Democracy Forum 7/15/22: Taxation without Representation: Should DC be a State?

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine

Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics

Taxation without Representation: Should DC be a State?

What rights of self-determination do DC residents now enjoy?
How are their rights now constrained?
What are the obstacles to DC statehood?
What is the history?
What is the racial justice aspect to this issue?
Against the backdrop of Maine’s own struggle for statehood and the Missouri Compromise, why should Maine people care?

Anne Anderson, Chair of the League of Women Voters DC Full Rights Committee
Chris Myers Asch, Visiting Instructor of History, Colby College, and co-author of the book, Chocolate City, A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital

To learn more about this topic:

League of Women Voters of the District of Columbia – YouTube
With Liberty and Justice for All (Except DC) | League of Women Voters, May 2022
The Case for Statehood – DC History Center, with links to other great resources
DC Statehood Explained | Brennan Center for Justice, March, 2022
epublicans Used to Back DC Statehood. What Changed? – The Atlantic, David Graham, June, 2021
The Long Fight for DC Statehood – JSTOR Daily, Livia Gershon, February, 2021
When Adding New States Helped the Republicans – The Atlantic, Heather Cox Richardson, September, 2019
Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital by Chris Myers Asch and George Derek Musgrove, 2019
On the Road with the DC Statehood Toolkit, League of Women Voters of DC, November 2017

The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.