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GOP senators urged to support D.C. voting member in House |
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By Kelly McCormack
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Posted: 06/29/07 07:33 PM [ET] |
Members of the District of Columbia Republican Committee have met with or are scheduled to meet with staff to several key GOP senators with the goal of gaining support for a bill that would give D.C. a voting member in the House.
This week, three D.C. Republican Committee (DCRC) members have targeted Sens. Kit Bond (Mo.), Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Arlen Specter (Pa.) and Olympia Snowe (Maine), according to the D.C. Republican Committee’s executive director, Paul Craney. Committee members intend to meet with several other senators or their staffs after the July 4th recess.
Craney indicated that the DCRC is homing in on several other GOP senators, including: Sens. Chuck Hagel (Neb.), Mike Enzi (Wyo.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), John Ensign (Nev.), Sam Brownback (Kan.) and Gordon Smith (Ore.).
The D.C. Republican Committee called the matter a “fairness issue,” saying D.C. residents are taxpaying American citizens and should have a vote in the House. They also “see it as a great opportunity for the Republican Party to reach out to urban voters,” Craney wrote in an e-mail to The Hill. The DCRC has supported the measure from the start.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passed the measure 9-1 two weeks ago. Three GOP committee members — ranking member Susan Collins (Maine) and Sens. George Voinovich (Ohio) and Norm Coleman (Minn.) — voted for the bill. Utah Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett are cosponsors of the legislation.
The bill would increase the size of the House to 437 from 435 members by giving D.C. a voting member and requiring Utah to redistrict in 2008. Utah fell short of gaining a seat in the 2000 census. The House passed a similar measure in April, 241-177.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has indicated that he likely will bring the bill to the floor in July and when at least 60 members support it — enough support to be filibuster-proof.
The chairman of the D.C. Republican Committee, Robert Kabel, and Republican committee members Betsy Werronen and Anthony Parker yesterday penned a letter to all Republican senators urging them to support the measure.
“We are writing to urge you and your colleagues to give voting rights for U.S. citizens of the District of Columbia. The D.C. Republican Committee supports S. 1257, the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007,” they wrote. “We do so in the tradition in which the Republican Party was created.” In 1861, Republican President Abraham Lincoln issued a legislative message to Congress calling for the emancipation of slaves in D.C. Congress used the District Clause, the section D.C. voting rights supporters are utilizing, to free the slaves, the letter reads.
“We strongly believe that the District clause of the Constitution, under which the first Republican president and Congress emancipated slaves in D.C., empowers the Congress to give D.C. voting representation in the Congress,” Kabel, Werronen and Parker wrote.
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