I’m swamped today, so I’m just lifting this right off of DCist.com as there is no need to re-invent the wheel….thanks guys

After passing the House and getting a hearing in the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee last week, The D.C. Voting Rights Act moves to the Senate Judiciary Committee tomorrow. The committee has scheduled a full hearing on Wednesday called “Ending Taxation Without Representation: The Constitutionality of S.1257,” which will address, natch, the constitutionality of the bill. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, is a supporter of the bill and will preside over the hearing.

Tomorrow’s hearing is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. in room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building – which means if you’re willing to take a late lunch, you could be there to lend your support for the legislation that would grant a full voting member in the House to the District of Columbia, and an additional member for Utah. There’s a long list of witnesses set to testify: Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT), D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Mark Shurtleff, Attorney General of the State of Utah, Richard Bress, an attorney at Latham & Watkins, John Elwood, Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel for DOJ, Charles J. Ogletree, Harvard Law School professor, Kenneth R. Thomas from Congressional Research Service, Jonathan Turley, George Washington University Law School professor, and Patricia Wald, a Former Chief Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.

With all the hoopla during the September primary, it’s easy to forget about the general election. I have two candidates running against me tomorrow, and I don’t take it for granted that I’ll win just because I’m on the ballot as a Democrat.

Please make the time to vote tomorrow in the District. We may not have the nail-biter races that Maryland and Virginia have, but if we are asking for a vote on the Hill, we should show that we take our democratic process seriously with a high turn out.

You can find out where to vote in the District, by clicking below:

http://www.dcboee.org/voterreg/ppl_step1.asp

I saw on DCist today that I was endorsed by the Washigton CityPaper. Here’s what they wrote:

“For shadow rep, go with Mike Panetta, No. 1 on the ballot. “

Ok, not exactly the most ringing endorsement, but I’ll take it. However, they could at least bold my name on the web site

You can read the rest of the CityPaper’s picks here:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/lips/2006/lips0908.html

Other endorsement I’ve gotten include DC for Democracy and the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club.

There was a discussion over on DCist about Michael Brown’s Shadow Senator signs. They just realized that there are two Michael Browns running for office in DC. Political junkies in the District noticed that back in May when the one running for Shadow Senator picked up that ballots.

I saw the “Michaels” sign each other’s nominating petitions at a Ward 5 meeting back in June. I was wondering if, when they shook hands, they’d be sucked into some weird 4th dimension like Ron Silver’s character when he touched his alternative self in that time travel movie with Jean Claude Van Dam and the girlfriend from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off - but nothing happened.

Anyway, there was a little discussion about the role of the Shadow delegation (Senators and Representative) and, as usual, there were the people who think the whole shadow delegation should be eliminated. I jumped in with a good comment (well, at least my wife said it was good). Here’s a link to the story:

http://www.dcist.com/archives/2006/08/30/another_michael.php

Now that it’s getting close to the election, the press is starting to pay some attention to the Shadow races. Which is nice, as we need all the help we can get raising awareness about these positions. In the past few days I’ve been interviewed or profiled by News Channel 8, The Washington Examiner, The Common Denominator, and The Washington Post.

The Post was pretty cool as they actually had a reporter out with me when I was campaigning at the Dupont Farmer’s Market on Sunday and stopped to talk to a few people who talked to me - so that should be a good little story. I am a bit annoyed at the paper as they are not doing any endorsements in the Shadow races. I know they have in the past - I guess there is just too much going on this year.

Here is a short run-down of the press or voter guides so far about my campaign. I’ll post more as they come online.

The Common Denominator

League of Women Voters

CityPaper (I’m quoted way at the end of the article.)