She’s not set to announce her candidacy until tomorrow, but D.C. Council Chair Linda Cropp is already doing her best to increase her name recognition and create anticipation for her foray into the 2006 mayoral race.

Starting Saturday, signs such as those pictured above began populating the trees, street signs, telephone poles, and public parks of the District. The signs — bearing no information spare the simple message “Think Cropp” or its Spanish equivalent — were especially prevalent around Capitol Hill, though were also spotted in other parts of town.

While Council-members Adrian Fenty (D-Ward 4) and Vincent Orange (D-Ward 5) have been in the race for most of the summer months, their yard signs have yet to reach the critical mass that Cropp’s seemed to reach over the course of two days. More importantly, Cropp’s have a Borf-like quality to them — no campaign message, no electoral slogan, nothing to indicate she’s running for the highest public office in the city. This approach to political advertising may prove more successful than that of her opponents, who to date include Fenty, Orange, Marie Johns, and Michael Brown — Cropp may succeed in creating a ground-swell of curiosity prior to the announcement with simple, if ambiguous messages. Similarly, the signs do not implore voters to elect her, rather, just think of her, a distinction which may not be lost on residents ready to be bombarded with campaign materials from now until this time next year.

The decision to include Spanish-language signs and display them so prominently around the city was interesting, though. While growing Hispanic communities are a reality across the country, only 7.9 percent of the District’s population identified as “Hispanic/Latino” in the 2000 census, and it is unknown what proportion of those are voters. More importantly, the city’s Hispanic communities are highly concentrated in specific areas, making the use of Spanish-language signs in Ward 6, which covers Capitol Hill and whose residents are overwhelmingly white and African-American (to the tune of 31 percent white, 62 percent African-American, and 3 percent Hispanic/Latino), somewhat mystifying.

Given these signs, which are fast dominating the city’s urban landscape, we should expect a dynamic and interesting campaign from Cropp’s camp.