ICYMI: Omar Primary Challenger Routing Cash Through Mystery Firms

MINNEAPOLIS—A new story delves into the mysterious spending habits of one of the men trying to oust Rep. Omar. This comes after DFL Chair Ken Martin and Attorney General Keith Ellison condemned the corporate and Republican money flowing into the race in an effort to weaken Rep. Omar and the party. As Andrew Perez writes:

Antone Melton-Meaux’s campaign to unseat progressive freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar in Minnesota has paid nearly $1.2 million — 65 percent of his overall spending — to three anonymous companies, a move that circumvents traditional campaign finance disclosure standards.

Melton-Meaux’s filing last week with the Federal Election Commission lists payments of almost $1.1 million to “WCPA” in June for media buys and direct mail, and lists another $223,000 owed to the firm. It’s not entirely clear what company they’re paying — none of the records in OpenCorporates appear to be a match. A company with a similar name, “WPCA, LLC,” was registered in Delaware on May 29. 

A Melton-Meaux spokesperson did not respond to multiple emails from TMI seeking information about the payments.

“The law requires campaigns to report their spending so that the public can know how political campaign money is being spent,” said Brendan Fischer, a lawyer at the Campaign Legal Center. “When 65 percent of a campaign’s spending is flowing through anonymous Delaware LLCs, the public is kept in the dark. Schemes like this hide which individuals or companies are working for the campaign, the nature of the work, and how much they are being paid.”

You can read the full article here.