Coming to you from Facebook Live: More Angie Craig Hypocrisy

May 9, 2018

Eagan, MN – Following a Facebook Live video where Angie Craig made numerous contradictory and hypocritical statements, Jason Lewis for Congress Campaign Manager Becky Alery released the following statements.

“On Monday, Angie Craig took her hypocrisy to Facebook, participating in a Facebook Live video with a woman from End Citizens United. The event started with the host applauding Craig for ‘leading by example’ which makes one think she has zero idea of Craig’s past love of corporate dollars, special interest donations, self-funding and outside spending – but only when these dollars benefit her.

“These days it seems to be tough to keep up with the rampant hypocrisy surrounding Craig and her campaign, so we thought we’d help round up the numerous ridiculous statements made in this 12-minute video:

1) Craig ‘backs a 6-year moratorium for lobbyists working for elected officials,’ yet ran in 2016 – just 4 years after she spent $750,000 of her company’s PAC to get a special interest carveout in the Obamacare legislation.

2) Following numerous reports proving her DFL opponent Jeff Erdmann was being ignored by the DCCC and pushed out of the race due to his lack of fundraising prowess, Craig had the gall to say ‘the truth is, any person who wants to serve their community should be able to run for office, it shouldn’t depend on how much money you can raise.’ Guess I missed her standing up for Erdmann due to his treatment, but then again, that would probably have ruined her relationship as DCCC’s handpicked candidate.

  1. Fun Fact: Craig took more than $2.5 million from DCCC in 2016

3) The host listed the ability to self-fund as a barrier to everyday citizens running for office. What she didn’t note, and what Craig failed to disclose, is that Craig herself self-funded, giving her campaign nearly a million dollars in the 2016 cycle.

  1. Fun Fact 2: Craig claimed she would not self-fund in her 2nd attempt, but has already given her campaign more than $20,000 for the 2018 cycle – while a small contribution compared to 2016, it remains beyond what an average citizen running for office would like be able to give him/herself.

4) After the host criticized the amount of outside spending in Minnesota in 2016, Craig said, ‘well, a lot of that got spent against me.’ Let’s go to the scoreboard shall we? Not including the money spent by the NRCC or DCCC, Craig benefited from more than $1.2 million in outside spending. I may not be a mathematician, but $1.2 million is quite a bit more than the $9,000 spent to benefit Jason Lewis.

5) Did Craig catch herself from being against outside money to benefit her in 2018? She started by saying, ‘We’re going to see even more outside spending pouring into this race, and I’m absolutely committed….’ before trailing off. So, it’s about time for someone to ask Craig (although you’ll likely get no answer) whether she plans to refuse outside spending this time around, or just plans to continue to pretend to be against outside money.

6) Craig continued by saying ‘if we’ve got a government being led by special interests and lobbyists, that folks are not fighting for their families.’ Um, am I the only one who remembers that Craig was the largest recipient of donations from the medical supply industry than any other candidate in entire country?Oh, and she has already taken more than $200,000 from special interests this cycle.

7) But, what may be my favorite lie…I mean, line from Craig is, ‘there is not a single corporate dollar in my campaign.’ Again, let’s look at the facts: In 2016, Craig took $129,875 from St. Jude Medical. And this cycle, Craig is currently the top recipient from Abbott Laboratories, the top recipient of money from Best Buy.

“While it may be popular for Democrat candidates to be for campaign finance reforms, it seems Angie Craig should be the last person to be the spokesperson for End Citizens United and this topic.”

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