First, more than ever, my priority is to confront the crisis of everyday living faced by a large fraction of our residents, more specifically the stark reality of rising child poverty in DC.
D.C., suburbs show disturbing increases in childhood poverty
By Carol Morello and Dan Keating
Wednesday, September 29, 2010; 3:07 AM Washington Post
Three out of 10 children in the nation's capital were living in poverty last year, with the number of poor African American children rising at a breathtaking rate, according to census statistics released Tuesday.
Among black children in the city, childhood poverty shot up to 43 percent, from 36 percent in 2008 and 31 percent in 2007. That was a much sharper increase than the two percentage-point jump, to 36 percent, among poor black children nationwide last year.
I preface my interview by pointing out Pete Tucker's excellent questions to me came at the end of a long day of campaigning (after my usual 2 hour run on Sunday morning). I was pretty tired by then, and omitted several important parts of my campaign's platform. Specifically, on poverty and jobs I failed to emphasize the pressing need to confront the hardships that ex-offenders face, in particular job and housing discrimination. I reiterate my strong support for "Ban the Box": End job and housing discrimination against people with criminal records now, ensuring full civil rights for returning citizens. Fully fund and staff transition programs from jail to employment with living wages.
The drug war must end! I highly recommend Michelle Alexander's new book The New Jim Crow; see interview at: http://www.davidschwartzman.com/Articles/Michelle_Alexander
I also note that according to reliable sources, my opponent David Catania has been active in facilitating the firing of municipal employees with criminal records. And no protest from him regarding the clear pattern of stonewalling by our Attorney General (aka our Mayor's lawyer) Peter Nickles with respect to FOIA requests, including the police killings of D'Onte Rawlings and Trey Joyner.
TO LISTEN TO DAVID, CLICK HERE:
http://thefightback.org/2010/09/david-catanias-double-dipping/#more-582
David Catania’s Double Dipping
At large D.C. Councilmember David Catania has been described by the Washington Post as: a “D.C. politician [who] doesn’t pull punches“, a member of “an active group of progressive D.C. Council members“, “one of the most influential… men in city government,” a “tenacious and effective legislator,” “whom many people describe as brilliant.” But what goes largely unmentioned is that Catania, who is a reliable vote for big business and developers, has enriched himself while on the D.C. Council.
In addition to his Council salary of more than $125,000, Office of Campaign Finance records show that Catania earns an additional $120,000 a year as general counsel to a company that does a huge amount of business with the District. Since at least 2006 Catania has earned more than $100,000 a year as general counsel for
OpenBand LLC, a subsidiary of M.C. Dean. (It’s unclear how much Catania earned from M.C. Dean in 2005: On his “Honoraria and Outside Income Disclosure Statement” for fiscal year 2005, Catania failed to report his gross outside income and instead reported having earned “$10,000 per month” as General Counsel for OpenBand, LLC. For fiscal year 2006, Catania reported earning $101,538 from OpenBand LLC and $13,750 from Akin & Gump. Since 2007, Office of Campaign Finance reports show that Catania has earned $120,000 a year from OpenBand, LLC.)
Who/what is M.C. Dean? The Washington Post noted: “The company holds the contract to maintain and repair city traffic signals — one of the most lucrative contracts in city government. Last year’s contract was worth $9.3 million to the company… Since 1999, according to city billing records, M.C. Dean has done more than $130 million in business with the District.” Unmentioned in the Post’s article was that “one of the most influential… men in city government” is on M.C. Dean’s payroll to the tune of $120,000 a year.
District voters may be forgiven for having the impression that the elections are over. Since the September 14 primaries – which saw D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray upset Mayor Adrian Fenty – there has been little media coverage of D.C.’s upcoming November 2nd general election. In a recent article, the Washington Post said that Catania is “running against token opposition” and “is expected to be reelected in November.”
David Schwartzman does not consider himself to be “token opposition.” The long-time champion of issues of economic justice in the District of Columbia is running on the Statehood Green Party ticket against Catania for one of the two non-Democratic seats on the D.C. Council.
Schwartzman said, “Once I occupy my office in the Wilson Building, it won’t be a resource center for big developers to make deals. It will be a center for organizing the interests of the majority of people in D.C., not the tiny minority whose income is booming because of these economic policies that our mayor and Council have been passing in recent years.”
