This Tuesday, D.C. voters had the chance to participate in the District’s inaugural “Presidential Preference Primary.” By placing the District’s primary before the contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, District officials hoped to attract national attention to its lack of congressional voting rights. The turn-out was pithy, with only 15% of the District’s registered Democrats voting. Howard Dean won 43% of the vote, followed by Al Sharpton with 34%.
Noticeably absent from the ballot were Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), who withdrew from the primary at the behest of the Democratic National Committee. Party rules allow only Iowa and New Hampshire to begin their primary process before Feb. 4.
Operating against thier best interests, the Committee asked the candidates to pull out of the primary. Choosing a candidate was only a surface issue of the primary, the real aim of holding the early primary was to foster national discourse concerning D.C’s congressional disenfranchisement through candidate debate. Because of the protests of the Committee, this primary became non-binding and does not affect the delegates the District will select at the binding primary in May to send to the Democratic National Convention this fall.
Historically disenfranchised D.C. voters grew slightly less so with the ratification of the 23rd Amendment in 1961, which finally gave residents of the District a vote in presidential elections. If D.C. was to receive representation in Congress, these seats would without a doubt be held by Democrats, as the District’s electoral votes have gone to Democratic Presidential candidates since they were granted in 1961.
By opting out of this primary, the candidates missed an important chance to raise awareness and show support for the almost 500,000 disenfranchised voters in the District.
In one of his last weeks in office, Bill Clinton put the “No Taxation Without Representation” license plates on the White House limousines. Upon entering office, Bush promptly removed them, making his stance of the issue clear. Democrats (Dean and co. excluded) should have used this opportunity to stand together instead of bowing to the nonsensical wishes of the DNC.
