Franklin Garcia (Reproduced from the DC IReporter)

On April 10th, 2013 an immigration reform rally will take place on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington DC. The Rally/March organized by a number of local and national organizations, including CARECEN, Casa de Maryland and the SEIU is another effort by pro-immigrant groups to call attention to the need to address the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Many of the organizers believe that now is the time to push for bipartisan legislation that addresses the outdated immigration laws in the U.S.

About half way through the special election period for the At-Large City Council campaign in DC, with roughly 5 weeks remaining, the contours of the competition are now visible. The seven candidates (dubbed the ‘Magnificent 7’ here) are crisscrossing the city, attending innumerable forums and meet-and-greets in an endless cycle of fundraising, phone banking and public appearances. Each candidate has established their own niche and each is searching for their comparative advantage.

Three of the seven have experience in city wide campaigns –Michael Brown, Pat Mara and Anita Bonds (as a campaign manager) and the four newcomers (Matt Frumin, Perry Redd, Elissa Silverman & Paul Zuckerberg) are all spirited, well informed and eager to show their political chops. Three candidates (Bonds, Brown & Redd) are African American and expected to do well on the eastern side of the city. Mara has the Republican Party to himself -not a great distinction in DC- and the other 3 candidates (Frumin, Silverman & Zuckerberg) are expected to do best on the west side of the city.

Translated by Jose Sueiro from his Spanish language story in Washington Hispanic

At first sight the young Mexican American, Martin Diego García appears to be one of those youth focused on ‘chatting’, a nerd occupied with his computer and always ‘texting’ friends and acquaintances. But look closely and you realize this man, with the baby face and librarian’s glasses, is a natural political organizer, part of that new generation of super connected young people, educated, talented and up to date on all of the topics of the day. He is part of a second generation of Latino leaders looking to change the world or, in the case of Martin Diego, the city of Washington.