The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) has put money on Congressman Frank Mrvan (D-IN) over his Republican challenger, Jennifer-Ruth Green, ahead of November’s midterm election.
According to a report from The Daily Caller, the CBC donated $5,000 to Mrvan’s reelection campaign — which is currently classified as a “toss-up” by RealClearPolitics — in spite of the fact that Mrvan is white and Green happens to be black.
According to the U.S. government archives, “The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) was established in 1971 to put forth policy and legislation that ensured equal rights, opportunity, and access to Black Americans and other marginalized communities. It is a non-partisan body made up of African American members of Congress.”
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But in recent years, CBC leadership has made it clear that political affiliation carries as much weight as race with regard to membership. When Congressman Byron Donalds (R-FL) attempted to join the caucus, he was repeatedly rebuffed.
“The sad reality is although the Congressman and those in the CBC share the same race, the (R) behind his name disqualifies him from membership today,” said Harrison Fields, a spokesperson for Donalds at the time.
The race for Indiana’s 1st Congressional District was already hotly contested — and the recent leak of Green’s military records only served to raise the temperature.
Green was allegedly the victim of a sexual assault while serving, and she has said that her career was stymied after she reported the incident despite being warned not to by her superiors. After Politico published a piece including information that could only have come from her military personnel file — including details of the alleged assault — Green blamed Mrvan’s campaign team for “illegally obtaining” the information and shopping it to media.
Mrvan has denied the claim, and Politico initially claimed that the information came to the outlet by way of a public records request from someone outside Mrvan’s campaign.
The Air Force appeared to dispute that, stating that the release of any personnel records would first have to be approved and then the records would be redacted in order to prevent the accidental release of sensitive information.
“We cannot confirm any documents on this individual were released by the Department of the Air Force under the Freedom of Information Act. In general, any release of information that, if disclosed, would invade another individual’s personal privacy would be reviewed under Exemption FOIA 5U.S.C. §552 (b)(6) with redactions made to ensure compliance with the law. Each document would be reviewed on a case by case basis,” an Air Force spokesman told Fox News Digital.
