President Obama's Meeting With Mayors About Youth Violence Included One Republican

    President Obama and Attorney General Holder met with a group of 18 mayors at the White House on Tuesday afternoon.  The meeting was billed as a discussion "with mayors from cities around the country to discuss reducing youth violence." And although Republicans hold about a quarter of mayoral positions in the fifty largest cities in the U.S., only one Republican mayor was in attendance at the meeting,  Greg Ballard of Indianapolis.  The remaining mayors included sixteen Democrats and one Independent.
    According to recent data, there are twelve Republicans among the mayors of the fifty largest U.S. cities.  Twelve of the eighteen cities represented at the White House meeting are among those fifty.
    Some of the smaller cities represented at the meeting have high profile mayors, such as Corey Booker of Newark, NJ.
    Many of the cities appear on various Most Dangerous City lists, which may give an indication as to why the White House included them on the guest list.
    The White House released a short summary of the meeting:

President Obama and Attorney General Holder met this afternoon with a group of mayors from around the country to discuss strategies to reduce youth violence. The President reiterated that government alone can never fill the void that causes a child to turn to violence, but that we all have a responsibility to do our part to create safe communities and save lives. The President applauded the mayors for their local efforts to combat violence, solicited their input about proven methods, and pledged his Administration’s partnership. He also vowed to continue doing everything in his power to combat gun violence through executive action and to press Congress to pass common-sense reforms like expanding the background check system and cracking down on gun trafficking.

    Here is the complete list of mayors in attendance:

• Mayor Greg Ballard (Indianapolis, IN)
• Mayor Tom Barrett (Milwaukee, WI)
• Mayor Cory Booker (Newark, NJ)
• Mayor Vincent Gray (Washington, DC)
• Mayor Sly James (Kansas City, MO)
• Mayor Kevin Johnson (Sacramento, CA)
• Mayor Mitch Landrieu (New Orleans, LA)
• Mayor Mark Mallory (Cincinnati, OH)
• Mayor Michael Nutter (Philadelphia, PA)
• Mayor Annise Parker (Houston, TX)
• Mayor Jean Quan (Oakland, CA)
• Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (Baltimore, MD)
• Mayor Kasim Reed (Atlanta, GA)
• Mayor RT Rybak (Minneapolis, MN)
• Mayor Francis Slay (St. Louis, MO)
• Mayor Dayne Walling (Flint, MI)
• Mayor Molly Ward (Hampton, VA)
• Mayor AC Wharton (Memphis, TN)

Note: A version of this article first appeared at The Weekly Standard.