What D.C. should expect from Obama administration?
By Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer 11/10/08
“President-elect Obama will push the rights of D.C. residents and abolish our lack of franchise, not because of any campaign promise, but because it’s the right thing to do,” said District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty, who endorsed Obama during the election. AP file Shortly after his election in November 1992, then-President-elect Bill Clinton took a stroll along Georgia Avenue Northwest, spending an hour with merchants and inspiring hope that the blighted corridor would garner federal assistance.
That hope quickly faded.
Now, another Democratic president is heading for Washington, this one an African-American who inspires tremendous optimism among District residents. But experts say the jury is out on whether he will break the pattern of presidents largely ignoring the city.
“Clinton started off with a bang with the march along Georgia Avenue,” said Mary Levy, an education expert with the Washington Lawyer’s Committee. “And then people didn’t hear from him much after that. Democrats tend to start off with attention to D.C., but it fades very quickly. Part of that is, political reality sets in.”
The political reality is particularly gloomy right now, Levy said. “[President-elect Barack Obama] and his administration are going to be so distracted by the economy, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, health care. What’s going to be left over for the District, which he can always count on anyway?”
When Obama won the White House and Democrats reinforced their majorities on Capitol Hill, D.C. leaders swiftly focused on landing a vote in the House of Representatives. But District leaders have a much longer wish list for the new administration and Congress.
There is a general anticipation that the nation’s capital, often forgotten by federal leaders, will see renewed attention from the White House and the folks on Capitol Hill. Mayor Adrian Fenty is, after all, one of Obama’s earliest supporters and the city delivered the Illinois senator a 90-point victory on election day.
“The hope really is that it means full voting rights faster, and that the issues of big urban cities in this country will be a higher priority for the federal government,” Fenty said. “President-elect Obama will push the rights of D.C. residents and abolish our lack of franchise, not because of any campaign promise, but because it’s the right thing to do.”
There is hope for a rekindled federal focus on the failing D.C. Public Schools. During his final debate with John McCain, Obama offered passing praise for the “wonderful new” Chancellor Michelle Rhee, “who’s working very hard with the young mayor there” to turn public education around.
Then there is the matter of autonomy for the District’s budget and its legislation, which must endure 30-day or longer holds in Congress before taking effect. There is the call to address the so-called “structural imbalance,” the $1 billion discrepancy between what the District says it must spend to maintain the federal presence and what the federal government allows it to collect through taxes.
Fenty, who has already filed papers for a 2010 re-election bid, has said he is committed to the District and would not accept a position in the Obama administration. It is unclear what the president-elect’s intentions are for D.C.
“I’ve talked to him about those issues and a great deal more about our self-government,” Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat, said of Obama. “With such a large majority in the House and the Senate, it’s time for them to bring democracy to the nation’s capital.”
The clarion call for autonomy doesn’t ring with everybody.
D.C. leaders should focus on what they can get from the federal government, not freeing themselves from it, said Alice Rivlin, former head of the D.C. control board and a Brookings Institution scholar. Congress “has actually backed off,” she said, in the last few years.
“I think Congress needs to recognize its responsibilities to the District as the nation’s capital and play some of the role that a state would play if we had a state,” Rivlin said. “I would worry less about federal interference and more about getting Congress and the administration to acknowledge this is the nation’s hometown and we want to make it as good as it can possibly be.”
Along with the substance, there are symbolic things Obama could do to show he is more sympathetic than some previous administrations to the city’s concerns. He could attach “No Taxation Without Representation” license plates to his motorcade, for example, or enroll his two daughters in a D.C. public school, local leaders said.
For now, optimism reigns.
“I believe that we can have less interference with our own local budget and local decision-making,” said Ward 3 D.C. Councilwoman Mary Cheh. “We can impress upon the administration and Congress that we have been extraordinarily responsible.”
Many locals temper enthusiasm for a new political day in Washington with an understanding that the city is seen by many in Congress as a troubled ward to be kept on a tight leash.
And the tension between the city and those on Capitol Hill who control much of its destiny is unlikely to dissipate soon, as seen by a recent quote from a U.S. senator.
“You have to understand that this was not a jury of his peers,” Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, told the Anchorage Daily News after Sen. Ted Stevens was convicted last month in U.S. District Court on corruption charges. “It was in Washington, D.C., which most people in Washington, D.C., don’t look very favorably on the Congress because we run them.”
1 Comments
Reader Comments:
POSTED Nov 10, 2008
: "Eleanor, please take the lead on this one! The mayor and Rhee will ruin any chances of positive results. Remember, the mayor didn't even show up for the roll call at the Democratic National Convention and Rhee made false claims out there regarding her progressive initiatives."