When in the closing days of 2006 we looked back on the year in D.C. voting rights, we optimistically hoped that 2007 would finally be the year that saw some movement on enfranchising the District's residents. Movement, yes; resolution, not so much. So as we wind down 2007, we're again left hoping that maybe the coming year will be the one. The primary mover in the D.C. voting rights movement in 2007 was legislation......

We here at the DCist constantly extol the virtues of living in a city with abundant resources of all kind. Do you need to see an awesome show at a small venue? Check. Do you need to look at physical copies of the country's most important documents? Check. Do you have a need to see Matthew Lesko now and again? Got it. Other than that whole "vote in Congress" thing, D.C. probably has what you......

And so it was -- the U.S. Senate voted today 57-42 in favor of closing debate on legislation that would grant the District a voting seat in the House of Representatives, three short of what was needed to prevent a Republican-led filibuster. The measure, which passed the House in April, is now likely dead, and another attempt to correct a 200-year injustice has been thwarted. Of course, the legislation could be re-introduced, but it won't......

2:11 p.m. OK, we should be about ready to get going here. We've been told there will only be about 15 minutes of debate on this before a vote takes place to prevent a filibuster -- as you all know by now, we need 60 for the bill to move forward. I'll be posting updates as things get going, and Martin may pop in with his two cents if he can, so stay with us......

We were bummed when the U.S. Senate decided in late July that legislation granting the District a voting seat in the U.S. House of Representatives would have to go on summer break with the rest of Congress. But now that they're all back, so is the push for D.C. voting rights. According to Congressional Quarterly, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is hoping to bring the legislation -- which would grant Republican-heavy Utah an additional......

When this photo popped in the DCist Flickr Group, I assumed that epmd had gone on a trip out west somewhere — Texas, Utah, something like that. But no, this is our very own Anacostia River! As furcafe notes in the comments, it looks like one of those natural history museum dioramas. We almost expect to see pronghorns having a drink. And adding to the wackiness, the shot was taken by a camera from......

As Sommer mentioned earlier this week, I was fortunate enough to have been invited to speak on a panel on D.C. voting rights at the YearlyKos Convention, a huge gathering of progressive activists and bloggers in Chicago. This morning I will be sitting alongside D.C. Shadow Rep. Mike Panetta, Danny Rose from DC Vote and Kesh Luddewhetty of DC for Democracy, all of whom will detail the current fight for voting rights, where it stands......

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters yesterday that he would definitely not bring the D.C. Voting Rights Act to the floor before September. This is pretty much what we've been expecting for the last week or so, but it's now officially confirmed. It's a little bit disappointing to have to continue to wait, but considering Reid also described the bill's status as being "close" to having 60 votes, which would be enough votes......

Even though voting rights activists have pushed as hard as they can, it looks like legislation granting the District a voting seat in the House of Representatives may not come to the floor of the U.S. Senate before its month-long August recess kicks off at the end of next week. According to a press release from D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, discussions with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have yielded no concrete scheduled time......

As you, faithful DCist reader, should know, today is the day that you can take action for District voting rights. And if you haven't already, why not take your lunch break to call the toll-free number the folks at D.C. Vote have set-up (1-866-346-3008) and lobby a senator? If you're a District resident, you'll get patched through to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). If not, you'll get your home senator. On top of the handy......

As the full Senate readies to debate and vote on legislation that would grant the District a voting seat in the House of Representatives, voting rights activists are focusing on two key senators -- Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). According to people close to the lobbying effort, the legislation has garnered enough votes for a simple majority, but is still short of the votes needed to prevent a filibuster. And while......

Editorial published today in the New York Times, and posted here without comment: Democratizing the Nation's Capital Just in time for next month’s rockets’ red glare, a measure to give the residents of Washington D.C. their long-denied right to a full vote in the House of Representatives is making headway in the Senate. The legislation, already passed by the House, is gaining unexpected support from Senate Republicans finally struck by the injustice of the meeting......

After a pair of hearings before two Senate committees, a proposal to grant the District a vote in the House of Representatives will be marked up tomorrow. The mark-up, which will occur at 10 a.m. before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, is the final step before the legislation -- which would grant both Utah and the District additional seats in the House -- reaches the floor of the Senate. Thanks to the......

It looks like Senate Republicans really don't want today's scheduled Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to happen as planned. DCVote spokesperson Kevin Kiger tells us that Republicans have tried to invoke the 2-hour Rule, which would cut off committee action two hours after the Senate started work for the day. We've got our browsers set to the live webcast of the hearing, set to begin at 1:30 p.m., at which point we'll know whether Sen. Russ......

After passing the House and getting a hearing in the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee last week, The D.C. Voting Rights Act moves to the Senate Judiciary Committee tomorrow. The committee has scheduled a full hearing on Wednesday called “Ending Taxation Without Representation: The Constitutionality of S.1257,” which will address, natch, the constitutionality of the bill. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, is a supporter of......

