Ellison lends Omar a hand

Yesterday I noted that Minnesota Fifth District Rep. Ilhan Omar is on the DFL primary ballot next month and that her principal opponent substantially outraised her in the second quarter. Does Omar feel some heat or think she needs help? She has held a multimillion dollar war chest deriving almost entirely from out of state donors over the past two years. She has to be a huge favorite in the DFL primary, which is the real election in this D+26 district.

Late yesterday afternoon DFL chairman Ken Martin called a press conference to disparage Omar’s opponent. According to Martin, Omar’s opponent is the recipient of “Republican money” (first pass) and “big corporate Republican money” (second pass).

Joining Martin at the press conference was Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. As the former Fifth District Rep. and local Nation of Islam leader, Ellison was just the man to decry the fundraising success of Omar’s opponent. However, Ellison didn’t identify the source of the contributions. He simply raised the question in the form of a statement: “Minnesotans need to ask where is this mountain of money coming from and why are they doing it and what do they expect for it.”

The DFL press conference was streamed live on Facebook. The Star Tribune reports briefly on it here. I have embedded the video below. Not a single question was asked. No one noticed the contradiction between Martin’s folderol and Ellison’s question in the form of a statement.

Last night Omar skipped the debate including her primary challengers. Jewish Insider reports on it here with lots of links including this one to the video of the debate and this one to her opponent’s Fundraising FAQs. The FAQs document denies that he is being funded by Republicans and adds a ham-handed discussion of “money [he’s] received from the Jewish community.”

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses