The PCA/DFL campaign cash connections

I wrote the other day about the latest indictment of alleged PCA fraudsters by the state’s Attorney General, Keith Ellison. PCA stands for “Personal Care Assistance,” a Medicaid program administered by state government.

Ellison indicted three figures in the case, which he describes, at $11 million, as the largest PCA/Medicaid fraud in state history.

I mentioned on Twitter (X) that the lead defendant in that case, Abdirashid Said, was a past donor to Ilhan Omar’s (DFL-Minneapolis) state representative campaign fund.

Lately, I have been digging into a case that now ranks as the second-largest PCA-Medicaid fraud in state history. Back in late August, Ellison (himself a Democrat) announced the indictment of five men in a $9.5 million alleged PCA fraud.

I ran those five names through the usual campaign finance websites, and hit on four names.

It turns out that three of the indictees in that August case donated a total of $2,300 to the DFL House Caucus in 2020. One of those three, Ahmed Nur of New Brighton, also donated an additional $4,000 to former DFL Gov. Mark Dayton back in 2014. The fourth man, Ali Yusuf Elmi, donated the maximum $1,000 to the 2022 campaign of state Rep. Samakab Hussein (DFL-St. Paul).

He was not alone. The candidate Hussein raised an incredible $137,000 from large individual donors in 2022. About two dozen of these donors appear to be employed by the PCA industry.

You will recall that another big Minnesota scandal, Feeding Our Future, also featured a lot of campaign cash going to Democrats, in Minnesota and elsewhere. I have searched and searched, and not found a single dollar associated with either scandal going to a Republican.

But, I’ll keep digging.