Via Free Ride, which is running a photo we're totally envious of depicting Mayor Adrian Fenty with a mile-wide grin and D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton with what can only be described as a growl-like expression at Tuesday's Senate hearing on the D.C. Voting Rights Act, it's worth clarifying a change to the Senate version of bill for the sake of the ongoing conversation we've been having about its constitutionality. According to this morning's Roll......

If you work on the Hill you might still have time to run over to the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Rm. 342 for the hearing Equal Representation in Congress: Providing Voting Rights to the District of Columbia before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The hearing, scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., will include testimony split into two panels, the first with Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), Mayor......

After a rocky road through the U.S. House of Representatives, legislation granting the District a voting seat in the lower chamber will get its first hearing before a Senate committee tomorrow -- and pretty much everyone and their mother is set to testify. In a hearing scheduled to start at 10 a.m. before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, eight witnesses will discuss the legislation that was passed in the House on......

The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has scheduled a hearing to consider legislation that would grant the District a voting seat in the House of Representatives. The hearing, which will be presided over by bill sponsor Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), will take place on Tuesday, May 15 in 342 Dirksen. The hearing -- which we'll try to live-blog, obvs -- should be interesting. Among the Republicans on the committee are a......

As promised, Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) introduced legislation to create a Congressional seat for D.C., as well as a new seat for Utah, this afternoon. Of course, this doesn't mean the bill was debated or even mentioned on the Senate floor. While we sat eagerly by the television, fingers twitching to live blog the whole thing, it seems DCist should have been brushing up on our School House Rock. The senators......

After legislation granting the District a voting seat in the House of Representatives passed two weeks ago, the question that remained was how the Senate would look upon the proposal. Well, today we'll find out. Today at 2:30 p.m. Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Ut.) will introduce legislation that follows up on the House's recent action. And while Lieberman's leadership was all but assured during the April 16 March for Voting Rights,......

Of course we'd be remiss if we didn't spend a little quality time with that polling data on voting rights the Washington Post was kind enough to dig up for all of us, along with the story Mary Beth Sheridan and Jon Cohen put together to go along with it. You've probably read it by now, but just in case you didn't: A sizable majority of Americans think the District should have a full voting......

Last time we live blogged the House debate on District voting rights, things didn't go too well. We're hoping for a bit of an improvement today. From what we've heard on the Hill, debate kicks off at 10:30 a.m., and the legislation has been split up into two separate parts -- one covering the actual voting seats both D.C. and Utah would receive and the other dealing with the minor increase in annual spending the......

Hoyer and Pelosi Need Your Input: Mike Panetta, D.C. Shadow Representative, informed us that voting rights activists are pushing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) to bring the voting rights legislation that was derailed last week back to the floor of the House this week. They're afraid that if it gets pushed off until next week, it may well get lost in the usual congressional shuffle. Panetta has......

The Washington Wizards found out last Friday that they'd be without Caron Butler for the next 10 or so days, not exactly the type of thing you want to hear with the Miami Heat breathing down their necks for the division lead. As we're sure you all remember, the team was 0-3 without Butler earlier in the season. Lucky for the Wizards then that the struggling New Orleans / Oklahoma City Hornets (aka the......

But of course! Something else has come between the District and its voting rights. Today the Post is reporting that President George W. Bush and various senators have expressed concerns over the constitutionality of legislation that would grant the District a voting seat in the House of Representatives. According to the White House the legislation, which passed two House committees this week and may face a vote before the House as early as next week,......

The House Judiciary Committee today endorsed legislation granting the District a voting seat in the House of Representatives, setting the measure on track for a full vote by the end of the month. Though legal scholars debated the constitutionality of the measure in a hearing before the committee yesterday and a number of amendments were considered today, the legislation easily gained the approval of the Democratic-led committee, 21-13. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Rep. Chris......

It was just two weeks ago that hundreds of District residents gathered to lobby Congress into passing legislation that would grant the District a voting seat in the House. There seemed to be some momentum; all that was missing was for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to schedule a vote. But as is often the case with the District's uphill quest for enfranchisement, the legislation has his a snag. Roll Call, via FreeRide, is......

This coming Thursday voting rights activists will fan out in the halls of Congress, hoping to convince staffers and members alike that legislation to grant the District a voting seat in the House of Representatives should be passed, and passed quickly. But they may face a challenge beyond what mere lobbying can resolve -- the U.S. Constitution. In an op-ed published in the Post's Outlook section yesterday, Jeffrey L. Farrow, former co-chair of the President's......

Gilbert Arenas left the court at the Verizon Center yesterday as fans serenaded him with chants of "MVP! MVP!" after hitting yet another game winner at the buzzer. The Utah Jazz were Agent Zero's latest victim, falling 114-111 in an incredible Martin Luther King Day matinée. Arenas, who tied a Verizon Center record with 51 points, traded three pointers with Utah's Memet Okur down the stretch, but got the ball last and made Utah......