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Subscribe to RSSU.S. Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra has been accused of racism for a campaign ad against Michigan's incumbent senator, Debbie Stabenow. The ad features a young Asian woman riding a bicycle through a rice paddy – speaking broken English – and mocking Stabenow. Politico's Maggie Haberman reports.
Michigan Republican Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra's campaign came under scrutiny Monday for a controversial Super Bowl ad targeting Democratic opponent Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
Hoekstra's campaign aired an ad on Sunday depicting an Asian woman speaking in broken English, facetiously thanking Stabenow for encouraging federal spending.
Hold Debbie Stabenow accountable for her reckless spending.
"Thank you Michigan Sen. Debbie Spend-it-now. Debbie spends so much American money -- you borrow more and more from us. Your economy get very weak; ours get very good. We take your jobs," the woman says in the ad.
The backdrop is meant to evoke China. In a statement announcing the ad, Hoekstra decried "our reliance on foreign countries like China," a top buyer of American debt.
Hoekstra, a former Republican congressman who unsuccessfully pursued his party's gubernatorial nomination in 2010, appears at the end of the ad to tout his own fiscal hawkishness. The ad additionally directs viewers to a website featuring a variety of generic Asian imagery in connection to Stabenow.
The website includes Chinese script -- "Xianzai Daibi Hua" -- that roughly translates into "Now Debbie Spend."
RELATED: Chinese shrug at Super Bowl ad
Hoekstra's campaign paid $75,000 to air the ad in markets throughout Michigan during the Super Bowl, according to an Associated Press report on Sunday. It is his first ad in the Senate race.
The Michigan chapter of Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote said in a statement that the ad "plays on harmful stereotypes of Asians speaking broken English and has stereotypical Chinese music playing in the background."
An Asian woman is speaking in Pete Hoekstra's campaign ad that aired on Super Bowl Sunday, facetiously thanking Stabenow for encouraging federal spending.
"It is very disturbing that Mr. Hoekstra’s campaign chose to use harmful and negative stereotypes that intrinsically encourage anti-Asian sentiment," the group said Sunday.
The ad faced additional criticism from both Democrats and Republicans alike.
"Pete Hoekstra had a wardrobe malfunction this Super Bowl weekend and it was not pretty," said Shripal Shah, a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman.
Republican consultant Mike Murphy, meanwhile, wrote on Twitter: "Pete Hoekstra Superbowl TV ad in MI Senate race really, really dumb. I mean really."
A primary challenger's of Hoekstra also called the ad "disappointing," accusing Hoekstra's record of undermining the message of the ad.
"The team is describing it as satire, but there’s absolutely no way this doesn’t just fan the flames and come off as racist," wrote Jazz Shaw on the prominent conservative blog Hot Air.
Comments on the YouTube page for the ad have been disabled in the meanwhile. Spokespeople for Hoekstra didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
NBC's John Bailey contributed.
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His campaign is mega stupid for setting up that ad.
But so is he for "approving" it.
You could have gotten that message across lots of ways that weren't going to be controversial and race-abetted.
People like Hoestra is "What is Wrong With Government"
Hoekstra supported every right wing policy that outsourced our jobs & industries
While on the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Hoekstra leaked more classified information to the media that directly impacted our troops than WikiLeaks Julian Assange ever did or would ever think of doing
you have to laugh. it was like watching a propaganda appeal durning the veitnam war and the same technique used in world war ll.
he must belong to the nazi party!
this is very embarrassing for our state of michigan and for our country!
I think the rice farm was in Sacramento & I don't think the union actress he hired was Chinese
Wow. One more OUT OF TOUCH Congressman/Govenor/Senator running their hot air adds and clueless to just how offensive THEY are!
Perhaps we've finally come to a place where it okay to offend people who are nut cases anyway. The fact of the matter is that the ad is true.
No, the fact of the matter is you believe it to be true. Just because you believe it to be true, doesn't make it true.
If he's white, it's racist, if he's not, it's not. Everyone knows that.
I think it's a great ad and true to boot. We ARE borrowing more and more from China and at the end of the day, the Chinese will be in a position to dictate policy to us. Now with Obama's brilliant idea to block the Canada pipeline, this will allow our competitor and Chief Creditor, China, to grow even stronger while we support losers like Solyndra.
The rice farm was in Sacramento
Being an avid follower of politics, and a former Repub, Im disgusted at what the "Party of Lincoln" has become. Simply narrow minded and inflammatory. No real solutions. A middle-of-the-road Dem in 2012 is the same as a conservative Repub of 1980. What does that tell you??
Carefull Stan I have made the same point before and alot of republicans get very upset. But I know how you feel we have been reduced to one party to vote for and that is nothing short of depressing.
I don't know if it's just this election season, or it's been here all along....but I don't understand why repubs don't do something. Anything. Other than go against Obama for the past year. And now, the candidates don't supply credible concepts, but rather they in essence shout 'I'm not so good, but the other person is worse'. If any or all of the candidates have better solutions....why in the world don't they implement one or two of them, now (or in the past two years)?
This commercial is a good example. 'I'm Pete Hoekstra, and I don't know much. But the other person is worse.' Don't look at ME, instead let me tell you how bad the other person is. lol reminds me of the little man behind the curtain, in the Wizard of Oz. Pretty much afraid of his own shadow.
This is the racially-tinged ad?
Rofl..... Please.
If you can't see it...your part of the problem
How convenient.
And he see's nothing wrong with this add? Just what you want in a "leader".
Yeah, I'd rather have a leader who plays golf, vacations, and engages in class warfare most of the time instead...it's working out great so far!
