Ashwin Madia campaigns again — this time for an end to ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

Ashwin Madia’s campaign for Congress ended on Election Day when he lost the race for the open seat in Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District. Now the former Marine has embarked on another campaign: overturning the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Madia’s rallying cry by e-mail (see below) went to more than 100,000 VoteVets members (and beyond, as Web sites picked up the message). Repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is one of the progressive veterans organization’s priorities for the current legislative session.

(Another VoteVets goal this session –  ending the ban on photographs of soldiers’ caskets at Dover Air Force Base — has already been achieved, and the group takes credit for pressuring the Obama administration through an earlier campaign.)

“I’ll help in any way I can,” said Madia, who had the backing of VoteVets in his congressional campaign, in an interview with the Minnesota Independent. “It’s well past time that we allowed [members of the military] to be who they are while they’re in the service.”

According to VoteVets spokesman Eric Schmeltzer, it’s a first for the group to work with Madia this way: “Madia hasn’t been with VoteVets before, because he was a candidate and that’s how we knew him. But now that he’s not, he’s free to help out.”

The e-mail effort appeared to have met with early success, Schmeltzer told MnIndy, inspiring the submission of 700 letters to the editor (via a click-through online form) in the first hours after its release.

Madia, a Minneapolis attorney, spoke out on the issue during his campaign, citing his professional experience successfully defending a closeted gay Marine from disproportionate legal sanctions, as well as his personal experience having a gay family member. (Not to mention possible gay-baiting implicit in GOP criticism of Madia’s own “demographics.”)

What does he expect to happen next with the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy? “President Obama talked about [repealing] it during his campaign,” Madia said, but he shrugged off a question about whether executive action is imminent on a dicey issue in turbulent times.

“That’s politics,” he said.

Madia’s political future

But politics is no longer a field in which Madia can lay claim to outsider status. In fact, his bruising 3rd District battle left him eager for more, although he’s ruled out a 2010 re-run for Congress. “My goal is to run for office again,” Madia said. “I want to win.”

Even if unsuccessful, his 2008 run brought Madia a high profile and national attention, amid wide speculation that the seat held by former U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad could tip to the Democrats.

“I got a chance to make a lot of good contacts,” Madia acknowledged — among them Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and new White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, whose favor holds particular promise for a possible Washington, D.C., job offer.

But Madia said any such offer would have to be well above the “deputy-assistant-assistant” level to tempt him to leave Minnesota, where he’s determined to “build roots” looking ahead to that next race.

Meanwhile, Madia’s not beyond the reach of tendrils remaining from his last race. There’s campaign debt to retire and the occasional pesky question from a reporter, like what he plans to do about the $2,3o0 donation from Sir Allen Stanford, whose massive financial swindles only came to light in recent weeks. Politicians left and right have been quick to shed Stanford’s tainted campaign cash.

Madia said he hadn’t heard about the controversy and pled ignorance about his Stanford gift.

“It’s tough when you’re in the midst of the campaign,” he said. “Three million dollars came in. It’s tough to vet it.”

Madia’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” e-mail text

Here is the text of Madia’s VoteVets e-mail message:

Dear VoteVets.org Supporter,

Last week, we asked for your help to overturn the ban on photos at Dover Air Force Base, and you responded! In just a couple of hours, you had sent thousands of letters to the Pentagon, demanding change. And, later in the day, the Pentagon announced that the policy would be reversed! Thanks so much for your help. Now, we need you again.

As the President sends more troops to Afghanistan, and focuses our energies on the danger in the region, we at VoteVets.org are reminded that our military is seriously hamstrung by the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. That policy discharges those in the military who are found to be gay or lesbian. I have dealt with discrimination in the military firsthand: as a judge advocate in the Marine Corps, I successfully defended a gay Marine from discharge based on discriminatory treatment.

CLICK HERE TO SEND LETTERS TO YOUR NEWSPAPER, CALLING FOR A REPEAL OF “DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL”

President Obama, during the campaign, said he would overturn the policy, and allow gays and lesbians to openly serve, as they do in a number of militaries around the world – including those who serve side by side with us in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s time that the United States started the process of allowing troops to serve openly. To begin that change, we need your help.

By clicking above, you’ll get to send a Letter to the Editor of your paper, to make the case. To help, we’ll be linking to articles and blogs that will help you learn about the current policy and how it negatively affects America’s military and security. This is just the first step in a long campaign. In the coming weeks and months, we’ll be giving you even more to do, as overturning the policy is one of VoteVets.org’s legislative priorities for this session of Congress – and why we signed on in support of a bill offered by Rep. Ellen Tauscher that would do away with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

There’s good reason to reverse this policy. First and foremost, fighting the danger that we are, we cannot afford to dismiss any qualified, honorable, and able members of our military. For instance, military intelligence is constantly short-handed when it comes to translators. And yet, hundreds of translators have been dismissed since the policy was enacted, including many who speak Arabic, Persian, Pashto, and other languages that will help our military intelligence protect our troops and America. Additionally, at a time when our military is so overextended, allowing members of the military to serve openly, without being discharged, will alleviate the strain so many of our service members feel from repeated deployments.

CLICK HERE TO LET PEOPLE KNOW, IT’S TIME TO LET PEOPLE SERVE OPENLY IN OUR ARMED FORCES

Our military is professional and mature. Changing the policy will not affect how service-members do their jobs, or cohesiveness. In fact, it only will make our military stronger. Help us make it a reality, by clicking above.

Thanks for your support.

Sincerely,
J. Ashwin Madia
Iraq War Veteran
VoteVets.org

And Jon, Brandon, Brian, Peter and the Entire VoteVets.org Team