Ask a Congressional Candidate: Keith Ellison

[barondave]

My guest on the next Shockwave Radio will be Keith Ellison, Congressional Candidate. If he wins, he'll be my representative. Brief background: Minnesota's Fifth Congressional district (roughly South Minneapolis) is a safe, Scandahoovian-liberal Democratic stronghold. Our current Rep., Martin Olav Sabo, is stepping down after 28 years. Ellison is a comparatively young (42) lawyer currently in the MN legislature. He impressed the Democrats at their convention and was endorsed over several others. Party endorsement is a plus in Minnesota politics, but hardly a guarantee that he will win the primary.

I don't know much about Ellison, so I'm asking LJ people: What questions would YOU ask?

Ellison is making big news since Jesse Jackson is coming to town on Friday for an Ellison rally. He had a fairly critical write-up in today's conservative Mpls Star Tribune, Ellison's past views, ties drawing scrutiny. Ellison is black and Muslim, and had ties to Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam. He has distanced himself from those days, but questions linger.

Ellison would be Congress' first Muslim member, which I regard as a great plus, and would be proud to have him as a representative... if I agreed with his positions and he convinced me that the anti-semitism that permeates the black community had worn off. Further, at this point, I think I'd vote for anyone, even a Republican, if they promised that their first act would be to impeach Bush.

Thoughts on Ellison? Questions?

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

If I were to post this question to the Minneapolis Issues mailing list, you'd sure get a lot of responses.

K. [knows without looking that the link is to a column by Katherine Kersten, who is practically Ann Coulter, as far as I am concerned]

[barondave.livejournal.com]

The story is not by Kersten (though she did a hatchet job on him earlier).

How do I post to the Minneapolis Issues mailing list?

I like your two questions.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Oh, I missed the "today's".

I wonder if Erlandson's cronies are behind the Strib's criticism.

K.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Look around at http://forums.e-democracy.org/ and join the list. Read the rules, they are quite strictly enforced.

K.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I would ask this, "I asked your wife if she would like to sign the Instant Run-off Voting petition at the Senate District 60 convention, and she declined. What is your position on IRV?"

K.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I would ask this, "Being elected to the House of Representatives from Minnesota's 5th Congressional District is akin to a lifetime appointment. Given that, some people feel that sending the most liberal person available to Washington is a moral imperative. How do you fail to measure up to the standard of "most liberal"?

K.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I would ask this, "What committees and causcuses do he see himself working with in Washington, and how do his particular interests serve the people of Minnesota?"

K.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Oh, point of information, Sabo represents MN 5th, not 6th.

K.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Fixed, thanks. Also like the third question. I hope I can fit a good interview in a half-hour. He'll be post-Jesse flush.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I would ask this, "What does he think about having to campaign against the non-endorsed DFL candidates in the primary?"

K.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

So... what are you doing Saturday afternoon?

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Having houseguests, and listening to the radio. ;-)

K.

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

Farrakhan eh?
Pin him down as to when he disassociated himself from that turd.
What prompted it?
If I was there I'd have serious issues about voting for him.


He became a public figure

He has come a long way from the days of making impassioned speeches while wearing bib overalls, to his days now on the floor of the Minnesota House, often wearing a crisp white shirt and suspenders while speaking on legislation.

Ellison emerged as a public figure during a time in Minneapolis when racial tensions were high and a number of incidents sparked protests and demonstrations, particularly against police brutality in Minneapolis.

He said he never sought membership in any Nation of Islam group, which has a small presence in the Twin Cities. But recognizing the impact the threat of the presence of the Nation of Islam could have on people during often tense meetings, he said he put on a bow-tie on occasion -- a la Farrakhan -- aware of the powerful and even threatening image it might convey. He was known to show up at meetings accompanied by looming but silent black men in suits.

As a law student at the University of Minnesota, he often spoke out against racism. He first appeared in the pages of the Star Tribune in 1988, raising concerns about racist and anti-Semitic graffiti on a pedestrian bridge at the university.


So which is it Mr Ellison?
The bow tie and the looming men, or the raising concerns about "racist and anti-semitic graffiti".
Which master does he serve?

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

That article never says what the "often tense" meetings were about, does it? It also doesn't say what was in the letter to the Jewish Community Relations Council. It leads the reader to assume, but does not say that Ellison's march-organising was connected to the speech by Khalid Abdul Muhammad.

What unspeakably shitty reporting.

K.

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

Shitty it may be, however using the trappings to inspire an image....

he said he put on a bow-tie on occasion -- a la Farrakhan -- aware of the powerful and even threatening image it might convey. He was known to show up at meetings accompanied by looming but silent black men in suits.

