Diana Clock/The Hoya D.C. CouncilmanDavid Catania (SFS ’90, LAW ’94) discusses his bid for re-election on Wednesday.
Washington, D.C., Councilman David Catania (SFS ’90, LAW ’94) spoke to the College Republicans on Wednesday night, discussing his achievements and goals as one of only two Republicans on the 13-member City Council.
“It has been a labor of love and joy to sit in on city government in the District of Columbia,” Catania said.
Catania was elected as an at-large member during a special election in 1997. He was re-elected in 1998 and won the Republican Party nomination for re-election on Sept. 10. He also served on the Advisory Neighborhood Commission as a citizen volunteer prior to holding elected office.
Catania said he has championed reforms for drug treatment, home ownership and adult education in addition to fighting for increased rights for Washington, D.C.
“I chastised the Republican Party for giving up on urban America,” Catania said. “Cities have decayed because there has been no competition of ideas in dealing with urban problems. I have worked to inject conservative ideas into urban politics.”
Catania said that nearly 20 percent of the District’s budget is spent on direct and indirect costs of drug treatment. By using a voucher system, recovering substance abusers can now choose which treatment program they want to use without overburdening the city budget.
“By using Republican principles of choice we were able to come up with a better system for treating substance abuse,” he said.
In order to expand home ownership opportunities for District residents, Catania said he supported increased use of the 30-year fixed mortgage.
“Many families are unable to make a sizable down payment, but they are willing to pay rent and make continuing payments on their homes. By using the 30-year fixed mortgage, more residents are able to buy homes with stable rent,” he said.
According to Catania, more than half of the students in the Washington public school system do not complete high school. “Most of these students see no reason to stay in high school if they are not going on to college. By reconstructing vocational training, we instill hope and give students an incentive to stay in school and graduate,” he said.
Catania said that local government has made a great deal of progress in the District despite some inadequacies.
“Fiscal responsibility used to be a joke in the District. But we have restored fiscal integrity to the city during the past five years,” he said.
Washington, D.C., he said, has not had a great reputation with regard to city government in the past. “There has been a lot of finger pointing at the District for former Mayor [Marion] Barry and then recently with Mayor [Anthony] Williams and his inability to correctly fill out his petition for re-election,” Catania said.
“Washington is still a very young democracy,” he said. “It was only in 1974 that it was given the power to elect its own mayor and city council.”
In 1974, Washington was also promised a district attorney, according to Catania, but to this date, Washington “has no power to elect its own prosecutor to enforce its own laws.”
As a result, “Referendum A,” a ballot measure headed by Catania, will allow District voters to choose if they want to have an elected city prosecutor. The current district attorney is federally appointed.
“I am really running two campaigns,” he said. “But I feel very strongly about this. If I succeed in securing an elected prosecutor, that legacy will live long beyond my service to the city. Residents may forget about our accomplishments in drug treatment, vocational training and whatever else, but they will enjoy the right to have an elected prosecutor carry out city laws.”
Catania spoke about the difficulties of being a Republican in what he called a “largely Democratic city.”
“Elections for me are not easy. There are many barriers, and being a Republican is the biggest one,” he said. “If I focused on suburban issues, I would never have won the first time. I take Republican ideals and creative solutions, applying them to whatever issue I am working on.”
According to the councilman, a recent poll found that despite his minority-party status, the majority of his voters are Democrats and minorities.
“He made a special point of running in an area that is not generally receptive to Republicans because he wanted to make a difference. He could have gone somewhere else that is more receptive to conservatives, but he saw a need for change here. I find that admirable,” Slade Smith (MSB ’06) said.
About 50 people, primarily College Republican members, attended this event. This was the College Republican’s second meeting of the year. The organization has campaigned for Catania in the past.
