A set back today as the DC Voting Rights Act only got 57 vote - 3 short of the 60 it needed in the cloture vote.

Here’s the Post Article.
D.C. Vote Bill Dies in Senate

I’m very upset that Democrat Max Baucus voted against it. I’m happy we got 8 Republicans to vote with us (Hatch, Bennett, Voinovich, Coleman, Snowe, Collins, Lugar, and Specter).

But you know who I’m going to work like hell to remove from the Senate? Mitch McConnell. He put the strong arm on a number of Senators who were going to vote with us, but changed their minds before the vote. We thought we had Smith. We thought we had Cochran. I hope everyone in this city will work with me to make sure we Ditch Mitch! I’ll have more information on this later. (link updated)

I have to thank DC Vote for all the work they’ve done. In my advocacy work on a number of issues, I’ve learned there talkers and there are do’ers. The group at DC Vote is a bunch of doers…and we’ll all be back an get it done.

After a long summer and waiting out the Senate’s ‘vacation without representation’ the DC Voting Rights Act (S. 1257) is due for a cloture vote Tuesday at 2:30 PM. This is a make-or-break moment for this bill, we’ll need 60 votes to be sure to beat any filibuster attempts.

What can you do to help? Glad you asked!

1. Attend the DC Vote rally on Capitol Hill on Monday, September 17th. It’s from 11:00 to 12:30 at the Dirksen Senate Office Building at Constitution Avenue, NE and 1st Street, NE. You can RSVP with our friends at DC for Democracy by clicking here. I’ll be there and I hope you can be too.

2. National Call in Day for DC Voting Rights: Also on Monday, September 17th there is a national call in day to the Senate to urge the passage of the DC Voting Rights Act. The number is 1.866.346.3008 between the hours of 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM EDT. Targeted Senators include:

• Arlen Specter (R-PA)
• Richard Lugar (R-IN)
• Gordon Smith (R-OR)
• Sam Brownback (R-KS)
• John McCain (R-AZ)
• Thad Cochran (R-MS)

If you need some talking points, Marc Fisher had a great list of reasons for Senators to vote for this bill in his column earlier this week:

Giving D.C. Residents the Vote: It’s the Right Thing to Do

Tuesday will be an historic day for DC Voting rights - please do what you can make sure it’s also a day of celebration.