It’s not easy being a Republican in the District. This is one of the country’s most heavily Democratic cities, and even with two seats on the D.C. Council set aside for minority parties, Republicans don’t currently have a presence in the city’s legislature. (Both seats are held by independents, one of whom, David Catania, used to be a Republican.) So it makes sense that the D.C. GOP would do pretty much anything in its power to get attention — anything.

According to a press release sent out by the D.C. GOP yesterday, four Republican candidates for the D.C. Council — Marc Morgan (Ward 1), Dave Hedgepeth (Ward 3), Tim Day (Ward 5), and Jim DeMartino (Ward 6) — are descending upon the John A. Wilson Building today as I type to protest what they see as a continuing snub of their nominee for the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics, Mital Gandhi. To protest the council’s failure to vote on Gandhi, who has been twice nominated by Mayor Adrian Fenty, they plan on handing councilmembers little plastic ducks that read, “Don’t DUCK on MITAL GANDHI’S Nomination to the DC Board of Elections & Ethics.”

Cute, right? And well-timed. The council is set to vote on the nomination of former Army Secretary Togo West to head up the three-member board, which with a recent resignation was down to just one member — meaning it couldn’t actually perform its duties as the neutral arbiter of the city’s elections. According to the GOP, Gandhi, who would occupy the seat reserved for minority parties, has been denied a fair hearing simply because he’s a Republican. (Gandhi wrote a letter to the council last week asking that he be voted on.) But according to his opponents, Gandhi has a number of conflicts of interest — including having hosted a fundraiser for Mayor Adrian Fenty in August 2009 — and suffers from the worst attendance record on the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which he has served on since 2007.

Regardless of how well their protest is received, we give them credit for at least having fun with it. And though it’s no “Bag the Bag Tax” canvas bag, it’s still pretty good.