MINNEAPOLIS — Opponents of 5th District Congresswoman Ilhan Omar have poured millions of dollars into TV and digital ads in the Twin Cities market this summer, in an unprecedented effort to oust the first-term Democrat.
Challenger Antone Melton-Meaux, a Minneapolis attorney and mediator, has outpaced Rep. Omar in the fundraising arena, allowing him to hit the airwaves early and often. The pro-Israel political group Americans for Tomorrow's Future has also spent heavily to run ads in support of Melton-Meaux and against the incumbent.
Omar, who made history in 2018 as the first Somali refugee elected to the US Congress, has responded with ads of her own ads. Her efforts to defend the CD5 seat have been buttressed by the progressive group Take Action Minnesota. Like her adversary, Omar has divided her funds between positive and negative advertising.
On the eve of primary election, we looked at two attack ads in the race. We found both of them mostly factual, but they also omit details that would add more context to the claims.
Americans for Tomorrow's Future
Narrator: "Omar used campaign funds to fix her personal tax returns."
That's true. The Minnesota Campaign Finance Board in 2019 determined that $1,500 of legal work was billed to Omar's campaign for the state legislature, and that work involved fixing 2014 and 2015 tax returns for Omar and then-husband Ahmed Hirsi.
Narrator: "Omar also used her campaign account for personal travel and paid a fine for it."
That too is fact. Omar billed her state legislative campaign for the cost of traveling to a variety of speaking engagements and conferences that weren't directly connected to her historic election to the Minnesota House.
The state board ultimately ordered her to reimburse her state legislative campaign nearly $3,500 and to pay a $500 civil fine. Omar's supporters have explained that these were beginner's errors before she had a full understanding of the nuances of campaign finance laws.
Narrator: "And she's paid her new husband's business over a million dollars in campaign funds."
Again, this is factual. Omar has made no secret of the fact that her campaign has spent more than $1 million with the E Street Group, a political consulting firm. Her husband Tim Mynett is one of the founding partners of that group
What the ad omits is that it's perfectly legal for a federal campaign to hire a candidate's relatives or spouse to perform services. Omar, when questioned about a possible conflict, has asserted that the money paid to the E Street Group is all going to producing and placing ads.
The E Street Group's name appears on the advertising orders the Omar campaign has placed at KARE TV and other broadcasters in the Twin Cities market.
Omar for Congress
We also examined an attack ad the Omar campaign is running against Melton-Meaux.
Narrator: "But as a partner at one of the worst union-busting law firms in the country, Antone Melton-Meaux defended corporations accused of mistreating workers and firing pregnant employees."
It's true Melton-Meaux once worked for Jackson-Lewis, an employment law firm with a full array of services, including advising employers on how to discourage their workers from successfully unionizing. The company has at times become a lightning rod for labor organizations.
The ad highlights a court document from a 2013 lawsuit filed by Isabelle Atem against her former employer, Accurate Homecare. Atem is a nurse and African immigrant who sued Accurate Homecare, alleging she was treated more harshly than her white counterparts and that she was removed from the work schedule after becoming pregnant.
It's true that Melton-Meaux was one of the Jackson Lewis attorneys who represented Accurate Homecare's defense against the lawsuit. Accurate Homecare sought to have the case dismissed, but Judge John Tunheim allowed part of it to go forward.
Atem and Homecare settled out of court. The terms were kept confidential.
Narrator: "He called the MeToo movement a scarlet letter for employers and used non-disclosure agreements to silence women from speaking out against harassment."
It's a fact. Melton-Meaux wrote an article in 2018 in Bench & Bar, the Minnesota Bar Association magazine. In that piece he asked the following question:
"Is #MeToo/Times Up turning sexual harassment settlements into a modern-day scarlet letter 'H' for employers?"
It was part of larger article that talked about the downsides for employers if they refuse to settle those cases out of court and take them to trial out of fear that they'll be targeted for requiring Non-Disclosure Agreements.
In the same article he called the outing of Harvey Weinstein and its social media response part of "a much overdue conversation on the systemic mistreatment of women in the workplace."
As for the charge from the narrator that he "used non-disclosure agreements to silence women from speaking out against harassment" -- that remains a question mark at the time of publication.
KARE was unable to determine if any of the settlements Melton-Meaux participated in using NDA's involved sexual harassment cases.