The City Pages, Minneapolis’ alt-weekly newspaper, published a story this week about the owner of a popular bar turning up in the donations records of former KKK leader David Duke's unsuccessful senate campaign report:
Duke's campaign ended badly, though not nearly as badly as you'd hope. Duke was eliminated after the first round of the statewide open primary, where he managed to win 3 percent, or more than 58,000 votes. This result was probably lost on most Minnesotans, though it appears one of us was actively rooting for Duke: Julius Jaeger De Roma, owner of Clubhouse Jäger bar in the North Loop of Minneapolis.
De Roma donated $500 to Duke’s campaign. When approached by local news station WCCO , De Roma said “whatever”:
"Well, whatever," De Roma says. "What do you expect? It's basically something that is blown up beyond what it should be."
You can hear De Roma's comments, made through his front door screen door, and see an interview with a heartbroken, now unemployed bartender who has a star of David tattoo visible behind her ear. After the report surfaced, shocked employees met and the full staff quit, along with several contract employees and the bar is now closed:
If De Roma intends to reopen the bar, he'll need a new set of employees.
Sources close to Club Jäger say some staff quit shortly after City Pages first inquired about De Roma, and the $500 he gave to the white nationalist's U.S. Senate campaign last October. A staff meeting was called to inform employees of the news on Monday, and some immediately decided they couldn't work another shift at the popular Minneapolis bar.
It’s unfortunate because it sounds like the owner was not part of the day-to-day operations and now a lot of people who worked at the bar are looking for work.
Sadly, the City Pages reports a group of people rallied to De Roma’s defense and showed up at the bar on Tuesday:
Callahan says bar workers told him a small group of patrons -- people staff didn't recognize as customers from any night before -- actually showed up in support of De Roma on Wednesday night. The combined "weirdness" of those two days convinced management to open the bar one last night, then close it for good.
Club Jager isn’t the only building De Roma owns in Minneapolis. The Huge Improv Theater currently has its home in a De Roma property and they released one hell of a statement, taking the opportunity to “formally tell Nazis and the KKK that they can fuck straight off."
See more in this WCCO report: