LEADER OF THE PACK: KEITH ELLISON

Keith Ellison may be the first Muslim in Congress, but that isn't how he wants you to identify him.

During his campaign, he said, his op-ponents tried to "instill fear based on my religion. I'd go to the communities they were targeting and let them know who I was, what I had planned. I would go and let them know I was an advocate for them."

"I think that when you are a Congressperson, you are probably a role model for a whole lot of people. I could be a role model for people that see themselves as community organizers or for short people, because I'm only 5'7". There could be a whole range. I'm just proud to be who I am."

Ellison, 42, is a lawyer and served in the Minnesota House before being elected to Congress, said that he did not get involved in politics to be elected. "I first got involved in politics [to improve] the lives, qualities and conditions of people, which involved attending community meetings and marching in protests as a teenager." Ellison first ran for the Minnesota House in 1998 but lost the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party's endorsement to Greg Gray. In 2002, he won the race to serve House District 58B in the Minnesota state legislature.

Ellison and his wife Kim are the parents to four children. Originally from Michigan, Ellison moved to Minnesota to attend law school. After graduation he stayed in the state and began to practice law and that's when his political ambitions started to emerge.

He said that his father inspired him, saying, "any jackass can kick down a barn, it takes a carpenter to build one. It's one thing to talk about how there are problems, it's another to go out there and solve them."

When he was younger, he said that he fought to try and fix the societal injustices in the world, but as he got older, and was nudged by his wife, he realized it was time to become constructively involved. "It's one thing to raise issues, but it's another thing to build a world where people of all races, colors and cultures can participate equally in society," he said.

In his campaign to succeed U.S. Rep. Martin Sabo, Ellison said that his biggest obstacle was reaching out to diverse communities. "I had to knit together a fairly diverse coalition and I had to inspire them and make them stick in the coalitions and make sure all factions of our constituency were being heard."

A staunch opponent of the war in Iraq, he hopes for his legacy to be getting the United States out of Iraq by setting the country on a course where peace is the guiding principle and working towards withdrawal of troops. He supports the work of fellow Democratic U.S. Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Jack Murtha.

Other policy priorities for Ellison are health insurance and economic prosperity. He aims for a form of national health insurance and a single-payer health insurance plan. Ellison said there is no reason for poverty to exist in America and to address it Congress needs to create economic opportunities for the middle and working classes.

He hopes his election will inspire other Muslims to define themselves by what they do to work for peace and justice, not just their religion.

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By Theodora A. Blanchfield