Dirty tricks in Minnesota/Minneapolis politics

[pegkerr]

I just ran across this story, which certainly, I think is going to affect my school board vote is certainly, um, interesting, but may simply be a dirty trick for which I don't want to fall. I had planned to vote for Keith Ellison, but just today (yeah, yeah, last minute) started looking more closely at Tammy Lee, the Independent candidate. I clicked over the the Rake Magazine to see their endorsement of Lee, and this ugly little mess caught my eye. An ugly, racist parody of Tammy Lee's website has [tentatively? possibly?] been linked to a School Board Candidate, Chris Stewart, who is supporting Ellison [or is it?]. News to me. Anyone know about this? I'd like to learn what's what before voting for Chris Stewart for school board, which I had planned to do.

Anyone know anything further about this?

Edited to add: Yeah, it does have all the hallmarks of a dirty trick to try to make Stewart look bad, doesn't it? So . . . who's playing the trick then?

Yeesh.

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

David Brauer, who runs the Minneapolis Issues mailign list, and who also publishes whatever the Skyway News is called now, had this to say about it:

'The connection to Stewart seems quite specious at the moment (based on Eva's
rather speculative chain-of-causality, with no smoking gun) - not to mention
nonsensical given Chris's campaign for the school board. Why would, as Eva
notes on her website, a "self-described conservative" want to help liberal
ol' Keith?

'If I had to guess - and I think that's all we're really doing - I'd say the
badly done site was either a misguided or intentional attempt to harm two
black candidates - Ellison, by trying to drag him into a dirty tricks
battle, and now Stewart.

'Let's vote on the stuff we know and not the 24th-hour sideshow.'

HTH,

K.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Do you really find it credible that Chris Stewart would be responsible for this? Why on earth would he do that? Do you think he is massively stupid? If so, don't vote for him; we certainly don't need stupid school board members. Otherwise, I think you should assume that this is one of those "dirty tricks" one hears so much about in politics today. Somebody else put up the site and then disseminated the rumor that Stewart is responsible, waiting until the last POSSIBLE moment to do it, because they know it won't take long for the trick to be debunked. Don't fall for it.

Personally, I chose not to vote for Mr. Stewart because of the line in his bio about being a director of a "faith-based" organization. There is nothing essentially wrong with that, and it might not be a negative for you, but it was for me. I'm a little paranoid about religious conservatives sneaking onto the School Board under the radar.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I don't know whether this is credible because I don't have any familiarity with Mr. Stewart, which is why I was asking for further information.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I don't find it credible that ANY serious candidate would do something like this. What motive could he have? It is far more likely to help Ellison than hurt him, and the only possible effect it could have on his own candidacy is a negative one. All I know about Stewart is what I read in the Strib Voter's Guide, but his list of credentials makes it unlikely that he is a raving nutcase.

But if he really is a "self-described conservative," as your other respondent suggests, you might want to vote against him for that reason. Or not, depending on what "conservative" suggests to you.

I do wish I had been following the School Board race a little more closely. What with all the hoohah at the top of the ticket, I completely forgot there even WAS a School Board race. I should have known, though, because I voted in the primary. Seems like an awfully long time ago, though.

[(Anonymous)]

I suspect a smear aimed at both Stewart and Ellison.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Sorry, that was me.

[joelrosenberg.livejournal.com]

I don't know Stewart, but I do know Ellison casually. He's far too smart to be behind something like this; he's a shoo-in, and knows it. Why mess around for the difference between an incredibly easy slide into the job and an equally incredibly easy slide into the job?

It's not like he really has to work to get the gig; why work and cheat?

(That said, I think he'll be a dreadful Congressman -- a smarter, less-crazy-looking Jihad Cindy McKinney -- but this very much isn't his style.)

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

No, I never thought it was Ellison either.

[mplsvala.livejournal.com]

I am thrilled with the prospect of sending a Muslim to congress to argue about the War on Terror for us. Seems like the right thing to do.

[mplsvala.livejournal.com]

I'm confused. The parody page links to the KKK web site. Looks like KKK stuff, says it's KKK stuff, why think Stewart or Ellison have anything to do with the KKK? The whole rumor process is wierd.

[mplsvala.livejournal.com]

Actually, the really icky thing I noticed was that the KKK site is selling Irish stuff. WTF? What does a shamrock have to do with the KKK? Icky, icky! That part of the link looks like a regular religious store type thing. Gods, I hope I haven't bought something from these clowns.