The Washington D.C. "non-binding" primary has come and gone and Dean has won with 42% of the primary vote. Of course, Al Sharpton got 35%, which says something about the bizarre politics of the District.
Only four Democrats were on the ballot – Dean, Sharpton, Carol Mosley-Braun and Dennis Kucinich. The other Democrats and the Republicans declined to be a part of the primary in deference to the New Hampshire primary and Iowa caucus. The reason for this early primary is to highlight the cause of making Washington D.C. the 51st state with full voting rights in Congress. (Or basically handing the Democrats two safe Senate seats and one safe House seat.) Then again, turnout was an abysmal 15%, which is illustrative of how far that issue is going.
Dean better hope his luck continues – the Democratic race is no longer a fait accompli for Dean, and he’s going to need all the intertia he can if he wants to be the Democratic nominee in 2004.
UPDATE: Of course, I forgot to mention the other candidate in the race Vermin Supreme. Unfortunately, his platform of world peace through proper dental care didn’t seem to carry him far. However, if you’re going to vote for crazy, you might as well vote for really crazy…
Okay, ignoring the fact that DC residents are essentially unrepresented in the bodies that decide, among other things, the extent of their taxation and civil liberties….
Gotta point out that more than 4 Democrats were running in DC, though only 4 that actually matter were. I figured you’d love to mention at least one other candidate–the ever-enjoyable Vermin Supreme. It’s rare that a name so enjoyable comes along, and even rarer that someone will try to run for office with a name like that (Cobb County GA District Attorney Pat Head aside, you just don’t see it that often…even DA Head has problems. Every time his signs go up school kids spraypaint “Rub Tummy” under his name).
So, uhhh, what you’re saying is that 15% turnnout for a primary election shows DC’s lack of enthusiasm for its right to democracy? By that logic, should we deny voting rights to all those states and localities with less than 15% turnnout in meaningless primaries as well? How many states have significantly higher turnnout, especially all the ones that hold their primaries late and can’t impact the outcome? I’d be surprised if any of the states that hold primaries after Feb. 7 have higher than 20-25% turnnout.
Besides, if sizable amounts of DC residents want to vote for Al Sharpton or Marion Barry despite their obvious faults, that should be their right. Al Sharpton was the only candidate who even campaigned in DC more than once or twice and said “elect me and I will push for your voting rights”. Why not vote for him?
After all, New Hampshire voters elected a state Rep a few years ago who advocated killing police officers on his website… and not only do we give those voters in that state full Congressional representation, we allow them to ALWAYS have the first primary!
We could go through any state’s congressional delegation or state lesgislature and find plenty of examples of unenlightened voting. DC residents should be blessed (punished?) with same rights as other Americans.