Reply to s/o Give DC back to Maryland?

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[quote=Anonymous]There are three ways I know of to give the citizens of DC representation.

Statehood does so, giving us two senators and a representative, and also gives us more power to govern ourselves, such as removing Congress's power over our budget and letting us institute a commuter tax.

Retrocession does so, allowing us to vote for MD's two senators and, presumably, a new representative, but it puts us under the MD governor and legislature.  However, we might benefit by receiving a share of MD taxes (or we might give more than we receive).  It would presumably erase our three Electoral College votes and replace them by one extra vote for MD.

Maryland voting rights would give the same national voting rights as retrocession, but leave our local government unchanged.  For the first few years of the US, DC citizens retained the vote in the state that ceded their area, VA for Alexandria (before retrocession) and MD for Washington, so there is precedent for the arrangement.  But while it has the salutary effect of giving us congressional representation, it would likely yield the same reduction of our presidential vote as retrocession.

From the political point of view, Republicans oppose statehood because it likely adds two Democrats to the Senate (plus one to the House, but that's much less significant).  The other two leave the Senate alone and compensates for one extra Dem in the House by removing two Democratic electoral votes, which makes them more acceptable to Republicans than Democrats.[/quote]

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