WASHINGTON - August 26 -  

ANISE JENKINS
Jenkins is with the Stand Up! for Democracy in D.C. Coalition (Free D.C). She said today: "Non-voting U.S. House Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton speaks at the Democratic convention Tuesday night. She is the vice-chair of the DNC Platform Committee this year as she was in 2004.

"Statehood for D.C. was dropped from the Democratic Party platform in 2004 at her suggestion and continues to be absent.

"Sen. Edward Kennedy was the original co-sponsor -- with former U.S. Representative Ronald Dellums of California -- of the Statehood for D.C. resolution back in 1980. Barack Obama told me personally that he strongly supported D.C. statehood. So why isn't it the official position of the Democratic Party?

"We talk about 'One Nation' and 'Renewing America's Promise' -- but we in D.C. don't have full citizenship rights. We don't have control over our budget and we can't elect local judges. We don't have voting members in either the U.S. House of Representatives or the Senate, unlike, say, Wyoming, which has a lower population."