A New Chance for D.C.?

Voting rights proponents need to temper their optimism after Barack Obama's victory.

PROPONENTS of D.C. voting rights are right to be encouraged -- even ecstatic -- about the results of this week's historic elections. Not only is President-elect Barack Obama an avowed ally but their efforts will be greatly aided by Democratic gains in Congress. But, as promising as prospects look, hurdles still exist, and D.C. officials need to tread carefully if they are to succeed in ending the unjust disenfranchisement of citizens living in the District.

Within hours of Mr. Obama's stunning win, officials were all but predicting victory in getting a vote for D.C. residents in the House of Representatives. A measure to add two seats to the House, one for the District and one for Utah, passed the House last year but stalled in the Senate when it fell three votes shy of the 60 needed to avert a filibuster. Mr. Obama was co-sponsor of the Senate bill, Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. supported it, and at least five Senate Republicans who voted against bringing the bill to the floor won't be returning for the next session. Del. Eleanor Homes Norton (D-D.C.) predicted that this change would produce more votes than are needed to get the bill to the floor. And, absent the hint of a presidential veto (which was the case with President Bush), it has a good chance of passing and being signed into law, although it would face an almost certain court challenge).

Still, as Ms. Norton well knows, nothing can ever be taken for granted when it comes to the District and its rights. We think here of President Bill Clinton's election in 1992. Democrats gained control of both the House and Senate, and there was talk of statehood for the District. A bill made it to the House floor on Nov. 21, 1993, but it fell far short of a majority. One hundred and five Democrats joined all but one of the House's Republicans to defeat the measure. That episode should be instructive to those who, flush with Tuesday's victories, are talking about the District not needing Utah to be part of a solution or who are aiming for full representation in both the House and Senate. In fact, such overreaching risks alienating allies in both parties.

The best approach is to secure what would be a significant and meaningful victory -- passage of the existing voting rights act that would for the first time give D.C. residents a vote in Congress. Then city leaders could carefully explore other ways to provide greater democracy for the residents of the nation's capital, including ways to secure a voice in the Senate. Foremost in these efforts must be winning legislative and budget autonomy for the D.C. government. It is intolerable that D.C. residents have no voice in Congress, but it is just as wrong that Congress has the final word on the city's business.