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Sat. Jun 22, 2002

Arab-American dollars shore up McKinney"

”Arab-American dollars shore up McKinney” – This was ”news” two months ago, but I’m thankful the Atlanta Constitution waited to run the story closer to election time, and I’ll give them credit for taking it a step further. I think it’s an important story. And at the end, I’ll tell you about the respect she shows her constituents, and her opponent: she’s a complete no-show.

"The relationship that Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) shares with Arab-Americans runs deeper than her call for more attention to the Palestinian side of the Middle Eastern conflict.

The DeKalb County congresswoman’s connections stretch significantly into the pockets and purses of the Arab-American and Muslim communities.

About one-fourth of the individuals who have contributed to McKinney’s campaigns over the past five years have names that appear to be Arab-American or Muslim, according to an informal study of Federal Election Commission records.

Their contributions total $142,950, a full third of the money McKinney has collected from individuals over the last five years, a review of government records by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution indicates.

Now, maybe it’s not fair to let that figure hang out there by itself with no context. After all, it’s possible that’s the level of Arab funding for all U.S. Representatives.

So the AJC offers us a comparison to a fellow Democrat in the House: "Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), whose district includes part of the largest Arab-American community in the nation, took in $21,525 from individual contributors with names that appear to be Arab-American or Muslim, according to the AJC study. That amount equals not quite 3 percent of Dingell’s $835,893 in campaign contributions over the five-year period."

Now, Georgia Congressional District 4 is mostly comprised of Dekalb County, and in 1990, of 599,830 ancestries reported, 1,784 (0.3%) were Arab, and only 36,492 (6%) said they were ”foreign born.”

Rep. Dingell, a fellow Democrat, with one of the largest Arab communities in the nation within his district, gets less than 3% of his funding from Arab/Muslim individuals. Rep. McKinney, with a 0.3% concentration of Arabs in her district, gets 33% of her funding from such individuals.

"Arab-American leaders, including some who believe their community has been singled out for persecution since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, say the explanation for their generosity is simple: McKinney is a longtime supporter."

Fine, perhaps she should get a job as their lobbyist. But she currently holds the position of Representative of Georiga’s 4th Congressional District. And as someone who lives there, I can tell you, she’s not representing and supporting me. When it comes down to brass tacks, with whom does she side? Not her constituents, but those outside contributors.

As I said, this isn’t exactly news: "McKinney’s relationship with the Arab-American community goes back years. In 1991, as a member of the Georgia House, she admonished President George Bush for attacking Iraq. About two-thirds of her House colleagues angrily walked out [...] At the same time, McKinney’s relationship with members of the Jewish community continues to be strained. Jewish leaders were chagrined in 1996 when her father, Democratic state Rep. Billy McKinney, made anti-Semitic remarks during her re-election campaign for Congress."

But here’s what is news. According to early polls, she’s well on her way to losing office. But she still has a war chest twice that of her opponent, and we all know how money talks in an election. So, if you’ve got an extra $10 or $20, give it to Denise Majette.

It could really make a diffference, as McKinney appears to be running scared. A couple of weeks ago, there was to be a forum featuring McKinney and Majette. I fully intended to go, but I had just returned the previous day from being out of town for my grandmother’s funeral, and well, I just wanted to spend some time at home that night. I figured the debate would be well covered in the local news.

But over the course of the weekend, and the next week, there was no news about the debate whatsoever. I blamed our local rags for not even sending someone to cover the forum, but I was oh-so-wrong.

There was no coverage, because McKinney was a no-show.

"Majette was there, but McKinney’s chief of staff Juanita Cribb showed up in her boss’s place. While McKinney had confirmed her appearance, Cribb told the crowd of young black professionals that something had come up and McKinney had very important business to attend to in Washington, D.C.

The problem is that the House adjourned a day before the forum. So if McKinney had important business, which is certainly possible, it wasn’t Congress’s. McKinney’s office did not return phone calls asking for an explanation."

It’s clear the disrespect of a no-show was aimed at Majette, but it splattered all over McKinney’s constituents as well. She made a commitment to her constituents to show up, and both her supporters and opponents were let down by her not living up to that commitment. She apparently doesn’t think we even deserve the opportunity to compare candidates, face to face.

I guess she’s afraid of what we might see: the truth.