DC Vote goes up with another ad campaign

An embattled group of Washington D.C. voting rights advocates launched yet another advertising campaign on Wednesday aimed at sharing the “real stories of D.C. residents” with the rest of the country.

DC Vote’s ad campaign – ‘I Am DC’ – comes as the city’s prospects for gaining a representational vote in Congress seems to have lost a once fierce momentum behind more hallmark legislation such as a $1 trillion health care bill.

Advertisements depicting area nurses, teachers, and journalists are scheduled to appear on city buses and in local blogs and newspapers.

“It’s about reaching out to all DC residents to join the movement for voting rights,” said Ilir Zherka, DC Vote’s executive director in a statement.

“Our experience has shown that when people in the states are reminded that regular people call the District home, they are more likely to support our cause.”

The group’s new campaign comes more than one month after it launched a separate ad venture aimed at Blue Dog Democrat Rep. Travis Childers (D-Miss.).

Childers is a supporter of a gun amendment that would loosen D.C.’s gun registration laws, which, after passing the Senate, has stalled a bill in the House that would grant the District a representational vote in Congress.

That campaign placed ads in local Mississippi media outlets in addition to several Nevada publications, where Sen. John Ensign (R), the sponsor of the Senate’s gun amendment, is from.

– Jordy Yager