Irish American Democrats to launch ‘McBLACKPAC’

An Irish-American political action committee will launch the McBLACKPAC super-PAC at the Democratic convention in Charlotte.

The super-PAC aims to help young Irish and young black politicians win state and national elections, according to the Irish American Democrats political action committee.

“Together we will work to elect Democratic candidates to Federal and State office who share our values on civil rights, immigration reform, education, workers’ rights, justice, the environment and economic progress,” the group said in an email this week. “Hope you will join us and look forward to working with you in the next Obama administration.”

{mosads}The groups says it wants to build on the shared history of African Americans and Irish Americans, “from Frederick Douglass and Daniel O’Connell, to President John Kennedy and Rev. Martin Luther King, and now President Barack Obama and Joe Biden.”

The president of the group, Stella O’Leary, said the inspiration for the new PAC comes from Obama’s Irish and Kenyan ancestry. She also acknowledged that the name of the PAC might change, depending on how people react to it.

She said that so far, it has been well-received by the black community, but said she has a back-up name.

“The alternative is Black and Green PAC,” O’Leary said. “It might change to that.”

O’Leary said that because the PAC is just starting up, it will hope to influence elections starting in 2013, especially in Cleveland and Philadelphia, which she said are two cities where Irish and black communities work particularly well together.

“The primary purpose is to get … and increase in Irish-Americans and African-Americans elected,” O’Leary told The Hill. “And as you know the African-American population is underrepresented on the Hill.”