Don Samuels had raised more funds than Congresswoman Ilhan Omar in his bid to
unseat her.
https://www.startribune.com/samuels-outraises-omar-as-august-dfl-primary-approaches-according-to-new-campaign-finance-reports/600191471/
Wanting to see who was funding the campaign, so I was delighted to take a look
as soon as I got back from a family reunion last night.
The information can be found at
https://www.opensecrets.org/races/contributors?cycle=2022&id=MN05&spec=N which
is a non-partisan website that gets its information from FEC filings.
For those who want to check my own confirmation bias, I will say right away
that I expected Samuels campaign donors to be heavily wealthy, establishment
Democrats, while those donating to Congresswoman Omar would be heavily unions
and more progressive groups. I found that to be quite true again, just as it
was in the Antone Melton-Meaux challenge 2 years ago. The main difference I
found was the visible Melton-Meaux money was obviously from demonstrable
Islamaphobe sources, whereas I have not yet found that with Samuels money.
In other words, most of my confirmation bias proved out. Challenges so Omar
spring mostly from a desire to silence her voice in Congress. Some are
Republicans. Some are corporate Democrats. In the case of Melton-Meaux, quite a
few were really right-wing Zionists who often donate to Republicans but
sometimes to Democrats. I didn't see this last with the Samuels donors, but
that may be that they already accomplished their smears two years ago, by
pulling Omar statements out of context or merely fabricating them, attempting
to paint the Congresswoman as anti-Semitic.
Getting into the weeds somewhat, here is what I found of the top Samuels
donors:
Doran Companies, a huge local construction company,
David Mcclennan, wealthy Cargill CEO,
Unity Avenue Associates, plumbing and heating services,
Ravich Meyer, real estate law and lobby firm,
Goldman Sachs, ($50 B in revenue), revolving door with govt, support of
dictatorships overseas, heavy Republican donor, plus "Democrat Kyrsten Sinema,
Allen Lanzmeier, ($53 M compensation last year), American Telecare Exec
Marquette Companies LLC (the Pohlad holding company),
Minnesota Twins, owned by Pohlads,
Hylden Advocates, law and lobbying, previous Melton-Meaux donor)
Accenture, ($51 B in 2021 revenue), business strategy and lobbying,
Askov Findlayson, high-end parkas
Bank of America, (#2 bank in US, #8 in world, $89 B revenues), accusations of
insider trading with Parlamat, consumer credit issues, insurance kickbacks,
coal mining investment, etc.
My bottom-line: We are going to see this sort of funding by Republicans and
corporate Democrats, motivated by a strong desire to silence a strong
progressive voice in Congress, that of Ilhan Omar.
I want to be very clear that I intend absolutely no smear of Don Samuels
himself. My point is that right-wing and monied Democratic sectors are using
him to unseat Congresswoman. I believe they have chosen yet another
fundamentally honorable and religious Black Democrat to hide their fundamental
intent, silencing a progressive voice.
The only real criticism I have of Don Samuels here is the contribution from
Lights On! For those who don't know that group, it is an absolutely wonderful
organization begun by Don Samuels that raises money for certificates that
police officers may hand out instead of equipment violations, a significant
cause of Black motorist deaths in presumptive traffic stops. I have high
praise for Lights On! I believe they will save lives, but only criticize this
contribution to an individual office-seeker's campaign. I have already written
to Don Samuels, hoping that he will return this particular donation. I hope he
does.