Democracy can be ironic sometimes.

This November, D.C. residents will elect two people to represent a district on Capitol Hill that is, by law, unrepresented.

D.C. residents cannot elect a voting senator or representative next month, but they will pick two unpaid, nonvoting members of D.C.’s “shadow” delegation.

Shadow senator Paul Strauss and shadow representative Mike Panetta, both Democrats, are up for re-election in these unique District positions. Together with Democrat shadow senator Michael D. Brown, who took office in 2007, they make up the District’s shadow delegation – aimed at compensating for the lack of Congressional representation for the District.

“In general it’s like you’re half-lobbyist, half-hustler trying to figure out a way to get in the door and speak your piece and get attention,” Brown said.

Congressmen in title only, the three do not have offices on Capitol Hill, but rather they share a suite in the basement of the John A. Wilson Building, the home of the District government in downtown D.C. The shadow senators are not allowed on the Senate floor and can only attend Senate sessions from the upper-level gallery.

Unlike the District’s nonvoting member of the House of Representatives, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D, the shadow delegation is not sworn into federal office. They are instead elected by the people of D.C. to lobby for their interests, namely statehood and full representation for the nation’s capital.

“To a certain extent the position is what you make it,” Brown said. “There’s really no official power beyond that bestowed upon you by the voters, but there are a lot of people who respect that. So when you go up on Capitol Hill, it depends on who you deal with and how you approach it.”

With no budget and little publicity, the shadow delegates do what they can to put D.C. issues on the national agenda.

Brown sends out direct mailings, speaks publicly and works with groups like D.C. Vote, a nonprofit organization that seeks to end “taxation without representation.” Since the shadow delegation is not a full-time job, Brown also runs the consulting firm Horizon Communications.

Panetta, the shadow representative, has staged a series of often-comical stunts aimed at drawing attention to the city’s lack of representation. He pioneered a movement to rename the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium the “Taxation Without Representation Field.” He also started the District of Columbia Olympic Committee and a curling team.

Shadow senator Strauss, whose law firm is currently involved in arbitration between Sodexo and its employees at GW, has taken a more high-profile approach to lobbying for D.C. rights.

A chance encounter with NBC “Heroes” star Hayden Panettiere at a rally for Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama led to a public service announcement, in which Strauss and Panettiere implored D.C. taxpayers to contribute to the D.C. statehood fund.

Strauss said Panettiere originally approached him about a bill to save the whales.

“I said, ‘Whatever you want to tell me about fish, I’m happy to listen, but I’m not going to vote for your bill,’ and she said, ‘They’re not fish; they’re mammals; they can have babies; they produce milk,’ which impressed me because I can’t do either of those things,” Strauss said. “But I told her, the reason I can’t vote for this or any other thing is because I represent the District of Columbia and we don’t get a vote. She saw the injustice of that.”

D.C. voting advocates were on track to victory last fall when a bill giving D.C. voting representation sponsored by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., almost passed.

“It’s really inappropriate to have two volunteers represent 600,000 American taxpayers,” Brown said. “There should be two United States senators from the District of Columbia, with staff and with resources, and with all the things that every other citizen in America has.”