If DC had full representation would anything change?

[takoma]

To me, the most obvious solution is to make DC a congressional district, electing one representative, and let it vote in MD senatorial elections. Or maybe for one MD senator and one from VA.

The problem, of course, is that this would take a Constitutional amendment, whereas statehood merely takes an act of Congress. The GOP would probably oppose it because of whatever excuse they could come up with to avoid having more Dem voters. And MD and VA might resent giving DC influence over their senators.

Does anyone out there think the idea makes any sense?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing would really change, but that doesn't mean DC shouldn't get representation. Every American should have representation in Congress. And no, every other city with 600,000 shouldn't be a state, they are already part of another state.

BTW, I'm a republican and live in Virginia, but I firmly believe that the citizens who live in DC should have a say in their own democracy, and should either become a state on their own or be re-incorporated into Maryland. I prefer their own state, but the other is a legitimate option just like Arlington went back to Virignia.

+1. Except for the part about being a republican in Virginia, I'm a progressive in Maryland.

[TheManWithAUsername]

takoma wrote:To me, the most obvious solution is to make DC a congressional district, electing one representative, and let it vote in MD senatorial elections. Or maybe for one MD senator and one from VA.

The problem, of course, is that this would take a Constitutional amendment, whereas statehood merely takes an act of Congress. The GOP would probably oppose it because of whatever excuse they could come up with to avoid having more Dem voters. And MD and VA might resent giving DC influence over their senators.

Does anyone out there think the idea makes any sense?

The basic problem is that the senate makes no sense, so there's no good way to gauge how many senators a new state should get. In that context, I don't see anything but two as very defensible.

[takoma]

TheManWithAUsername wrote:

takoma wrote:To me, the most obvious solution is to make DC a congressional district, electing one representative, and let it vote in MD senatorial elections. Or maybe for one MD senator and one from VA.

The problem, of course, is that this would take a Constitutional amendment, whereas statehood merely takes an act of Congress. The GOP would probably oppose it because of whatever excuse they could come up with to avoid having more Dem voters. And MD and VA might resent giving DC influence over their senators.

Does anyone out there think the idea makes any sense?

The basic problem is that the senate makes no sense, so there's no good way to gauge how many senators a new state should get. In that context, I don't see anything but two as very defensible.

I agree, to the extent that everyone else votes for two, so it seems to me to make sense that we should also. I figure that since this idea does not make us a state, creating new senators does not make sense, but letting two neighboring senators add us to their constituency strikes me as a reasonable way to give us representation without shaking up the Senate.

So the total change is (a) our delegate becomes a real member of Congress, and (b) two of the existing senators get DC added to their electorate.