More than 20 years after a failed constitutional amendment, shadow senators and representatives continue to lobby Congress for D.C. statehood.

“We are the only Americans who are citizens, subject to federal income tax and all the rules and regulations of the United States, but have no voting rights in Congress,” said John Forster, who withdrew Friday as a candidate for shadow representative. Remaining Democratic candidates Mike Panetta and James Bubar will face each other in the Sept. 12 primary.

The volunteer positions are unpaid and come with few perks. Most shadow senators and representatives don’t even use the office the District provides them.

But that may change as the voting rights movement gains steam. The D.C. Voting Rights Act, sponsored by Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., has gone further than any similar bill in the last decade. It adds two members to the House of Representatives, one for historically Democratic D.C. and one for Utah, which usually votes Republican.

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Although Panetta and Bubar support the bill, they both have reservations.

“It’s a solution that doesn’t address the entire problem, and it may take some of the fight out of the activists working for voting rights,” Panetta said. “But I think it’s a step in the right direction, and something is better than nothing.”

Panetta, who in 2005 led a campaign to name RFK Stadium

“Taxation Without Representation Field,” touted his ability to attract grassroots attention on a national scale.

“Nothing’s going to happen unless we get a lot of friends around the country in support of D.C. voting rights who are lobbying their congressmen and senators,” said Panetta, who has also started a D.C. Olympic curling team.

As co-chair of the D.C. Bar’s District of Columbia Affairs section, Bubar monitors legal issues affecting the District. He prefers Norton’s No Taxation Without Representation Act, which provides two senators and one representative, but has also thrown his support behind the more politically viable D.C. Voting Rights Act.

“[Norton] now backs the Davis bill and we back it too as a first step toward getting full voting rights for District residents,” he said.