By James Wright
AFRO Staff Writer
DC Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton has not given up hope on a DC vote bill. (Courtesy Photo)
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(June 30, 2009) - D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton is working on a strategy to bring a clean D.C. voting rights bill to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives before the end of the 111th session. While she would not divulge specifics on television interviews and in person, she said the bill is still alive even though it is not moving through the legislative process.
"The D.C. voting rights bill is not dead, contrary to what some are saying," Norton said on NewsChannel 8 on June 25. "We are working with the leadership to get a clean bill to the floor and on the president's desk."
The D.C. House Voting Rights Act of 2009 would give the city a voting member of the House and add a member to Utah. The Senate version of the bill passed in February but with pro-gun amendments, sponsored by Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), that would gut most of the city's firearm laws.
Pro-gun Democrats and Republicans in the House support a similar measure mainly because the powerful lobby, the National Rifle Association, has said it would monitor members who voted for the bill. Norton pulled the bill early in June, saying she would not support voting rights legislation with a pro-gun component attached to it.
Sonsyrea Tate Montgomery, Norton's press secretary, would not give any details on what steps her boss is taking to advance the bill. "We are working with leadership to move the bill forward," said Montgomery.
While Norton is working behind the scenes on Capitol Hill for the bill, D.C. Vote, a grassroots organization in the city is taking their campaign on the road. "We are making plans to travel to states of senators and House members who want pro-gun language in the D.C. Voting Rights bill," said Jaline Quinto, the organization's communications director. "In the House, we will travel to Mississippi to the district of Rep. Travis Childers and in the Senate to Nevada because of John Ensign. We want to tell the people in their districts and states that their representatives have no right to interfere with the gun laws of the District."
Childers' district is in the northern part of the state, with such small cities as Oxford – where the University of Mississippi is located – Tupelo, Columbus and DeSoto County, which is part of the Memphis metropolitan area and is upper-middle class as far as income. The district is 71 percent White and 26 percent Black and is overwhelmingly rural.
Childers, a Democrat, won a 2008 special election to the seat when the previous office holder, Roger Wicker, was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Gov. Haley Barbour (R) that year. In his short time in the House, Childers has shown that he is like other Mississippi Democrats in that he is pro-gun and pro-life but votes with his party on economic issues.
Quinto said she is targeting Childers' district because she thinks he can be swayed to support a bill without pro-gun amendments given the demographics of his district. Quinto said there are tentative plans to travel there in mid-July and nothing has been talked about in terms of going to Nevada. She said a combination of modes of transportation would be used to get there. "We will be sending out information on this trip and we certainly encourage District residents to come with us if they can," she said. "We have already heard from the Urban League and if anyone is interested, please contact us."
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