On Wednesday, I joined Mayor Fenty, my colleagues on Council, and Congresswoman Norton at a press conference on Capitol Hill with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senator Joe Lieberman to show unified support for voting representation for DC in the US Congress.  Senator Lieberman, a longtime DC voting rights advocate, noted that we do not yet have the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster by the Republicans, but that passage is still possible because the Republican delegation from Utah is working hard on their colleagues to support the bill.  The proposed legislation provides Utah with another seat in the House until redistricting takes place in 2010 (where the state is projected to gain an additional seat in the House anyway because of population growth).

We've come to a critical juncture in this fight. We won the recent battle with the House, but it's time to focus on the Senate. I am asking all DC’s residents to personally lobby our friends and neighbors -- who either work for or have ties to Republican and the few undecided Democratic Senators -- to support this bill.  Despite years of education and outreach, many of them are still uninformed about our status, in particular that DC citizens pay taxes to the Federal government while other territories like Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands do not!

Please join me in taking action today. 

Tommy Wells 

(Photo credit: Lateef Magnum)