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.

Now that 2006 is over, it’s time to start thinking about the 2008 presidential election and who would be the best President to advance District of Columbia voting rights and home rule. I’m not sure what the answer is, but I’ll tell who it is not - Sam Brownback. That is why I did not like reading this article today in the Post

Kansas Republican Eyes Presidential Bid
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/20/AR2006112000876.html

He has been the Chair of the Subcommittee on the District of Columbia in the Senate, and according to Congresspedia:

In December 2005, Brownback advocated using Washington, DC as a “laboratory” for a flat tax. His advocated position on this issue was “that making D.C. a test case would, with limited potential for negative impact, provide valuable data about the effects of a flat tax that would prove helpful in determining whether it should be applied nationwide.” This has irked many residents of the District, as the idea of a Senator from Kansas forcing a system of taxation on them would seem to only further the District’s taxation without representation. Mayor Williams chimed in at the time saying, “We continue to resist any efforts on the part of any member of Congress to impose rules and regulations on the people of the District.”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a President who sees the District as his personal public policy Petri dish.