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NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with
power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Israeli Heritage Republican vs. Chinese Born Democrat - A Melting Pot Election


Republican Elan Carr (L) and Democrat State Sen. Ted Lieu

The Melting Pot Election
  • Republican Elan Carr is the son of an Iraqi-born Jewish mother and an Ashkenazi father. While serving in the Army in Iraq, Carr would regularly lead Shabbat services for fellow soldiers — lighting Hanukkah candles at Saddam Hussein’s presidential palace.  Carr is fluent in both Hebrew and Iraqi Arabic.
  • Carr will face another candidate also living the American Melting Pot Dream - Democrat State Senator Ted Lieu who was born in Taipei, Taiwan.  He holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the U. S. Air Force Reserves. He served on active duty for 4 years as a member of the JAG Corps.


With his strong ties to Israel, Republican Elan Carr came out ahead as the large field of Westside Los Angeles Democrats split the vote in Tuesday's congressional primary. Carr will face Democrat State Sen. Ted Lieu in the November general election.

Republican Elan Carr was the top vote-getter among a field of 18 candidates vying for a chance to advance to the general election.

Carr received 21.5 percent of the vote ahead of Lieu's 19 percent and Wendy Greuel's 16.8 percent.

Lieu, who had the backing of the state’s Democratic establishment, spent just over $1 million on the campaign.  Former DreamWorks executive Greuel enjoyed the backing of Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen and rolled up a bit more than $900,000 in campaign contributions.

Republican Carr, an Iraq war veteran and gang prosecutor with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, raised $423,000 says the Hollywood Reporter.

Elan Carr lives the immigrant American Dream.

After law school, Carr accepted a position at a prestigious New York law firm, practicing commercial litigation. He left in the mid-’90s to become a legal adviser to Israel’s Ministry of Justice, where he helped create Israel’s first public defender’s office, now a major institution in the criminal justice system.
 
Upon his return to the US in 1997, Carr moved to Los Angeles and joined the military, a decision he’d always considered. “I wasn’t going to make [the army] a career, but I said, ‘In some small way, I want to shoulder a portion of the burden of defending the United States,’ ” he says.

“Here I was, a military officer landing in Iraq, helping Iraqis create a free, democratic society,” he says of his thinking at the time. “It is never a good thing to go to war, but I was thrilled at this particular mission.”

Carr wasn’t the first member of his family to enter an Iraqi courtroom. His grandfather, once a prominent leader of Baghdad’s Jewish community, also appeared repeatedly in legal settings — but in his case as an unwilling participant in show trials, staged as part of Iraq’s anti-Semitic response to the establishment of Israel in May 1948.
 
Carr grew up hearing stories about his grandfather, a descendant of Abdallah Somekh, a chief rabbi of Baghdad in the 19th century. Despite Iraq’s long history as home to a large, flourishing Jewish community, the country was roiled by anti-Semitic violence in the years leading up to Israel’s founding, and Carr’s grandfather was already planning the family’s escape to Australia when he was imprisoned.

Read more: The Times of Israel.com

From Elan Carr's Website

Elan Carr is the son of immigrants.

His mother fled to Israel from Iraq after watching her father be taken away by Iraqi authorities.  His step-father fled to Israel from Nazi-occupied Bulgaria.

Both eventually immigrated to the United States and became proud American citizens.  Elan’s mother, father, and step-father modeled the importance of living lives of service and civic responsibility. These examples led Elan to dedicate himself to public service.


Carr in Baghdad
Determined to serve his country, Elan joined the United States Army a few months before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. He graduated first in a class of 75 officers in his Officer Basic Course, and then graduated first in a class of 150 officers in his Officer Advanced Course.  When U.S. troops entered Iraq in 2003, Elan volunteered to deploy to the very place from where his family had fled as Jewish refugees.

While in Iraq, he helped to lead an anti-terrorism team of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) in life-saving missions throughout Baghdad and much of the country.  He then prosecuted terrorists and insurgents who attacked American troops. Those prosecutions were conducted in an Iraqi court, which marks the first time that U.S. military officers litigated in an Arab court.

He continues to serve as to this day in the U.S. Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps.
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Due to his intimate knowledge and first-hand experience with Israel and the Middle East, Elan was invited by Israel’s Ministry of Justice to help create a public defender’s office in Israel – the first in the country’s history.

Having fought terrorists in Iraq, Elan turned his attention to fighting criminals on our streets.  Upon returning from Iraq, he joined the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office as a Deputy District Attorney. Over the last seven years as a felony prosecutor, Elan has prosecuted some of LA’s most notorious criminal street gangs.

Also see Elan Carr for Congress.




Where the Elite Meet
California's 33rd Congressional district takes in the super wealthy communities of Malibu, Beverly Hills, West Los Angeles, the People's Republic of Santa Monica and other coastal towns.

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