MPR’s Tom Scheck reports that State Representative Keith Ellison has won the DFL nomination for Minnesota's Fifth Congressional seat. Ellison won a hard-fought primary contest against six other DFL candidates, including a former state senator and a former DFL Party chair. Ellison's victory makes him a heavy favorite to replace Congressman Martin Sabo, who is retiring from the seat. But Ellison's Republican opponent says he will continue to question Ellison's character, a campaign tactic that Ellison's DFL opponents used with little success.
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TOM SCHECK: In the end, Ellison's victory wasn't as close as the campaigns and the prognosticators predicted. Ellison garnered 41% of the vote. Former DFL party Chair Mike Erlandson was second with 31% of the vote, and former state Senator Ember Reichgott Junge was third with 21% of the vote. Ellison's supporters crowded into an Ethiopian restaurant in Minneapolis. They cheered with every vote count, showing Ellison pulling ahead of his opponents and when Ellison's opponents conceded defeat.
SPEAKER 1: Ladies and gentlemen, the next Congressman from the 5th District, Keith Ellison.
TOM SCHECK: Ellison said from the start that he was going to run an unconventional campaign that would rely on both core DFL supporters and unlikely voters. After winning the party endorsement in May, Ellison targeted likely primary voters with campaign literature touting his opposition to the war in Iraq, support for single payer universal health care, and his strong stands against the Bush administration.
He also focused on getting African-Americans, Somali immigrants, and residents from the North side of Minneapolis to the polls. Those groups don't typically vote in high numbers in primary elections. Ellison told his supporters that his strategy worked.
KEITH ELLISON: In this election, we had people who say, shalom.
SPEAKER 2: Shalom.
[APPLAUSE]
KEITH ELLISON: We had people who say, assalamu alaikum.
[APPLAUSE]
KEITH ELLISON: We had people who say all the words of greeting to each other in peace, because peace must be the guiding principle of our nation.
[APPLAUSE]
TOM SCHECK: Ellison's victory takes him one step closer to being the first Muslim elected to Congress, and the first African-American Congressman in Minnesota history. He says he'll work to unify Democrats after a long and often bruising campaign. Former DFL party Chair Mike Erlandson says he intends to back the entire DFL ticket, including Ellison, in November. Erlandson served as Congressman Sabo's chief of staff and had Sabo's endorsement.
Sabo campaigned heavily for Erlandson over the past few weeks, recording a Radio ad, knocking on doors, and appearing in campaign literature. Those efforts weren't enough, and Erlandson won't be able to replace his former boss in January.
MIKE ERLANDSON: The reality is it was a good campaign. It was a hard fought campaign. We battled it out. It's not the Olympics, so there's no silver medal in politics.
TOM SCHECK: Ember Reichgott Junge also expressed disappointment with the outcome. She raised more money than the other candidates, ran the most television ads, and had the backing of EMILYs List, a national organization that backs female candidates who support legalized abortion. Reichgott Junge told supporters she will also throw her support behind Ellison.
EMBER REICHGOTT JUNGE: I want to first congratulate Keith Ellison. He will be going on to Congress. I congratulate him, and I wish him well in his role in going forward and in the United States Congress, where I expect that he will serve.
TOM SCHECK: Reichgott Junge and others believe Ellison will have a relatively easy time in the November election because Minnesota's Fifth congressional district is a DFL stronghold. Congressman Sabo overwhelmingly won in the district that includes Minneapolis and several suburbs. But victory isn't a certainty for Ellison, especially after his past has been questioned by some in the district.
The criticism includes his past relationship to the nation of Islam, having his driver's license suspended for not paying parking tickets, and fines for failing to properly file his campaign finance reports as a state lawmaker. Ellison will now face independence party member Tammy Lee, Republican Alan Fine, and Green Party candidate Jay pond in the November election. Republican Alan Fine says he will continue to make Ellison's character an issue throughout the campaign.
ALAN FINE: Having a person like this running for US Congress, with the background that he has and the things that have been revealed about him, we should all be concerned, as Minnesotans, having someone like Keith Ellison representing us.
TOM SCHECK: The Republican Party of Minnesota also sent out a news release characterizing the DFL party as shifting from the party of Humphrey to the party of Ellison. Ellison says he'll continue to run a positive campaign and will work to turn out more voters in the November election for his candidacy and the rest of the DFL ticket. Reporting from Minneapolis, I'm Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio news.