A key Congressman is raising his eyebrow at D.C.’s plans to increase awareness about its taxation-without-representation plight.
Federal law forbids the District to spend any money on lobbying for statehood. For U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Mich., the District’s plan for a $1 million voting rights advertising blitz flirts with the wrong side of the law.
Knollenberg chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that controls D.C.’s purse strings.
“We’re concerned,” Knollenberg spokeswoman Jennifer Hing said. “We’ll ask the questions of the proper people.”
The ad campaign, scheduled to open soon, will start with ads at Metro stations and bus stops and eventually include television spots around the country.
One of the campaign’s organizers defended the program.
“Lobbying is trying to talk to members of Congress. We’re staying very far away from that,” said Ilir Zherka, executive director of DC Vote, one of the groups spending the ad money. “We think the city has a very unique problem that most Americans don’t know about.”
The Senate passed its own version of D.C.’s appropriations bill on Thursday. A conference committee is scheduled to meet in September, and Knollenberg will be on it.
Vincent Morris, spokesman for Mayor Anthony Williams, said his boss won’t back down.
“The mayor is always eager totalk about the District with members of Congress,” Morris said. “But he’s also made it clear that it’s in the best interests of residents for our colonial status to be undone as soon as possible.”
