No satisfaction in New Hampshire on D.C. statehood

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D.C. Council member Michael A. Brown, Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown, D.C. Shadow Senator Michael D. Brown and Council member Vincent B. Orange look at portraits of New Hampshire revolutionaries that hang in the main hall of the New Hampshire State House, Concord, N.H., Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

Story Topics

• Politics
• D.C. Vote
• Congress
• David A. Catania
• Michael A. Brown

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CONCORD, N.H. — Nobody said this would be easy.

For three hours on Friday, a D.C. delegation of Mayor Vincent C. Gray, council members, veterans and city residents tried to explain to a panel of New Hampshire legislators why they should obtain rights inherent from birth but not explicitly stated in the Constitution, that the District raises its own money and that Maryland will probably not ask for its land back if the nation’s capital is recognized as the 51st state.

The Committee on State-Federal Relations and Veteran Affairs sorted through fact and myths about the District and ultimately sympathized with the D.C. advocates’ plight for representation in Congress. But a Republican caucus of members had key reservations and guided an 8-3 vote to ditch a resolution that would recognize the District’s right to statehood. Despite the unfavorable outcome for the District in a largely conservative committee, the bill will still go to the floor of the New Hampshire House of Representatives for a vote.

“They exercised their prerogative, and hopefully one day the District will get that power for ourselves,” a spokesman for council member David A. Catania, at-large independent, said. Mr. Catania spearheaded the trip to the Granite State, which cost the city about $4,000, alongside council member Michael A. Brown, at-large independent. The trip is the first stop in what has been billed as a state-by-state tour in support of D.C. statehood that is expected to head to Florida and Tennessee in the near future.

If the result sounds familiar, it’s because D.C. advocates have seen this script play out time and time again. For years, voting rights proponents have bemoaned the indifference of Congress to their taxation without representation, their lack of budget autonomy and their unique duty to send local laws to Capitol Hill for a 30-day review.

Yet the debate on Friday, once again, dissolved into an academic discussion of what the Constitution dictates, a reflection of tea party principles that present a paradox vis-a-vis D.C. democracy — they see taxation without representation as abhorrent, yet the idea of fiddling with the Founding Fathers’ most sacrosanct document is even more daunting.

Restrictive gun laws in the District do not help the city’s cause among conservatives, who feel city lawmakers have not done enough to respond to the landmark 2008 Supreme Court case that found the city’s handgun ban unconstitutional.

More of the same

The D.C. delegation’s state-to-state tour was supposed to rally support and erode steadfast opposition in Congress. Yet in New Hampshire, they found more of the same.

The committee’s no-nonsense chairman, Rep. Alfred Baldasaro, expressed reservations from the start about the constitutionality of D.C. statehood and the city’s crime rate. A Republican and a retired Marine, he said many of the committee’s inquiries into gun laws were passed along from his constituents, who also wanted to know why the New Hampshire legislature was considering the measure in the first place.

Yet Mr. Gray and five council members, including Chairman Kwame R. Brown, were greeted warmly by each of the committee’s 11 members. The panel sat patiently while more than a dozen witnesses spoke on behalf of the District, they asked well-researched questions and they complimented private citizens for traveling almost 500 miles to testify in support of their beliefs.

In front of the dais, the D.C. delegation offered an emphatic and well-designed defense of their right to two senators and a representative on Capitol Hill, the right to approve the city’s budget and to pass their own laws without congressional interference.

“The day will come when the District of Columbia will be the 51st state,” Mr. Brown said, challenging the committee “to have the courage” to be on the ground floor of the historical process.

As a state, “there’s no question we would be able to support ourselves,” Mr. Gray told the committee.

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