You may have heard that the first voters to cast ballots in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination won’t be in Iowa or New Hampshire, but rather, in the District of Columbia. Technically, that’s true. But practically, it’s a waste of time and resources.
The Democratic National Committee mandates that in the nominating process, Iowa’s caucuses come first and New Hampshire’s primary follows. After that, there’s room for maneuvering. It’s not entirely fair, and if the party wants to renew a serious debate about this it should, but as of now, those are the rules.
DC, however, decided that it wanted to be first, to bring attention to — and pressure candidates on — the fact that the nation’s capital is the only place in the United States with no voice in Congress. (DC has a non-voting “delegate” in the House.) The people in DC argue, correctly, that this is a classic example of taxation without representation — DC residents pay federal taxes like all other Americans, but are prohibited from electing representatives to the House and States, unlike all other Americans.
To be sure, it’s an outrage that demands a remedy. I’m not denying that for a second. I’ve never heard a reasonable argument as to why the federal government should deny over a half-million people representation in Congress simply because they live in the nation’s capital.
I am, however, denying the utility of holding a primary that doesn’t make any sense.
When DC announced that it was holding a primary on Jan. 13, the week before Iowa, the DNC encouraged the presidential candidates to bypass the primary because it won’t count towards winning the nomination. Indeed, winning today will award some lucky candidate exactly zero delegates.
As the Washington Post explained today, “[T]he votes will be counted, and the totals publicized, but nothing will happen: No delegates will be selected, there will be no direct effect on anything in the real world, and to the extent that the vote will ‘send a message,’ it is overwhelmingly likely that no one will be listening very hard, since the ballot for this Democratic primary is conspicuously lacking the names of most of the major Democratic presidential candidates.”
It’s officially called a “nonbinding” or “advisory” primary, but unofficially, it’s called a “beauty pageant.” Four candidates are participating — Dean, Sharpton, Braun, and Kucinich — but no one’s really campaigning in DC, there are no ads on the air, and there are no direct mail letters being sent. It’s as if this a primary that’s being held in secret.
If DC was hoping to bring desperately needed attention to the injustice of its residents not having equal voting rights, this has been a terrible mistake.
“Frankly, it violates the establishment code,” says D.C. Council member Jack Evans. “We’re doing this anyway. Let the chips fall where they may.”
Chips? What chips? DC voters don’t care about a non-binding primary, the candidates aren’t competing, the DNC is pretending this primary doesn’t exist, and political journalists aren’t planning to report the results. Perhaps worst of all, the District will have to pay to finance the primary election, which is money, frankly, DC doesn’t have to waste.
There’s nothing wrong with challenging the establishment, but if you’re going to make a statement, make sure someone will hear it.