First things first — when it comes to hyper local power and politics, the big winner in Tuesday’s election of Barack Obama was not D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, Obama’s body double; nor was it one of the city council members who paraded around early and often for the candidate.
The biggest winner is Eleanor Holmes Norton, our still non-voting delegate to the House. Mrs. Norton came out early and unambiguously for Obama. Their relationship goes back years. The first time I met Sen. Obama was more than two years ago at a fundraiser for Norton’s last reelection bid. He helped her and she helped him. He enlisted her to carry the Obama message in campaign stops around the country.
Norton stands to benefit the most, too. The first order of political business for our federal district is to attempt to extract full voting rights for Norton. More on that later.
The second big winner is political strategist Tom Lindenfeld. We first heard of Lindenfeld when he advised Fenty in his first mayoral campaign; what we have learned is that Lindenfeld is close to Obama’s political guru, David Axelrod. And though he failed to get a win for Carol Schwartz’s quixotic write-in campaign for city council, he was a key strategist for Obama’s victory in Pennsylvania. Real Clear Politics called him “a turnout wizard.”
Now, for the wish list.
“He’s the president of the United States,” says retired D.C. Police Lt. Lowell Duckett, “but he’s living in our town. He should be uniquely involved, as any resident would be.”
Duckett, a D.C. native, revels in the relationships between the cops and presidents of yore.
“Who integrated the D.C. police?” he asks. It was John F. Kennedy, he answers, who demanded that black cops be astride the motorcycles on his inauguration day. “Total integration came under Nixon,” he adds.
Nixon, Duckett says, brought cops to the White House for award ceremonies. He visited injured cops in the hospital. He increased the ranks to 5,100.
As for Duckett’s wish: “The federal government needs to be more involved in policing the city. Obama could reestablish that bond between the president and the police.”
Seeing as the D.C. Fraternal Order of Police was one of only three local unions that endorsed Obama rather than McCain, the bond is there.
Terry Lynch, executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations, wants Obama to tear down the Hoover FBI Building on Pennsylvania Avenue. “We could generate $30 to $40 million in revenues from housing, commercial and retail on that site,” he says.
Chris Weiss, head of the D.C. Environmental Network, says Obama could “start the greening of the entire federal infrastructure” — from solar panels in the Pentagon parking lots to a fleet of electric cars.
Tom Blagburn, a retired cop now with UDC, says Obama could have a huge impact by focusing on literacy.
Back to Norton. Obama could be the first president to make voting rights for D.C.’s delegate a priority. If he does, Norton gets the vote.
