The son of Wisconsin gurdwara president Satwant Singh Kaleka, who was killed in last year’s mass shooting by a white supremacist, plans to run as a Democrat for US Congress, taking on the formidable Republican incumbent, Congressman Paul Ryan, who was also the party’s vice-presidential candidate in the last White House race.
“There’s a fever in the nation, and specifically in this district, for our leaders to stop playing politics and do their jobs. All I want to do is bring democracy — a Government of, for and by the people — back to America,” Amar Kaleka told The Associated Press in Milwaukee. The 35-year-old Kaleka proposed to file papers on Wednesday to form an exploratory congressional committee, with a formal announcement of his candidacy next month.
Attributing his planned run to his father’s killing in the gurdwara massacre, Kaleka said: “It is definitely a reason for why I’m running because he was gunned down in such a way that it opened my eyes to a lot of things that are going around.”
Attacking the Republicans for the current paralysis in Washington over the Government shutdown and debt ceiling, Kaleka targeted Ryan, who is the House Budget Committee chairman. “He (Ryan) is in his 13th year (in Congress). I think it’s about time we look at a different contender,” he said, commenting that Wisconsin citizens were tired of career politicians like Ryan who “care more about staying in power than serving the people”.
He claimed that Ryan rarely visits his constituency – Wisconsin’s first Congressional district.“There’s a fever in the nation, and specifically in this district, for our leaders to stop playing politics and do their jobs. All I want to do is bring democracy – a government of, for and by the people – back to America,” he said.
The Wisconsin massacre is thought to have the potential to give some heft to Kaleka’s political debut.
Six Sikhs, including Kaleka’s father, were killed in the massacre at the Oak Creek Gurdwara in suburban Milwaukee on August 5 last year. The gunman, Wade Michael Page, then took his life by shooting himself in the head after he was shot in the stomach by a police officer.
Kaleka has been making documentary films in California for the past four years, winning an Emmy award for his 2010 direction of Jacob’s Turn, about a boy with Down syndrome.