Marie Johns will not be counted out.
Hours before mayoral campaign front-runners Adrian Fenty and Linda Cropp had their first one-on-one debate — in Virginia — Johns stood in front of D.C. city hall on Monday to unveil her “Tax Scoreboard,” a cardboard mock-up of an electronic calculator she announced she would hang from the John A. Wilson Building if elected.
The scorecard, Johns said, would tally the federal taxes paid by D.C. residents each year, a gimmick to bring attention to the District’s lack of congressional representation. In 2003, according to Johns’ camp, District residents paid $2.5 billion to the federal government.
“We are the only capital city in a democratic country that’s denied representation,” said Johns, a former Verizon executive. “And we on Team Marie think that’s an outrage.”
She said the scorecard — on Monday a series of cardboard numbers held by roughly 20 supporters — would be a daily reminder of the District’s disenfranchisement to the residents, tourists and Capitol Hill politicians as they make their way down Pennsylvania Avenue. The Wilson Building is located at 1350 Pennsylvania Ave., between the Capitol and the White House.
The electronic version of the scorecard would cost $7,000, according to a Johns’ campaign spokeswoman.
With regard to the head-to-head debate, Johns blamed the media for perpetuating the idea that this is a two-person race. In recent polls, however, roughly 70 percent of voters backed either Fenty or Cropp, while Johns, Vincent Orange and Michael Brown all received single-digit support.
According to Marie Johns
» D.C. is second to Connecticut in federal taxes paid per capita
» District taxpayers responsible for $1.3 billion of the war in Iraq
» Exact amount of federal taxes per day: $6.849 million
