| |
Republican
race-baiting
strategies
land
Senate
hopeful
Pete
Hoekstra
in hot
water
DETROIT
(Tell Us
USA) -
After
criticism
of a
Senate
campaign
ad, GOP
Senate
hopeful
Pete
Hoekstra
began
taking
heat
when his
race-baiting
strategy
targeting
Democratic
incumbent
Debbie
Stabenow
backfired.
Protest
grew
louder
once
voters
had a
chance
to see
the
commercial
featuring
a young
Asian
woman
talking
in
broken
English
about
China
taking
away
American
jobs.
Some
warned
it could
revive
discrimination
against
Asian-Americans.
Stabenow
criticized
the ad's
"divisiveness"
and said
Hoekstra
should
be
"embarrassed."
The ad
was
created
by media
strategist
Fred
Davis of
California-based
Strategic
Perception
Inc.,
known
for both
Michigan
Gov.
Rick
Snyder's
successful
"one
tough
nerd"
ads and
for the
2010
"demon
sheep"
web ad
attacking
Tom
Campbell
in
California's
Republican
Senate
primary.
Tell Us
Detroit
columnist
Tom
Watkins
states,
"As a
candidate,
one
should
seek to
stand
out from
the
crowd
for
positive,
not
negative,
reasons.
The
Hoekstra
ad,
while it
may
strike a
chord
for
those
looking
to place
blame
for our
economic
downturn,
is as
inappropriate
as it is
culturally
and
racially
insensitive."
Hoekstra
told
reporters
Monday
that his
ad's
"insensitive"
only to
the
spending
philosophy
of
Stabenow
and
Democratic
President
Barack
Obama.
Several
Detroit
pastors
called
for
Hoekstra
to pull
the ad,
as did
the
Michigan
Roundtable
and the
Michigan
Asian
Pacific
American
Affairs
Commission.
"We knew
we were
taking
an
aggressive
approach
on this.
But this
is a
time
where
the
people
in
Michigan
and
across
the
country
are fed
up with
the
spending,
and we
wanted
to
capture
that
frustration
that
they had
with
Washington,
D.C.,"
he said.
"This ad
... hits
Debbie
smack
dab
between
the eyes
on the
issue
where
she is
vulnerable
with the
voters
of
Michigan,
and that
is
spending."
The Rev.
Dr.
Wendell
Anthony,
President
of the
Detroit
Branch
NAACP
said,
The last
thing
that our
political
landscape
needs is
more
vitriolic
rhetoric,
racial
stereotyping
and
pitting
one
group of
Americans
against
another.
The use
of an
Asian
woman
speaking
broken
English
in a
rice
paddy on
a
bicycle
to
describe
how bad
our
economy
and
political
leadership
is while
referring
to
Senator
Debbie
Stabenow
as
Senator
Debbie
“SPEND-IT-NOW”
is
disrespectful
and
racially
charged.
“We have
every
right in
today’s
global
economy
to
expect
our
leaders
to be
sensitive
to
diversity
issues
and the
use of
stereotypes
to make
political
points...
If
candidate
Hoekstra
wishes
to
support
a
particular
political
position,
he can
do so in
many
ways
that
does not
play
upon
racial
stereotypes,”
said
Thomas
Costello,
President
and CEO
of the
Michigan
Roundtable.
California
Sen.
Leland
Yee, the
Democratic
chairman
of the
Senate
Select
Committee
on Asian
Pacific
Islander
Affairs,
said
Hoekstra
should
apologize.
Neither
Detroit
Mayor
Dave
Bing or
Michigan
Governor
Rick
released
statements
to Tell
Us
Detroit
regarding
this
matter. |
