About The Candidate

• Office Sought: D.C. Shadow U.S. Senator
• Occupation: Consultant, historian and archivist; retired director of research, House Committee on the District o
• E-mail address: nrimy@covad.net

Education

BA, history; MA, public administration, Pennsylvania State University.

Offices and positions held

Historian, Association of the Oldest Inhabitants of D.C.; former board member, Historical Society of Washington, D.C.; member, D.C. Emancipation Commission, Wilson Building Centennial Celebration Committee, D.C. Public Records Commission, Stanton Park Neighborhood Association, Capitol Hill Restoration Society, League of Women Voters, NAACP, Christ Episcopal Church, City Museum Project.

On the Issues

What is the most urgent problem facing your jurisdiction?

Taxation without representation is tyranny. That is as true today as it was in 1776, when the principle motivated our ancestors to seek independence from Great Britain. If elected, I pledge to work full-time to achieve a vote in the House and a delegate in the Senate for the District. Residents of the District deserve a voice and a vote in the Congress that taxes them and sends them to war to protect American liberty. They do not deserve to be treated like "aliens in our own country," in the words of Frederick Douglass over 100 years ago.

Why should voters elect you?

Forty years of experience, expertise and accomplishment working for expanded home rule for residents of the District of Columbia make me the most qualified candidate.

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

Achievement, not money, is the best motivator for students. I would prefer greater investment in smaller class size, teacher development, curriculum improvements, educational enrichment, early childhood programs, and after-school activities. I would like to see proof that the program works before sending a lot of money down the drain. If it can be shown that it does work, then perhaps it can be part of a much broader program of improvements in the D.C. schools.

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

Ultimately, a program of permanent housing, combined with an integrated network of support services such as drug and alcohol treatment, health care and mental health services, job training and mentoring, is the only permanent answer to homelessness. The Mayor's plan is a step in the right direction, but will require intensive oversight and attention to work -- a big if, considering the record of failure and mismanagement of so many D.C. social service programs.

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

By exercising determined oversight to achieve maximum efficiency and effectiveness in all government operations, and by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse, the District can free up additional funds for housing, health care, education and job training. To the degree that these efforts are successful, the Congress may be convinced to increase its support and investments in transportation infrastructure, economic development, education and social services. If elected, I pledge to work to increase the federal payment as just compensation for services provided in the nation's Capital.

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