Are taxpayers subsidizing the campaign of a DFL candidate for Minnesota State House?
The Minnesota Jobs Coalition called on Congressman Keith Ellison to release employment information regarding House District 57A DFL state legislative candidate Erin Maye-Quade.
According to Congressional salary records, Maye-Quade was employed with Representative Ellison’s office through at least June 30th, and a recent article by MinnPost indicates that Maye-Quade remains a full-time employee of his district office. She is listed as a “Community Representative” and was paid $10,625.01 between April 1, 2016 and June 30, 2016.
Alpha News called the office of Rep. Ellison this morning and the receptionist confirmed that Maye-Quade is still employed in his Minneapolis office.
According to the guidelines, there is no absolute prohibition against a staff member becoming a candidate for state or local elective office as long as the candidate has the consent of the employing congressional member, but such activity is subject to a number of restrictions. Some of the restrictions include that “the employee perform congressional duties that are commensurate with the compensation he or she receives from the House – and thus that compensation be reduced proportionately with any reduction in the employee’s time in the congressional office – and that any campaign activity be performed on the individual’s own time, and outside of congressional space.”
Kevin Magnuson, President of the Minnesota Jobs Coalition issued the following statement:
“Congressional ethics guidelines are very clear: careful documentation must be kept to ensure campaign work is not done on official time. Erin Maye-Quade’s social media posts raise serious questions about her arrangement with Rep. Ellison’s office. We urge Rep. Ellison to immediately release Maye-Quade’s employment records to reassure taxpayers that she has not violated congressional ethics guidelines and is putting in the hours commensurate with her taxpayer-funded salary.”
In September, Alpha News reported that the Minnesota Jobs Coalition called out Maye-Quade for controversial tweets on her Twitter account. Maye-Quade is a self described community organizer and has worked as a writer for “The Uptake”, a local news website that calls itself “citizen fueled news.” In a February 4, 2010 tweet that the Jobs Coalition attributes to Maye-Quade it reads: “I’m editing. I feel important because I can make people say things they may not have said…muhahahha.”
The other tweets highlighted by the Minnesota Jobs Coalition dated from 2011 to 2015. Several of the tweets the Jobs Coalition highlighted indicate that they have been deleted from Maye-Quade’s twitter account. The content of those tweets ranges from mocking Viagra’s effectiveness, to profanity laced posts about day drinking, to proclaiming an affinity for sex toys including vibrators and their use on planes.
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