Now, if the paper out an out lied about that, well, he should be hauling them into court, and I await his rebuttal saying he was misquoted and being able to prove it.
But, until he discredits it, it stands.
If I walked into a neighborhood meeting wearing a J.D.L. "uniform" I would expect repercussions in certain groups. I would also expect it to be remembered.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

This sort of thing makes me wonder why Christians are NEVER subjected to this sort of scrutiny about their theological beliefs. They're members of a large, splintered group that includes some members who bomb medical clinics, OR openly endorse the subordination of women, OR try to remove science from science classromm curricula OR oppose condom distribution.

Despite this, each citizen running for public office that identifies themselves as "Christian" is not required to atone for or account for the crimes of all of Christianity. I expect that people of the Islamic faith probably have a broad spectrum of believers and they might be afforded the same broad brush assumption that the majority of them aren't kooks.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Being Jewish, I look at Christian and Muslim candidates with the same outsider's eye. While it's a mistake to assume that millions of people will follow the same philosophy/religion the same way, I DO hold Christians accountable for people acting in the name of their religion. Maybe they give a good answer, but often they don't. We'll see what Ellison has to say. I don't want to harp on a subject he's been asked before but I do want to raise the issue.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'm with you on holding all Christians accountable for not calling their own onto the carpet when necessary.

The issue I'm trying to pin down is that THE dominant religion has the largest number of, and most bizarre, and most destructive nutjobs (and it seems sometimes the fewest people willing to hold those nutjobs accountable), and everyone of a less popular faith is held accountable for a significantly smaller number of kooks that are members of their faith.

Putting My Two Cents In

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

This sort of thing makes me wonder why Christians are NEVER subjected to this sort of scrutiny about their theological beliefs. They're members of a large, splintered group that includes some members who bomb medical clinics, OR openly endorse the subordination of women, OR try to remove science from science classromm curricula OR oppose condom distribution.

Despite this, each citizen running for public office that identifies themselves as "Christian" is not required to atone for or account for the crimes of all of Christianity. I expect that people of the Islamic faith probably have a broad spectrum of believers and they might be afforded the same broad brush assumption that the majority of them aren't kooks.

I have no trouble with Muslims, but Farrakan is dangerous as a person, and the stuff he advocates would likely hurt me because I'm Jewish (among other things).

[mle292.livejournal.com]

Awww... it always makes me happy to think of him as a congressman. :) I'll vote for him.

I remember Keith Ellison from almost twenty years ago, and I first saw him march and speak at rallies about police brutality that sprung up shortly after the Minneapolis police accidentally firebombed two elderly people in a drug bust gone wrong.

K.E., at a time when the media portrayal of organized labor was always negative and amidst whining from media that labor was "too strong", he saw through it and spoke well of labor.

He saw through bullshit easily, easily understand the relationship between economic issues and social justice, and could think quickly on his feet.

He had a new baby in '88 or '89, I think it was a boy. Ask how his kids are.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

He has four or five kids, the youngest of whom is 9, iirc from his web site. Hmm... Being pro-labor union is one way around the immigration problem... but that requires responsibility from the owners...

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

I know this is obvious, but you could ask him about health care reform, and single payer health care. And ask for specifics; has he done any research on the subject, does he have a plan, does he support someone else's plan. There is nothing on his website about it, and it's the most important issue for me after impeachment. (Impeach Cheney First!)

[mle292.livejournal.com]

Here's a nice question, and even a real one that I'd be interested in knowing the answer to:

"Would you vote to repeal Taft-Hartley if given the chance?"

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

I don't know if your signal gets out to St. Louis Park, but I don't see anything on his Website of his position in regard to US support for Israel. If I were still living in Minneapolis (I moved back home to Los Angeles twenty years ago), that would be a "hot ticket" item for me, for certain.

(There is a distressing trend these days to try to turn support for Israel into a right-wing issue. I don't support everything Israel does, but I support her right to exist and defend herself, and I'm certainly not on the right-hand side of the political spectrum. So I personally see that trend as a specious one.)

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's tempting. In a half hour show I can't probe too deep, but we'll see.

[emiofbrie.livejournal.com]

I know this isn't a local question, but I'd ask him his stance on the Iraq War....believe it or not the pro-war Congresscritters are rather bipartisan, so being DFL is not a guarantee that he's anti-war.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

His stance on Iraq is covered on his website: Withdraw now! It's not my position, but he makes a good case for his.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I'd ask, "How does being black effect you as a legislator?" Or some other form of that; basically I'd want to acknowledge that as a non-majority person, he's going to have different strengths and weaknesses than a white person. He knows that, and ignoring race doesn't "make it go away."

K.