wow. Omar has lost the confidence of the Star Tribune: https://www.startribune.com/fifth-d...ntegrity-and-progress/572020522/?refresh=true excerpt: The DFL primary contest between first-term Rep. Ilhan Omar and Antone Melton-Meaux for Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District has become one of the fiercest in the country. After careful consideration and interviews with both, the Star Tribune Editorial Board recommends Melton-Meaux, a first-time candidate with strong progressive values that align well with the district, as well as consensus-building skills honed as a professional mediator. *** Omar’s 2018 victory launched her into the national spotlight as the first Muslim woman and first refugee elected to Congress. But her time has been marred by missteps, including remarks on Israel widely regarded as anti-Semitic, an outsized number of missed votes, and campaign-finance issues. Interestingly, the DFL Party has chosen to make an issue of Melton-Meaux’s finances, filing a late complaint that his campaign used “shadow” companies for his bid, a step the campaign told supporters was necessary because the Democratic Party blacklists companies that work for the challenger to an incumbent. That gave Lee Hayes, a spokesman for Melton-Meaux’s campaign, a chance to note that Omar has sent more than $1.6 million to her husband’s D.C. political consulting firm, E Street Group, and is herself the target of a Federal Election Commission complaint regarding travel expenses. It is just these kinds of ethical distractions that the Fifth District could do without. In the Editorial Board interview, Omar took little responsibility for her rocky start, instead largely blaming her critics and saying her failing was perhaps in not realizing what a “special unicorn” she would be in Congress. more at the link
I don't know much about the Star Tribune but if they think a dude who is anti-union is a progressive I really want to know what they consider moderate or conservative. The dude seems to be a pretty obvious neoliberal. I mean he shares the same donors as Mitch ****ing McConnel.
For anyone wondering Ilhan Omar has won her primary by about 58% to 40%. Antone Melton-Meaux has conceded. This pretty much guarantees she’ll be reelected
Actually not getting endorsed by the StarTribune was a big deal. For a House primary incumbency carries a huge advantage and quite often the incumbent get's token or no opposition. I was pretty sure that Omar was going to win the primary but 42% opposition isn't something a House incumbent should feel good about. As someone who voted for Melton-Meaux I will say again that while she grabs a lot of attention she isn't that good of a Rep. She misses a lot of votes and the situation with her campaign manager now husband while not outrightly illegal was unethical.
You know you voted for someone who shares donors with Mitch Mcconnell right? Melton-Meaux's average donation was 650 dollars while Ilhan's was 18 dollars. Shows who is the corporate candidate and who is the candidate of the people.
Yes so what.. That doesn't mean Melton-Meaux is Mitch McConnell or that he's beholden to him. It's an enemy of my enemy is my friend situation. Being the candidate of the people based upon donations is no guarantee someone is going do well. Especially in Minneapolis. We had a Green Party candidate win a City Council Seat in the district next to mine who ran an insurgent grassroots campaign against the better funded DFL opponent. That person was an awful Councilor and had to resign because of scandal. I don't base my support or opposition of candidates based upon their average donor. I know it's a metric that people like to throw around to show grass roots support but it's not an indicator of how they perform in office. For example Donald Trump has a lot of small money donors.
Donald Trump has a lot of small money donors AND corporate donors. I would agree with your premise that campaign contributions isn't a sole criterion. However you completely dismissing it as nothing is silly in my opinion. I'm sorry but you'll never convince me that a difference between 600 dollar average campaign donations and 18 dollars for average campaign donations isn't a massive difference that has real implications. Omar is a victim of her ethnicity and religion. The scrutiny she recieves wouldn't be the same if she was a non-hijabi. She got gutted for corruption when all the FEC could find was 3500 dollars misplaced and a 500 dollar civil fine, something that pretty much every campaign is guilty of. Her being Muslim also turns any criticism of Israel into "she's an anti-semite". She has been portrayed as a 9/11 sympathizer because she said "some people did something and now Muslims are being harrased for being Muslims" (paraphrase). She has been smeared to the gutter and a lot of it has to do with her background. Every Muslim legislator from Talib to Ellison so far had to endure these type of attacks. It's sad honestly. Just out of pure transparency sake why would you accept donations from someone who donated to one of the most villainous Republicans in the eyes of Democrats? Seems like easy attack campaign material.
