f you’re a District resident planning to vacation in the Maryland havens of Ocean City or St. Michaels this summer, Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) and some D.C. activists would prefer you choose Rehoboth Beach, Del., or Chincoteague Island, Va., instead. A week after Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) successfully attached an amendment to a House budget bill that would overturn the city’s marijuana decriminalization law, Gray and the District’s largest voting-rights advocacy group said city residents would be better off vacationing somewhere besides Harris’s district, which includes all of Maryland’s Eastern Shore. “I don’t think we should support someone who doesn’t support us, who doesn’t support democracy, period,” the mayor said Wednesday after a news conference at which he decried Harris’s actions as “hypocrisy at its worst.” The nonprofit group D.C. Vote called for an all-out boycott of vacation spots in the 1st Congressional District, saying Harris “acted in wanton disregard” of the views of D.C. residents. A January Washington Post poll found that roughly eight in 10 city residents support legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana. “If you care about D.C. equality, we ask you to not patronize vacation destinations in Rep. Harris’ district,” Executive Director Kimberly Perry said in a statement. “We might not be able to vote in Congress, but we can all vote with our wallets.” In a statement issued by his office, Harris said city residents “know better” than to boycott his district’s beauty spots. “Spending the weekend on the beautiful, family friendly Eastern Shore is more important than increasing drug use by D.C. teenagers,” he said. In response to Gray’s comments, Harris spokesman Chris Meekins made a reference to Gray’s April 1 primary loss: “I think D.C. voters showed on Election Day the value they place on what the mayor has to say. I only wish some D.C. politicians cared as much about providing a quality education to D.C. students as they do about decriminalizing marijuana.”
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 15:27:44 +0000
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