"Taxation Without Representation." It must be be unnerving to be a member of Congress today in our nation's capital and see those Washington, DC license plates.
Or is it?
In the years I spent in the District of Columbia, which used to be in the state of Maryland until the district was cleaved away from its parent in the last decade of the 18th century, I met some representatives, like Bob Barr from Georgia, who were passionately against allowing liberal Washingtonians from having two senators and a voting representative to represent their 500,000 citizens.
I also met those who passionately sought that representation, mostly local Democrats and members of the DC Statehood-Green Party.
But the truth is very few people cared one way or the other.
However, I feel that there is a certain untapped political sentiment there. The residents of the District of Columbia undoubtedly desire such representation, and they are undoubtedly staunch Democrats.
DC is also the center of employment of many commuters who live in the more affluent suburbs of Montgomery County, Maryland and Arlington and Fairfax Counties in Virginia.
There will most likely be many issues that top the Maryland and Virginia senate races in 2006. Perhaps they will be the war, or abortion, or capital punishment.
But could openly advocating for DC representation from a position of power, such as the Senator of a neighboring state - be it Maryland or DC - prove to be a winning issue?
I obviously think so. But moreover, I feel it is a common sense, non-partisan issue that works to the benefit of the Democrats.
Republicans do not want DC to get two votes in the senate and more votes in the house. They know that DC regularly goes overwhelmingly for Democrats.
And they will not support DC represenation or statehood because of that. Their view is that DC is a special little fiefdom that representatives from out of DC get to exploit.
Their view however, should be unpopular, and the Democrats can take a populist, pro-DC message to win the election. The neighboring counties in northern Virginia are among the fastest growing in the state. Approximately 1.8 million of Maryland's 5.6 million residents live in the counties that border DC.
These kind of facts lead me to believe that this could be the issue that could put whoever succedes Sarbanes in Maryland and challenges Allen in Virginia over the top in November 2006.
What do you think? Is it a viable issue?