Submitted by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton on March 25, 2014
KeyWiki.org Page: http://keywiki.org/index.php/Keith_Ellison
Election Facts for 2014:
• Party – Democrat
• State – Minnesota
• Location – Minnesota 5
• First Elected – 2006
• Candidates in 2014:
Keith Ellison – D – Incumbent Undeclared
No Declared Opposition Listed
• State – Minnesota
• Location – Minnesota 5
• First Elected – 2006
• Candidates in 2014:
Keith Ellison – D – Incumbent Undeclared
No Declared Opposition Listed
Keith Maurice Ellison is a Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the 5th District of Minnesota. He is also a Co-Chair on the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and of the Populist Caucus.
Background
Keith Ellison was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He moved to Minnesota in 1987 to attend the University of Minnesota, Law School, where he earned his law degree in 1990.
Keith Ellison has represented the 5th Congressional District of Minnesota in the U.S. House of Representatives since taking office on January 4, 2007. The 5th District includes the City of Minneapolis and the surrounding suburbs. He previously served two terms representing Legislative District 58B in the Minnesota State House of Representatives, from 2003 to 2007.
Ellison is a Muslim convert and was affiliated with the radical Nation of Islam from at least the late 1980s, until he ran for Minnesota State Representative in 1998.
Influence
Keith Ellison was elected as Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus for the 112th Congress. Working together with other members of the Caucus, “Keith helped shape historic health care and Wall Street reform, raise the federal minimum wage, start the process to end the War in Iraq, strengthen veterans’ benefits, combat hate crimes and create guarantees of pay equality for women.”
Ellison serves on the House Financial Services Committee and the House Democratic Steering Committee which determines the party’s platform and committee assignments for Democratic members.
The House Financial Services Committee has jurisdiction over the banking system, stock exchanges and the housing and insurance industries. The committee also handles policy matters including monetary policy, international finance and combating terrorist financing.
The Committee also oversees the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury Department, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Credit Union Administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Export-Import Bank.
Communist Connections
Kathleen Soliah
In February 2000, Ellison gave a speech at a fundraising event sponsored by the Minnesota chapter of the pro-communist National Lawyers Guild, on whose Steering Committee he had served. The event was a fundraiser for a former member of the Maoist-terrorist Symbionese Liberation Army, Kathleen Soliah, after her arrest in St. Paul (under the name “Sara Jane Olson”) for the attempted murder of Los Angeles police officers in 1975.
Though she is white, Ellison referred to Soliah/Olson as a “black gang member” and thus a victim of government persecution. He described her as one of those who had been “fighting for freedom in the ‘60s and ‘70s” and called for her release. (She subsequently pleaded guilty to charges in Los Angeles and to an additional murder charge in Sacramento; she is serving time in California.) He also spoke favorably of cop killers Mumia Abu-Jamal and Assata Shakur, a former Black Liberation Army member who has been hiding in Cuba since 1984 – last year she was placed on the FBI’s domestic terrorist’s list with a one million dollar reward for her capture.
Communist Party Approval
In August 2006, the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) welcomed Ellison’s probable election to Congress, comparing him to the late far left senator Paul Wellstone:
If Keith Ellison is elected in November to represent Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, he will bring to the U.S. House of Representatives a fresh progressive voice in [the] tradition of Paul Wellstone. He will also be the first African American congressman from Minnesota and the first Muslim in the U.S. Congress.
Ellison is a well-known civil rights attorney and an established progressive leader in the Minnesota House of Representatives. He received the Democratic Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party’s endorsement at the district convention in May, enjoys strong support from organized labor, and has been endorsed by the state AFL-CIO.
Peace and justice activists have been volunteering in increasing numbers in the Ellison campaign to refocus attention on Ellison’s program. Ellison calls for immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, a universal, single-payer health care system, protection and extension of civil rights to all, including gays and lesbians, and responsible stewardship of the environment.
In the Minnesota House, Ellison supported legislation to raise the minimum wage. He has spoken at peace rallies in the Twin Cities area. He pledged to fight all attempts to erode the Voting Rights Act. He founded the Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota.
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists Conference
From May 22 to May 25, 2008, the CPUSA founded Coalition of Black Trade Unionists held their 37th International Convention in St. Louis, Missouri.
Rep. Ellison urged delegates to put the housing crisis “in its proper context. We’ve had 30 years of frozen wages. However, in 1984, CEOs made 42 times more than the average worker. But in 2005, CEOs made 411 times more than the average worker. As a result we consume less and borrow more. Our wages stagnate, while the rich get richer.” Ellison called for a “grassroots movement married to legislation.”
Abayomi Azikiwe, Keith Ellison (April 6, 2008)
Michigan Coalition for Human Rights
Detroit Workers World Party leader Abayomi Azikiwe greeted Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota during the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights annual dinner on April 6, 2008. Azikiwe serves as Chairman of the MCHR board.
Meeting with Activists from the September 24, 2010, FBI Raids
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