Photo by Tim Brown.

As D.C. early voting kicks off this Saturday, statehood advocates are holding a rally in support of turning our fair city into the 51st state.

The Statehood Yes! demonstration begins at noon at One Judiciary Square (441 4th Street NW), with promised guests like Mayor Muriel Bowser, Shadow Representative Franklin Garcia, Shadow Senator Paul Strauss, and Councilmembers David Grosso, Brianne Nadeau, Robert White, and Brandon Todd.

This comes after the D.C. Council passed the draft constitution on Tuesday, finalizing the version that’ll appear on the ballot. They decided to go with the name “State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth,” rather than “New Columbia.”

Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans led the charge to keep the state as Washington D.C., with Ward 6’s Charles Allen amending what the initials stood for.

“Frankly, the name New Columbia is ridiculous,” Evans said on The Kojo Nnamdi Show this afternoon. “Why would we name our new state after Columbus? That’s absurd.”

The change has already drummed up controversy near the Puget Sound. “You can’t steal our statehood name, add a few letters and expect us to just sit back and enjoy the sea breeze while sipping on lattes and wearing flannel,” wrote Seattle Times’ Evan Bush, who may have missed the memo that we’re already called Washington, D.C.

Already, WAMU has gone in with what it’s calling the “Battle of the Washingtons.” An open letter to the Evergreen State penned by Tom Sherwood tries persuasion. “Be proud of your coffee, your internet prowess and for being a state 127 years. We’re the seat of democracy and are tired of knocking on the door.”

Striking a less conciliatory tone is a list of 10 reasons why D.C. is better than Washington state, though it manages to end on a loving note.

Evans maintains that there shouldn’t be any issues sharing “Washington” with the west coast state, because we already do. He said on Kojo that “Washington” brings our city to mind more frequently than the Evergreen state anyway, but “we can co-exist.”

The constitution also calls for a convention two years after Congress ratifies statehood, so if enough people agree with the Seattle Times, the name could change again—as could anything else. Evans called the constitution a “placeholder.”