With a Little
Push We Should Be Making History!
By Reverend Meg Riley
Minnesota
I'm up to my elbows in the
Keith Ellison campaign. We had anticipated that,
following the endorsement by the DFL (our Dem
party), his election would be something of a shoe-in.
But we're actually not sure that's true anymore.
There's a (white) woman running on the Independence
party who is tremendously well funded. She's got
well-done TV ads (which the Ellison campaign can't
begin to afford). There is also much more anti-Muslim,
anti-Black backlash, than I would have hoped ...
not terribly surprising, but mightily disappointing.
The upshot is that Ellison is working way too
hard raising money right now, when he should be
campaigning in the suburbs and other places that
don't know him, here in Minnesota. Currently,
he's scheduled to be out of town -- Florida, California,
Michigan -- 9 out of the 24 days before the election,
which is from my way of thinking not where he
should be at all for the home stretch. Mostly,
when he travels, he is meeting donors, many of
them Muslim.
CAIR is involved with his trip to Florida. Of
course, his detractors are making much of that,
and some members of the Jewish community are quite
upset. The Republicans are unashamedly calling
him a terrorist, and while we know the Republican
candidate can't win here, they could stir up enough
agita and doubt to allow the Independent Party
to slip someone in.
So what I am asking is if you would know some
folks who could
quietly send Keith money for the campaign without
making him travel, meet and greet, etc. The upper
limit in Minnesota for individual donations is
2,100. If just twenty or thirty people could donate
that amount, it would enable him to stay put instead
of exhausting himself flying around! But smaller
donations are also welcome! The easiest way to
make donations is by going to the website, www.KeithEllison.org.
My dear friend, Amy Lange, is Keith's campaign
administrator, and a
wonderful Jewish activist in the bridge-building
tradition of Steven Jacobs. I have cc'ed her here,
and can assure you that she would be happy to
work with you to get an official letter from Keith
asking for support, or whatever else would help
you to be able to move this forward. She could
also probably engineer a conference call where
potential donors could listen to Keith speak on
the phone. I can't even begin to imagine other
options, but I am sure there are many!
We remain so excited to have the first Muslim
in Congress be thoroughly progressive, and to
come from Minnesota! And Keith is one of the most
amazing spiritual leaders I have ever met. I could
not respect or admire him more, and believe that
he could make a tremendous difference in this
horrific time. But we're really needing some help
to make the dream a reality!
Do you have any thoughts, ideas, suggestions?
(This letter was written to Dr Nazir Khaja, prominent
community member, by Reverend Meg Riley)
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