About The Candidate

• Office Sought: Delegate, District of Columbia (1)
• Occupation: Delegate, U.S. House; tenured professor, Georgetown University law school.
• Web site: http://www.nortonforcongress.org
• E-mail address: info@nortonforcongress.org

Education

BA, Antioch College; MA, Yale University; JD, Yale Law School.

Offices and positions held

D.C. Delegate, U.S. House of Representatives, 1990-2008.

On the Issues

What is the most urgent problem facing your jurisdiction?

Regrettably, we are in a recession that inevitably will get deeper. However, today education towers above other urgent issues here. Our schools and families are failing to prepare our children for jobs in this region or elsewhere. Universal pre-K is an urgent priority to catch children during the peak development years for cultivating learning and the love of learning. Intensive work and tutoring also are especially needed to help keep children in school who have not succeeded in their early years.

Why should voters elect you?

Ranked 19th "most influential" House member, 16th in "legislative power" -- even without a vote. Chairman, subcommittee that controls city's job base and economic development.

What do you think about the Capital Gains experiment, Rhee's plan to pay some students for doing well in school?

A pilot is understandable for targeted children whose achievement and other issues have been demonstrated and documented. An independent evaluation is necessary, particularly to assure that there are not perverse lesson and effects and that any behavior changes are sufficiently lasting. Ultimately it will be difficult to justify paying some children to learn, but not others.

Do you support Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's plan to move the homeless into permanent housing?

Housing for homeless people is the ideal solution if services are given equal priority with housing. Chronically homeless people often have severe mental or psychological problems -- from schizophrenia to chronic alcoholism. The scarcity of affordable housing and the growing number of homelessness means that not all homeless people will be permanently housed.

How do you see elected officials helping residents through these difficult economic times?

Forestalling the collapse of the financial and credit sectors is critical, but comparable action also is needed to fuel the economy where most Americans live and work. Unemployment claims have increased for nine straight months. I have been pressing a congressional stimulus package (passed the House but not the Senate) to benefit the economy and individuals simultaneously. We need a targeted stimulus that must be spent state side -- ready-to-go transportation, infrastructure and similar projects that have an immediate ripple effect, creating jobs throughout many sectors of the economy, such as fixing school buildings and public housing, funds for busses, tax credits for energy saving alternatives, unemployment insurance and food stamps. The history from the 1930s shows that the economy did not respond for several years after Roosevelt succeeded in calming the markets. Only when the economy was sufficiently stimulated did employment rise, stabilizing the economy.

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