The announcement of an aggressive push for D.C. voting rights turned awkward Friday when District Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton derided Mayor Adrian Fenty’s plan to lead a march and rally on April 16, D.C. Emancipation Day.
“I certainly hope by April 16, I hope it’s a celebration march,” Norton said. “Because if it’s a march for this bill, then the bill’s in trouble.”
In a moment that only added to the tension,Norton — an invited guest at Fenty’s news conference — corrected Fenty at the podium after she said the mayor wrongly recounted the outcome of a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The window of opportunity for the voting rights bill is February and March, Norton said — once into the spring it will be crowded off the House floor by higher priorities.
Waiting until “so-called Emancipation Day” to rally the masses, she said, “plays into the hands of delay and makes it look like D.C. is not in fact intent on getting this vote or on setting a date.”
“That’s how people who are serious in the House call attention to Congress, because after all a gazillion groups come up to lobby,” she said.
At one point in the news conference, Fenty was asked about Senate support for the bill. Norton moved to the podium to answer — until Fenty put his foot down.
“It’s OK,” Fenty told the delegate within earshot of reporters. “He wants me to answer. You’ll get your turn.”
