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Campus Notebook: Bringing the Battle Home

D.C. voting rights advocates plan to target the constituents of Members who want to insert a controversial gun amendment into the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act.

[IMGCAP(1)]Local nonprofit DC Vote announced Friday that the group will soon begin a campaign to rally supporters in Mississippi and Nevada, the home states of Rep. Travis Childers (D-Miss.) and Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.).

Ensign originally offered the amendment, which guts most D.C. gun laws, when the Senate considered its version of the voting rights act earlier this year. The bill, with the Ensign provision attached, passed easily.

But it has stalled in the House, partly because Childers and other pro-gun Members want to attach an amendment similar to Ensign’s. Last week, voting rights advocates decided to indefinitely postpone their efforts to pass the bill, citing the difficulty of keeping the gun amendment off of it.

DC Vote Executive Director Ilir Zherka said the group now will turn to a public awareness campaign, using targeted advertisements to reach potential supporters in Mississippi and Nevada. Fundraising for the effort began just last week, he said.

“We’re going to send a clear message to members of Congress,— Zherka said in a press release. “You mess with the District and we’re coming after you. We will not allow you to stand in the way of our basic civil right to voting representation in Congress and full local democracy.—

The Online Sotomayor. Members and staffers can now turn to the Library of Congress for information on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

On Friday, the agency launched a new Web page, which includes background information on Sotomayor and links to her articles and case decisions.

The Web page also has transcripts of the confirmation hearings for her seat on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

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