Chaffetz Moves Up, Childers Moves Out

It's a new day for D.C. voting rights. Oh wait, no it's not.

After Tuesday's national shellacking, Democrats lost both control of the U.S. House of Representatives and, presumably, the ability to at least nominally support the District's attempt at gaining voting rights and self-determination. While legislation granting the District a full voting seat in the House never moved forward under Democratic control, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton again gained a vote on the floor, controversial prohibitions on various D.C. programs were lifted, the city's same-sex marriage law was protected from congressional interference and there was even talk of doing away with the pesky requirement that all D.C. laws and budgets go to Congress for final approval.

But now, it looks like we'll have Rep. Jason Chaffetz to contend with. The Utah Republican, who recently tried to bone up on his local cred by eating at every Five Guys and Matchbox in the city, is no fan of marriage equality or medical marijuana and has said he's going into meeting Mayor-elect Vince Gray with a clean slate -- provided Gray says nothing of local autonomy. That for the next two years we have to deal with a Tea Party fan who firmly believes in treading on us is a cruel irony for sure. (Then again, the Post is reporting some fascinating news -- Chaffetz may well be assigned to another subcommittee, relieving him and us from his District overlord duties.)

In what is otherwise a bleak week for D.C. voting rights, there may be some good news yet to be found -- Rep. Travis Childers (D-MS) lost his bid for re-election! Childers, a Blue Dog Democrat, repeatedly spearheaded efforts to gut the District's gun laws, attaching amendments to the legislation that would have given Norton a real vote. The amendment, called a "poison pill" by many, caused local officials and many Democrats to abandon the legislation all together. Local voting rights activists even went after Childers in his D.C. office and his north Mississippi district, hoping to send a message that he should stop screwing with the city's laws.

So, good news, right? Maybe, maybe not. Childers' Republican replacement Alan Nunnelee isn't an improvement, to say the least. "If they dislike Travis Childers," said a Nunnelee spokesperson, "they will really dislike Alan Nunnelee."

Oh boy. If anything, Childers' loss is something of a scoreless draw for the District. At best, we are now free of of a politician who really wanted to strip the D.C. Council of all authority to legislate on guns. At worst, that politician is being replaced by someone who is likely to be sympathetic to that same cause. The best we can hope for is that Nunnelee won't take much interest in D.C. affairs. Even if he does, he'll eventually have to go through Chaffetz -- and we know what he thinks.

It might be a long two years.

###

http://dcist.com/2010/11/chaffetz_moves_up_childers_moves_ou .php

      Print Friendly