"This country was founded on resistance to taxation without representation," declared Vincent Gray, mayor-elect of the nation's capital, at a recent hotel groundbreaking. If the city does not secure voting rights in the House and Senate sometime soon, he allowed, widespread civil disobedience may be required to force the issue.
No tea party firebrand, Gray, a Democrat, used the battle cry of Revolutionary colonists -- voiceless in the British Parliament they helped finance -- to note that this city of nearly 600,000 sends $3.6 billion a year to the IRS. That's more money paid than seven states that enjoy full voting rights. As for the supreme sacrifice, Washington has lost more men and women in battle than 20 states, according to the D.C. Council.
That said, Congress -- which has no fully empowered House or Senate lawmakers from D.C.-- can veto any local bill or budget item already approved by the mayor, the council or the voters. That means the city is ultimately run by lawmakers most Washingtonians have never heard of from states they've never visited. Congress refused to let D.C. use its own tax money for abortions for poor women, banned needle exchanges for drug addicts and barred local election officials from counting any ballots in a 1998 referendum on medical marijuana (reportedly approved by 69 percent of the electorate).
