Early Primary is DC Saying "Bring it On"

Washington Post - Marc Fisher

 

Thursday, February 20, 2003; Page B01

 

Sometime in the next few months -- if Mayor Anthony Williams and the D.C. Council stand tall for the city's right to hold next year's first presidential primary -- we're going to be treated to the most spectacular confrontation in the history of the District's battle for basic rights.

 

The entire council and the mayor support the brilliant tactic dreamed up by voting-rights activists Tim Cooper and Sean Tenner: Hold our primary Jan. 13, ahead of New Hampshire and Iowa, and force the candidates, the media and the nation to face this city's disenfranchisement.

 

Of course, the Democratic and Republican parties are aghast at such gall, and Congress would surely stomp on any such attempt to flex our muscles.

 

Bring it on: For once, it'd be a blast to watch our overseers on the Hill overturn a District law.

 

Because, as council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) explained at a hearing yesterday, if Congress forbids us from holding our primary, we just go right ahead and hold it anyway. Let them arrest us as we vote. Let them bar our delegates at the conventions. Whatever they do, we win.

 

And it's not the parties' decision; only the council can set an election date.

 

"This is about our children having the same dreams as the rest of America," said council member Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5). "Our children can't dream of being a senator, can't dream of being in Congress."

 

Skeptics say candidates wouldn't bother campaigning here -- too few votes to matter. Nonsense: You can be certain that every Democrat would pay the D.C. primary extra attention in 2004, if only to prevent Al Sharpton from winning the year's first vote.

 

"I started on this issue in my twenties, and I used to joke and say, 'Voting rights within my lifetime,' " said council member Carol Schwartz (R-At Large). "Now I'm pushing 60, and I'm not so sure we'll get voting rights in my lifetime. But I know my children don't live in this city, and one reason is they don't have voting rights."

 

No American should have to move to win the most basic of rights. Set the date, then let the battle begin.