A multimillionaire is aiming to take out Rep. Diane Black. | John Shinkle/POLITICO Sharia law, super PACs roil primary

Tennessee multimillionaire Andy Miller has been warning for years about the lurking threat he says Sharia law poses to America. But this summer, his anti-Islam campaign has become the main act of a riveting Middle Tennessee congressional race, as Miller has pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into a pair of super PACs aiming to take out GOP freshman Rep. Diane Black in her Thursday primary.

Black’s sin, according to Miller, is not taking the danger of Islam seriously enough. And he has found an ideological soul mate in Lou Ann Zelenik, a tea party activist and former construction company executive who lost to Black in 2010 by a mere 283 votes.


Zelenik launched a rematch this year. And a centerpiece of her campaign, again, is her opposition to the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, a project that’s drawn national attention and cast the city of 110,000 as a hot spot of religious intolerance.

Though Black is still likely to win — she is one of the wealthiest members of Congress and has spent more than $1 million of her own funds on the race — Miller has made it less than a sure thing. His outsize role underscores the power a single donor who’s determined to advance an agenda or settle a score can wield in the post- Citizens United era of free-spending super PACs.

In an interview, Miller argued that Black refused to throw her weight against the planned mosque during her first congressional campaign two years ago. He called Black naive and dismissive of the creeping influence of Sharia law, the code of Islamic beliefs and practices, on U.S. courts.

“I don’t think she believes there is a problem with Islam,” Miller said. “She doesn’t understand it. She doesn’t care about it. She has no knowledge of it.”

“She wouldn’t entertain talk about it in the campaign in 2010,” he added. “It was a lot like the way a lot of middle-of-the-road Republicans treat Islam as the third rail of politics — they don’t want to talk about it.”

Enter Zelenik, an outspoken anti-Islamic activist.

“I will work to stop the Islamization of our society and do everything possible to prevent Sharia law from circumventing our laws and our Constitution,” Zelenik wrote on her campaign website, where she also vows to work to repeal the Democratic health care law and to oppose raising the debt ceiling.

In 2010, Zelenik accused Black of not being more outspoken against the Murfreesboro mosque. During that same race, Zelenik, a former Rutherford County, Tenn., Republican Party chairwoman, ran an online fundraising appeal asking supporters to “stand with Lou Ann against Muslim extremists.”

Miller and Zelenik developed a bond as leaders of the Tennessee Freedom Coalition, formed last year to “educate Tennesseans” about “Islamic radicalization,” among its other stated causes. He served as Zelenik’s campaign finance chairman prior to resigning from the position in late May, just weeks before he began funding TV ads against Black.

“I’ve gotten to know Lou Ann, and I know she cares about a lot of the things I care about,” Miller said.

A spokeswoman for Black dismissed Miller as “an angry multimillionaire with a personal grudge who is trying to influence a congressional election” and contended that Black had been vocal about her concerns with the construction of the Murfreesboro mosque. The spokeswoman, Jennifer Baker, said Black had recently signed on to a Republican-sponsored anti-Sharia law bill in the House.

Baker also argued that Miller’s close ties with Zelenik raise questions about whether he was coordinating his TV ads with her campaign, which would be a potential violation of federal campaign finance laws.

Zelenik’s campaign manager, Jay Heine, denied any coordination with Miller and said he knew little about the investor’s super PAC efforts.

“I don’t know what he’s doing, and I’m a little surprised by it all,” Heine said.

Republicans say Miller’s spending has altered the race. While Black has outraised Zelenik $2.8 million to $95,000 — with much of the congresswoman’s funds coming from herself — Miller’s spending has thrust Zelenik, once regarded as a long shot, into contention.

The son of Andrew Miller Sr., a Tennessee businessman who sold a surgical care company in 1982 for $1.2 billion, Miller has made his own fortune investing in health care enterprises. He has used his cash to generously support Republican candidates and causes. This cycle, he has donated to several candidates for federal office, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s unsuccessful presidential campaign and Indiana Republican Richard Mourdock, who defeated longtime Sen. Dick Lugar in a primary this spring. He also has contributed to around a half-dozen state legislative candidates.

The issue that has long exercised Miller, his public writings make clear, is Islam. On his Facebook page last week, Miller rushed to the defense of GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota after she came under fierce criticism from many Republicans for questioning whether Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

“The Trojan horse has been willingly brought into the country,” he wrote in his defense of Bachmann. “The only ones getting attacked right now are The Watchmen.”

Miller says his criticisms of Black also surround her record on federal spending. One of the ads that Miller is running through his super PAC, Citizens 4 Ethics in Government, portrays Black as two-faced, accusing her of painting herself as a spending hawk while voting to raise the debt limit.

“In my opinion, based on her votes, she has been a huge disappointment,” Miller said. “She seems to have fallen into the club.”

Miller said he focused his TV ads on spending issues rather than Islam to appeal to a broader swath of primary voters.

“We started looking at what was going to impact voters,” he said. “There’s still a lot of people that don’t understand” Islam.

To fund his anti-Black campaign, Miller said he’s given $150,000 to Citizens 4 Ethics in Government and $150,000 to a super PAC called Congressional Elections, which at his directive, has begun airing commercials targeting the congresswoman. Congressional Elections was formed by officials at the Campaign for Primary Accountability, an anti-incumbent super PAC that has targeted House members of both parties in primaries this year. The group targeted nine incumbents, four of whom lost their seats.

Officials with the Campaign for Primary Accountability said Miller approached them recently and told them that he had a strong desire to unseat Black and that he wanted their help.

“Andy Miller has engaged in a big way in Tennessee’s 6th District,” Leo Linbeck, a Houston construction magnate and a CPA founder, wrote in an email. “Our team has been supporting Andy in this effort.”

As for his relationship with Black, Miller said he had spoken with the congresswoman only once — at a reception the two attended in Franklin, Tenn., late last year for Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.).

“We said, ‘Hello’ to each other,” Miller said, “and that was about it.”