Creator behind website speaks up

Last update: November 9, 2006 - 8:47 AM

Chris Stewart, a newly elected Minneapolis school board member, on Wednesday admitted responsibility for what the congressional campaign of Tammy Lee termed a "racist hate website."It breaks down to some frat-blog type humor that never was meant to get out to the public and it's completely inconsistent with my politics," Stewart said of the material he termed political satire.

The Lee campaign raised the issue late on Monday, but Stewart didn't return calls until after his election. The Lee campaign hired a cyberinvestigator to dig into the source of the site and named Stewart on Monday.

Stewart said he created the site after reading that Lee had suggested that liberals were too eager to make Keith Ellison the first black and Muslim congressman from the Fifth District. Ellison defeated Lee and Alan Fine for the congressional seat Tuesday. Both Ellison and Stewart are black.

The website has been preserved by the Lee campaign and can be reached via www.startribune.com/a1913.

STEVE BRANDT