upbeat. Demonstrators rang cowbells and cheered speeches by Fenty, Norton and Gray. Even though she is 83 and nursing a cold, the D.C. statehood activist known as Faith rode on top of a car and blew her bugle during the procession.

Stacie Goffin, an education consultant in her 50s, said she became interested in the issue after moving to the District seven years ago from Kansas. "I want the vote. I get what it feels like" to have it, said the Dupont Circle resident.

Helen Rehwaldt, 32, a chef who lives near American University, said news of the march was "all over the city" in recent days. "It was a great turnout, given how horrible it was outside," she said.

Fenty seized on the symbolism of the city's Emancipation Day, a District holiday, to rally city residents around the voting issue. He threw himself into getting a big turnout, sending recorded telephone messages to D.C. residents, distributing thousands of fliers through the city's political networks and even printing news of the march on city employees' pay stubs. Since taking office in January, Fenty has made voting rights a top priority.

A spokesman for the Republican leader in the House, John A. Boehner (Ohio), said his objections to the bill remain unchanged.

"House Republicans are not opposed to giving D.C. residents representation in Congress. But they are opposed to running roughshod over the Constitution," said the spokesman, Brian Kennedy.

Critics, including some prominent legal experts, say the bill violates the constitutional requirement that House representatives come from states. Supporters of the legislation, including other legal scholars, rest their arguments on another constitutional provision giving Congress sweeping powers over the District.