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Election Season in Washington, D.C.

October 16, 2008 on 2:28 pm | In The District | No Comments

This week, while I was out on one of my early morning walks (which have replaced my runs for now), I passed by a house a few blocks from ours with a McCain-Palin sign in the front yard.  It was quite a stunning sight, actually.
So what, you ask.  Don’t you live in Washington?  Don’t all the Republican Hill staffers live in Washington?  Surely there are McCain-Palin supporters running around there.
True enough- Washington is filled with scores of both Republicans and Democrats.  And down on Capitol Hill, you’ll see a few McCain Palin signs in windows or in the back windows of cars.  But that’s “Washington.”  Official Washington.  The truth is, most of those folks aren’t even technically residents here- they maintain their residencies and voter registration in their home states, even though they spend most of their time here (representing you, I might add), clogging our roads but stimulating our economy, all while avoiding paying our high city taxes and denying us a voice in Congress.  But I digress. . .

The rest of us- those of us not officially involved in politics- are residents of “The District.”  We may or may not be employed by the federal government, and we may or may not enjoy discussing our political views.  We are, however, the most through-and-through Democratic (non) state in the country.  In the 2004 presidential election, 89.2% of us gave our votes to John Kerry.  In the 2008 presidential primary, Obama received 85,534 votes (75%) to Hilary Clinton’s 27,326 (24%).  By comparison, John McCain won the Republican primary with 3,929 votes (68%).  Wow.  Needless to say, McCain-Palin doesn’t have a prayer here. . . but they do have one lonely yard sign.