by Jonathan Krall
On March 12, 2024, after nearly two years of steady effort by a coalition of Alexandrians, the Alexandria City Council passed a resolution in support of Medicare For All, adding to the national map of Medicare For All support. The coalition consisted of Grassroots Alexandria, the Northern Virginia Branch of the Democratic Socialists of America, Our Revolution Northern Virginia, and Tenants and Workers United. This is how we did it.
In many instances, a successful coalition shows that their persistence is greater than the decision-makers’ patience. The price of persistence is time, effort, and (whether we like it or not) higher standards of conduct.
Speaking to City Council
People who speak to City Council for the first time are given a lot of latitude. Some repeat popular myths, such as the myth that most politicians are corrupt (they are not). Others claim that every vote is rigged in advance (also not true). Some cite “facts” that don’t add up. Some are insulting. They are given a pass because public speaking is not easy, because many speakers are inexperienced, and because most political issues are more complex than they seem on the surface. As activists who show up month after month, we ourselves are expected to “learn the ropes.” We no longer get a pass.
As we persist, we become better advocates for our cause. We call this a “price” because it narrows our options. We can be passionate, but also need to be disciplined and carefully truthful. We cannot lapse into insulting cliches.
The process, part 3: lining up the votes
Because City Council members do not want to waste time (they all have day jobs), they will not put a resolution on the docket until they are sure they have the votes to pass it.
As we engaged with the various advisory commissions (see part 1) and the public (part 2) to build support, we sent messages to City Council as a whole to keep them updated on our progress. We also took every opportunity to speak with them informally. As we seemed to be making progress, we met with individual members to confirm their support.
In October 2022, we enjoyed a positive meeting with Councilman Canek Aguirre. In February 2023, Councilman Kirk McPike offered to help us reach out to other City Council members, but repeated that he would need to recuse himself because of his employment in the US Congress. In March we met with Councilwoman Alyia Gaskins over zoom. When we told her that we had not heard back from some other members, she stepped outside her office to grab Councilmember Sarah Bagley, enabling us to meet with both of them together. They helpfully advised us on City Council procedures.
The astute reader will note that we are using the terms Councilman, Councilwoman, and Councilmembmer, seemingly at random. In fact, their titles can be found on placards on the City Council dias and on the Alexandria website. Does it help to always use the correct title? Maybe. But we had other distractions to worry about.
In March 2023, we traded emails with Mayor Justin Wilson, who threw us a curveball. He pointed out that Legislative Director Sarah Taylor works with City Council each year to draft a “legislative package” of legislative priorities for our delegation to Richmond. In addition–and this was news to us–Mayor Wilson was considering creating a federal legislative package, which might include Medicare For All in its list of priorities. This raised questions, none of which we wanted to ask. To usefully contribute to the national map of Medicare For All support, we needed a clear statement in favor of Medicare For All, preferably a resolution. Including Medicare For all in a bureaucratic “federal legislative package” would not meet our needs. We needed to stay focused on City Council members. Nevertheless, we offered to meet with Ms. Taylor. After some back and forth, we were told that this meeting was unnecessary.
By April 2023, it was apparent that we had 5 supportive members of City Council, though one (McPike) needed to recuse and another (Councilman John Chapman) hadn’t yet met with us to confirm his support. We were pretty sure we had the votes, but didn’t know if or when they would be willing to spend time and effort finalizing the resolution language and introducing the resolution. We needed stronger commitments on both points.
As we prepared our City Council petition presentation in June, we reached out to City Council members once again. We had three yes votes, one supportive abstention, and one unconfirmed yes vote. Soon after, Councilman Chapman confirmed his support. At the end of June, Councilwoman Gaskins shared good news with us. “I have reached out to each of my colleagues that said they were on board.” However, passing a resolution would take time. “Some of my colleagues have a few questions and want to meet with you again first.”
In the long run, we talked to City Council members a lot. It was all very friendly, but it was only a matter of time, we hoped, before they got tired of talking to us and passed a resolution just to make it stop.
Next, in Part 4: We tell you what actually happened.