John James Capozzi, Jr. (born 1956) is an American politician who served as Shadow U.S. Representative for the District of Columbia between 1995 and 1997 and was a member of the

District of Columbia Democratic State Committee The District of Columbia Democratic State Committee (DC Dems) is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the District of Columbia. As of March 31, 2016, Democrats make up 76 percent of the registered voters in the District of Columbia, while 6 ...

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Political career

Prior to his election as Shadow U.S. Representative of the District of Columbia, Capozzi was involved in organizing protests in front of the Rayburn House office building in support of DC Statehood. He met with a number of Congresspersons prior to the 1993 vote for DC Statehood, the only vote of its kind to be held by the House of Representatives. As the Shadow Representative, Capozzi worked with the Reverend Garyland Ellis Hagler and Council member William Lightfoot in pointing out Fannie Mae, then the largest private sector company in DC, was exempt from paying DC corporate income taxes. As a shareholder in the company, Capozzi sponsored a s shareholder's initiative to have the company make a payment, in lieu of taxes, to DC. Rather than run for reelection in 1996, Capozzi ran as in the race to become an at-large councilmember on the Council of the District of Columbia and was defeated September 10, 1996. In 2002, at Capozzi's initiative, the

DC Council The Council of the District of Columbia is the legislative branch of the local government of the District of Columbia, the capital of the United States. As permitted in the United States Constitution, the district is not part of any U.S. state ...

debated a proposal to change the District's flag in protest of DC's lack of voting rights in Congress. The new design would have added the letters "D.C." to the center start and the words "Taxation without Representation" in white on the upper and lower bars, the format already used on District licence plates. The change, presumably, would have been temporary and revoked once the city achieved equal representation or statehood. Capozzi's proposal was passed by the council by a 10–2 vote, but the final design was never adopted. In 2012, Capozzi was among the candidates selected to replace at-large councilman

Phil Mendelson Philip Heath Mendelson (born November 8, 1952) is an American politician from Washington, D.C. He is currently Chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia, elected by the Council on June 13, 2012, following the resignation of Kwame R. ...

. Mendelson resigned his council seat after incumbent Council Chairman

Kwame Brown Kwame Hasani Brown (born March 10, 1982) is an American former professional basketball player who spent 12 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Selected by the Washington Wizards in the 2001 NBA draft, Brown was the first No. ...

resigned because of legal troubles. In a vote on December 10 by the

, Capozzi placed third out of three candidates behind winner

Anita Bonds Anita Bonds (born 1945) is an American Democratic politician in Washington, D.C. She is an at-large member of the Council of the District of Columbia. She served as the Chair of the District of Columbia Democratic Party from 2006 to 2018. She ...

and Doug Sloan.

Electoral history

Environmental advocacy

Green Home in Hillcrest

In August 2009 Capozzi made headlines in a local publication, ''East of the River''. The former shadow Rep was highlighted by reporter, Gerri Williams in an article called 'A Green Home in Hillcrest'. Capozzi and his wife Sue built the first Green Home located in the South East region of

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

The solar concept was not new to Capozzi, who worked for the DC government’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer.

Green Power Advocacy

In 2010 Capozzi, as an active DC SUN member, filed a shareholder resolution with

Pepco The Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) is an American utility company that supplies electric power to the city of Washington, D.C. and to surrounding communities in Maryland. It is owned by Exelon. The company's current trademarked slogan ...

to force the company to reduce total greenhouse gas emissions from products and operations. He was quoted by a District of Columbia advocacy group, The Fight Back, as saying, "If they were making more money through solar then maybe they would have had more capacity to do a better job with reliability."

Personal life

He previously worked for BRMi Consulting as a Recruitment Manager. Currently, Capozzi works for the Office of the Chief Technology Officer of the District of Columbia as a Project Manager.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Capozzi, John 1956 births Living people Washington, D.C., Democrats United States shadow representatives from the District of Columbia People from Montville, New Jersey