The D.C. attorney is the alternate national committeeman for the D.C. Democratic State Committee. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 2004 and hopes to secure the same role for this year’s convention in Charlotte, N.C.
The District is consumed with national politics. Why work on the local scene?
Local politics matter. Local politics determine whether you have city services serving you in your neighborhood, what the quality of those city services are, where your kids go to school, what kind of education they receive, whether they can afford housing in the city, and whether there are jobs for them when they get out of school.
You’re not a D.C. native. Why did you get involved here?
I was living in D.C., I was married and I had two kids. They were about to head into D.C. Public Schools, I figured I wasn’t going back to California and I decided I’d get involved. It’s been very rewarding.
Are the local political scenes in Los Angeles and San Francisco different from what you’ve experienced here?
They’re not dissimilar. They’re major cities, and like major cities, they face the same kinds of major city problems.
Without question, Democrats are dominant in the District. Does the party have any challenges on the horizon?
The biggest challenge facing the local Democratic Party is the influx of new residents into the city. The challenge is to get them involved in local affairs. A lot of them have moved here because they’re interested in national politics. We want to get them involved in local politics.
When you’re not practicing law or helping Democrats, what do you do?
My fun has really been coaching baseball. My son was on the team, and I coached baseball all the way from T-ball up through high school until he went away to college.
— Alan Blinder
