Farrakhan will hold rally for McKinney

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Nation of Cynthia

"The already fiery election campaign between Rep. Cynthia McKinney and Denise Majette is likely to get more heated: Louis Farrakhan is coming to town," writes Bill Torpy of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

"The controversial Nation of Islam leader has scheduled a 6 p.m. rally Saturday in DeKalb County to urge support for McKinney, who is in the tightest race in her 10 years in the U.S. House," Mr. Torpy reports.

Mrs. McKinney has faced an unexpectedly strong Democratic primary challenge in Georgia's 4th District. Both she and Mrs. Majette are black — as are 50 percent of the district's residents — but Mrs. McKinney's pro-Palestinian position and her campaign funds from Arab donors have helped spur opposition.

Mrs. McKinney's campaign manager, Bill Banks, said he knew little about the visit or why Mr. Farrakhan is coming.

"We have a lot of people coming in. They saw what happened to [Rep. Earl] Hilliard in Alabama," Mr. Banks said, referring to a black congressman who was beaten in a Democratic primary by an opponent who raised more than $1 million, much of it from pro-Israel donors concerned about his relations with American Muslims.

Mrs. Majette has raised more than $1.1 million, more than half of that in the past six weeks and much of it coming from out-of-state Jewish donors. Mrs. McKinney has raised about $640,000. More than half of Mrs. McKinney's donors have Arabic names and live out of state.

Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or by e-mail: gpierce@washingtontimes.com.

-- Anonymous, August 16, 2002


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