D.C. voting dies in Senate 57-42

Senate lawmakers yesterday refused to advance a bill granting the District congressional voting rights, crippling the city’s chances of gaining a long-sought vote in the House of Representatives.

“Today, the residents of the District of Columbia did not get what we deserve,” D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said. Mr. Fenty, a Democrat, pledged to continue working toward congressional representation for city residents.

Senators voted 57-42 in favor of a procedural measure that required 60 votes to move the bill forward.

Forty-seven Democrats voted in favor of the measure, along with eight Republicans and two independents. But supporters said they lost three possible Republican votes from Sens. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Gordon H. Smith of Oregon and John McCain of Arizona, as well as a Democratic vote from Sen. Max Baucus of Montana.

Mr. Baucus was the only Democrat to oppose the measure. D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, who co-sponsored the version of the bill that passed the House in April, said Mr. Baucus likely would have voted in favor of the measure if his vote would have been a deciding factor.

“This was a virtual party-line vote,” said Mrs. Norton, a Democrat. “The kind of pressure that was brought on them not to vote with us was most extraordinary.”

The District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act was crafted as a political compromise and would grant the predominantly Democratic District a seat in the House, while also adding an additional House seat for Utah, which is largely Republican.

The bill was championed by Democrats in the House and Senate as a long-overdue effort to enfranchise the District’s roughly 600,000 residents.

But Republicans — including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and the Bush administration — have argued the bill is unconstitutional because the Constitution says that Congress members must be elected “by the people of the several states.”

“I opposed this bill because it is clearly and unambiguously unconstitutional,” Mr. McConnell said in a statement after yesterday’s vote. “If the residents of the District are to get a member for themselves, there remains a remedy: amend the Constitution.”

Some lawmakers also expressed concern that the bill could lead to the District having representation in the Senate. The White House threatened to veto the measure if it made it to President Bush’s desk.

Both Mr. Fenty and Mrs. Norton appeared on the Senate floor during the vote in hopes of winning support.

Mr. Fenty shook hands with various senators and received a hug from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, while Mrs. Norton got a kiss on the cheek from Sen. Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat.

The vote’s outcome ended a surge in momentum that saw the Senate consider D.C. voting rights for the first time in 30 years, and supporters of the bill said they were extremely disappointed.

“Once you see the light at the end of the tunnel, you want to make it all the way through,” said D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, a Democrat who attended the vote along with a majority of council members. “And we obviously didn’t.”

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