This is exactly the kind of stuff why I didn't vote for Omar. "Defund the Police" has turned into an absolute mess for the Minneapolis City Council. The other night the council spent hours listening to residents complaining about the situation and in the meantime Council President Lisa Bender has decided to not to seek reelection. Omar won her election and won't be up again for two more years but likely the Minneapolis city council will look very different after elections next year. She can continue to throw out rhetoric that gets people fired up without bearing the cost of trying to fix it.
Sorry I missed this earlier. I have no doubt Omar is attacked for being a Muslim and I will agree that much of the attacks are vile and racist. That doesn't mean that she is a good representative or her other issues should be overlooked. That there are bigots out there who don't like her as a constituent doesn't mean I should give her a pass regarding doing her job well. Also regarding her fines yes she was fined. That said her marrying her campaign manager following the situation with her campaign fines while not illegal certainly doesn't look well. It's not illegal but it's shady and if a Republican had done this I suspect there would be a lot more criticism.
Yeah I mean she missed Obama’s point completely and shows she’s not serious about Governing and cannot separate the difference between activism and governing. As an activist yeah slogans to provocate work. But as a governing leader your goal is to actually legislate and make that legislation pass. You must sell your ideas to the ENTIRE country. I think AOC certainly gets this. I follow her enough to know she’s certainly grown in this respect even if she’s steadfast in aggressively standing firm in what she believes... she understands talking through to average Americans on these ideas. Omar only seems interested in preaching to the choir and her own liberal neighbors. Like it or not... deserved or not.... Democrats have to speak to conservative white people. Trying to score points by going after Obama when he has pretty damn good advice here just shows her immaturity in her ability to be a governing leader vs just an activist.
A thousand dollar fine dude. The fine was over accounting errors, not intentional fraud. You know the Obama campaign and pretty much every campaign in existence will have small fines like these because there will always be some small errors when you are receiving millions of dollars in donations. This tells me you still have some irrational hate for her when you are stretching a accusations like this as potentially neferious. These are right wing tactics to stretch the truth like this to paint some hidden neferious intent. And you probably didn't know about Obama's campaign being fined 400 grand until Trump bought it up because the media probably thought it wasn't important. Notice how you know about Omar's 500 fine. It's because the media wanted you to know because Omar doesn't have the same protections as Obama from the media. Is it racism? Nah. Most likely it's because Omar is sincerely progressive and the media and establishment politicians hate that and you accept their framing without any intellectual curiousty in this specific matter.
Sure it was a small fine but as I said there are things that are legal but not ethical. Funneling money to a campaign adviser who you're having an affair with and then later marrying is pretty shady. Again would you be defending that if this was a Republican? I just wrote regarding Austin Mayor Adler that we have to look at the overall totality of what politicians do. That said things like Adler violating his own restrictions certainly should be called out. In the case of Omar this should be called out but with Omar there is more to criticize. Her missing many votes, her rhetoric on Israel has frequently veered into anti-Semitism and her latest rhetoric regarding "Defund the Police" while her district is in chaos over this has been very unhelpful.
Never at one point has her criticism of Israel has veered into anti-semtism and I'm betting my left nut it has a lot to do with her wearing a hijab as people make that assumption about Muslims when they criticize Israel. And again, the fact you know about a 500 dollar campaign finance violation fine from Omar and never knew about a 400 grand campaign finance violation fine from the Obama campaign untill Trump was spamming it should give you insight on what type of politicians are held more closer to the microscope where the media becomes far more critical. And you should ask yourself why that is the case. I'm done with this conversation with you. You have an obvious unhinged hatred of her.
Even many House Democrats her colleagues criticized her rhetoric as anti-Semitic. Remember she herself said she would do a better job and try to get more educated on the issue. Yes as a constituent who would like a House Representative who does their job and follows ethics means I have an unhinged hatred..
A 500 dollar ****ing fine dude. Again ask yourself why that 500 dollar fine was reported far more than Obama's 400 grand fine. Just have some basic intellectual curiousty. Oh wow, some house Democrats agreed. That changes my mind. Unhinged hatred. I bet my left nut that she wouldn't be called anti-semetic if she didn't wear a hijab and was white.
Why did a certain poster(OSTrigonum) only reply with Omar's tweet when Booker and Bowman said similar things. I know why. Just putting it out there.
