D.C. residents say they're closer to vote in Congress

WASHINGTON -- The delegates from the District of Columbia were revved.

"We demand a vote!" they chanted at last month's Democratic convention as Eleanor Holmes Norton, the district's non-voting delegate to Congress, looked on approvingly. It was a high point for the 70-member D.C. delegation, which spent four days lobbying for a vote in Congress with T-shirts, flashing buttons and bumper stickers sporting the slogan "Taxation Without Representation."

Speaking hours before prime time to a mostly empty convention floor, Norton's plea to "finish (Martin Luther) King's unfinished business for equal voting rights for the citizens of our capital" went largely unheard.

"We were glad for a few moments in the sun and on TV for those who saw us," says Eugene Kinslow of DC Vote, a voting rights advocacy group. The group has its work cut out for it.

"We suffer from what Ted Kennedy called the 'four toos,' " says WTOP radio commentator Mark Plotkin. "Too liberal, too urban, too Democratic and too black."

Still, in an election that features the first African-American nominee of a major party and polls that show the House and Senate likely to see larger Democratic majorities, "it's the closest we've gotten in at least a generation," says Ilir Zherka of DC Vote.

A clause in the U.S. Constitution denies Washingtonians a vote in the Capitol. The District Clause gives Congress "exclusive legislation" over the federal enclave. The almost 600,000 residents of the district have never had representation in the Senate. In the House of Representatives, Norton has a vote in committees but not on passage of legislation.

The city enjoys at least one advantage over states: It ranks No. 1 in federal spending, getting back $5.55 for every $1 residents paid in federal taxes, according to 2005 figures from the non-partisan Tax Foundation.

The 23rd Amendment to the Constitution in 1961 gave district residents, one in four of whom are government workers, a vote in presidential elections. They have used it to favor Democrats on every ballot since then.