The Lonely Life of a DC Republican
My personal voyage from youthful communist empathizer to middle aged, could-be Republican has slowly been taking shape. I’m more inclined towards Rockefeller Republicanism (deficit wary, socially liberal, and heavy on the poverty and education reforms) but in the voting booth, the only Republican I have ever voted for was Michael Bloomberg. Yet it might be in Washington DC, the most Democratic city in the country, that I make a permanent change to my voting behavior.
Two days after casting a losing vote for the reform-minded Democratic mayor of D.C., I went digging around the Web in search of the Washington, D.C. GOP. It was there, hiding in plain sight. I saw that the GOP in our nation’s capital was different from most other Republican parties. Of the four men listed as GOP candidates in City Council races, three are African-American and two are openly gay (though that information does not appear in their on-site bios, naturally). The Republican Committee’s issues page steers clear of mentions of socially conservative or so-called “values voter” issues, opting instead for a mélange of reform and what they term a “Republican Urban Agenda.”
Since Congress passed the Home Rule Act in 1973, giving D.C. residents a vote for mayor and city council, not one Republican has been elected in a city council ward race. In a town where Republicans number just 29,000 of 444,000 registered voters and where Adrian Fenty, the Democratic incumbent mayor, can lose his party’s primary and still win the write-in vote for the GOP nomination because the Republicans didn’t see a point to running a candidate, what, exactly, motivates someone to join the Grand Old Party’s cause?
“We are trying to bring a two-party system to D.C. It’s about checks and balances. “ Paul Craney, Executive Director of the District of Columbia Republican Committee, told me in a brief interview. Craney is the engine behind the District’s GOP, lending his support to candidates and gladly providing quotes to nearly anyone who will listen. “Republicans are standing on the right side of all these issues: education reform, parental choice.
“The issues we are running on are very localized. We have four candidates running for City Council, and all of them are running their own campaigns. … What they tell people is ‘This election is not a referendum on President Obama. It’s a local election’.”
I asked Craney how the national party feels about their moderate brother in Washington, D.C. and he was honest.
“They let us do what we want here. We are the only completely urban GOP in the country, so we get lots of leeway to go in the direction we want to.”
So it’s not simply opposition for opposition’s sake, then. But where are the numbers going to come from?
There is, in fact, room for growth, and lots of it. The party did increase in its registration by 712 members since the end of January. Unfortunately, the Democrats added almost 18,000 in that time. But it’s a start. And with Republicans expected to make significant gains this fall nationally, perhaps a few more GOP registrants will be arriving over the winter to boost those numbers even more. Or maybe a few disaffected Dems, like myself, might make the switch.
I note on the DC GOP website that the Republican challenging the entrenched Democrat in my ward has a meet-and-greet event coming up a few blocks from my house. My wife says I can skip parenting for an evening and attend, with a dismissive shake of her head. I figure I should see what Mr. Dave Hedgepeth – moderate black Republican -- has to offer. I mean, if I could vote for a Napoleonic Jewish moderate billionaire, I’d have to assume this guy is worth a closer look.
Who knows? Maybe D.C. could use a few more principled moderate malcontents to keep folks honest. Just no tea bag hats, please.