Two Washington, D.C., council members at-large spoke to an audience of fifteen students Wednesday regarding the Republican force in the city and the specific issues pertinent to upcoming elections.

After a brief introduction from College Republicans president Jennifer Gorski (COL ’01), council members Carol Schwartz and David Catania (SFS ’90) began by explaining their backgrounds and beliefs in Republican politics and the necessity of bringing them D.C., specifically as a way to check the District’s traditionally dominant Democratic Party.

“It’s a very important thing to have the checks and balances of a two-party system. I think healthy discussion takes place when you have people of different thinkings, and compromises are often the best answers,” Schwartz said.

In D.C., there is a history of an 11-1 Democrat to Republican ratio of registered voters, with only 7 percent of the electorate Republican, Catania said.

“If we stand for anything, we stand for competition and markets, but over one-third of cities are single-partied. There’s no competition there, so we need to make a Republican stand,” he said.

As the bulk of the Republican influence in D.C. politics, the two council members said they pride themselves on being “team players and working for what is best for the citizens,” as well as, adding jokingly, “being the two voices of reason in a sea of absurdity,” Catania said.

Catania was first elected to the D.C. Council in 1997 under a special election, and was then re-elected to a full term in 1998.

“It is one of my greatest privileges to serve on the D.C. council,” he said. “We are the leader of the world and the way we conduct ourselves as a city is reflective of that.”

Catania advocates voter participation, especially through a new online interactive legislation program, government accountability and D.C. representation in Congress. In addition, he has pushed the Advisory Neighborhood Commission to encourage businesses to come into the city rather than stay in the suburbs.

The ANC is the political body currently dealing with growing frustrations between universities and neighbors.

“Universities share some of the blame,” he said. “They tend to admit more than they can house, and taxpaying citizens need to have rights as well as the non-profit university.”

“I know you feel picked on, but we’ve got a lot of seniors here, and just imagine 50 years down the road when you don’t sleep as well and you live next to a bunch of college kids,” Schwartz added.

In addition to the ANC, issues the council members talked about included the proposed expansion of Route 395 and the new convention center.

“As appealing as it looks, [the freeway] would still infringe greatly on those neighborhoods. Even though it looks good on paper, I’m not sure it will get anywhere practically,” Schwartz said.

The two councilmen disagreed on the building of a new convention center. Catania believes the plans have flaws, such as the inadequate size of the building, and believes that it would be a product of corporate welfare. Schwartz agrees that the new convention center is necessary because, if it must be built, it would be better if it were built here than anywhere else.

“Our number one thing is politics, and our number two thing is hospitality,” she said, adding this building it in a suburb would drive people and businesses out rather than into the city.

Schwartz has a long history of political activism. She has supported reduced personal income taxes for the district and a lower blood-alcohol level required for drunk driving violations, and says she has always worked to improve the D.C. school system. She came to the district in 1966 to teach special education and has since worked on the D.C. Board of Education as well as serving as the vice chair of the National Education Commission on Time and Learning.

After a long history of involvement, Schwartz is considered the “matriarch of the Republican party in the district,” said Catania. She said she attributes this to her childhood in Texas where Republicans were even more of a minority party than in D.C.

“I really had a history of activism. I’ve always been one of those people that thought I could make a difference. There’s something especially special about beating the odds,” she said.

After using her own history as evidence, Schwartz ended by asking students to pursue their political interests and activism, especially through helping out in the final few weeks of her campaign.

“You are obviously young activists, and this is where I began,” she said. “I want to encourage you to stay involved because it’s such a satisfying thing.”