I forgot no other president in history ever took vacations. And class warfare? Republicans are the ones who want to stop gov't programs like social security and medicare in order to afford their prominent backers MORE tax cuts. Repeating lies doesn't make them become the truth.
It's not racist, it's the truth. But you people are so stupid and blind that you can't see through the cloud of political correctness that the current administration has put in front of you. America is giving jobs to China and they practically own us. God forbid we go to war with any of China's allies; we're screwed. Thank you, dumbasscrats. You've ruined America.
Dude or Dudette, what ever your preference is,,,,,,, All the outsourcing of our jobs & industries happened on the "Conservative's Watch" --- This President is bringing them back to the USA
"America" doesn't give jobs to China....our corporations do. Any CEO will gladly consolidate operations overseas...or at least over the border, to maximize their next bonus. Most CEO's are Republicans...and it's no wonder.
America isn't giving jobs to China. Private sector companies moved their factories to China because we no longer have protective tarriffs in place to keep American manufacturing jobs in America like we did once upon a time. The "free market" that conservatives are always kicking and screaming about is what allows private companies to do as they see fit and move jobs they are able to offshore where they can pay lower wages and avoid environmental regulations. The notion they will create jobs because that is what they do is what is truly blind and stupid. Political correctness has nothing to do with this.
Anna just woke up yesterday!
A tea- party Republican as a deplorable and dispicable racist bigot ??? I am not sure where the shoack and awe .. and surprise is ... we all know it's in the genetic makeup of a republican to contantly lift themselves up bytearing others down... if conservatieves were architects, we'd live a nation with buildings no higher than the Curbs...
Not to mention - when he was in the US House he also voted for the unpaid-for Bush wars.
flownewgro
That is completely untrue. When the bush administration started 2 unpaid for wars, Barac Obama was not yet even in the congress yet. Bush started these wars, gave the tax cuts to the top 1% and pushed through medicare part d before 2003. Barac Obama wasn't in the congress until 2004.
The fact that it's true make it even worse that he resorted to old-world stereotypes. Instead of focusing on the actual problem of the national debt, he's simply inciting animosity among a group of people who barely understand the problem but know that it must be "those people's" fault.
Just wait till the Bible thumpers start weighing in on this issue!!!!!!!!!
Wow.. I think the liberals just get up each morning knowing they are going to be offended by something.
What offends me? A bunch of left-wing loons, thinking they are entitled to everything, burning our nation's flag and then calling me "unpatriotic" because I don't get a Chris Matthews every time obama speaks.
Dude,,,, You are unpatriotic
Even if I explained to you why this add is offesive, I have reason to believe you still would not get it....
The truth hurts. we've got the liberal nut jobs out in force screaming racism. It's not racism if it's true.
What truth?
The rice farm is in Sacramento & the Union Actress he hired wasn't Chinese
Jim,
You're an idiot. The actress is an actress, that's what they do. And it's way better to use an American Farm that a chinese one for anything.
The message is clear however and very true. With a 42% deficit, this country needs new leaders now...
Hoekstra supported outsourcing our jobs & industries for the entire two terms of the last conservative White House
You conservatives flatly suck on economic issues --- The US economy "COLLAPSED" on the conservative watch
Jim,
A slave isn't loyal. They are just a slave. This accounts for the obama defenders. They are too devoid of self-will to acknowledge the truth and accept the facts.
Just remember, you like to talk out sourcing jobs. It was William Jefferson Blythe Clinton that gave China Most Favored Nation Status, thus reducing tariffs and import fees. Of course you will not accept the facts
So navy, then you are saying you are NOT in favor of free market capitalism? you prefer socialism?
Hoekstra - what a freakin' idiot!
.
I see the racial slant. The gop will stoop to anything to get elected. Look at romnuts, i dont care about poor people. Yeah, he told the truth for once, i will give him that. Romnuts want to abolish the middle class, and make this a rich/poor country. If we dont vote to keep Obama in the White House, we are all doomed. We all watched the repubs defy Obama at every attempt to right the past gop wrongs. Wake up America, we have to vote out as many corrupt redums as possible, and soon. Our economy is recovering, maybe slowly, but at least it's improving. Dont muck it up now by voting in a redum, we will suffer greatly if that happens. FOUR MORE FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA, THE ONLY ONE THAT CARES FOR THE MIDDLE AND POOR CLASSES!!!!!!!!!
Let's see: We owe the Chinese Central Bank
about $4-trillion. They hold another
$3-4-trillion in USA currency in their foreign curency reserve. We
were borrowing 70 percent of the world's savings back in September 2008 to keep
our government afloat (the unfunded wars
included). Former Secretary Paulson beat a beeline to George Bush's office
almost immediately after receiving a phone call from the Chairman of the
Chinese Central Bank to report that he had been told by him that the Chairman
of the Central Bank of Russia had suggested maybe China and Russia should
liquidate their country's US Treasury Bills. What resulted is the US Government
bailout of Wall Street. Most of the national debt was accumulated under the
watches of George Bush Senior and Junior and before him the hero of the right:
Ronald
"sleepy" Reagan. This ad amounts to biting the hand that feeds you
and gives Chinese Maoist Nationalist more reason to advocate a decoupling of
their economy with the USA and Europe, leaving these heavily indebted economies
to rot. I’m sure this guy thinks he is a great patriot.
Why are talking about this????? Pete Hoekstra is a Republican/Tea Bagger. Racism is part of their DNA. I am surprised when a Republican/Tea Bagger does Not display Racism!!!!
We definitely need more leaders who will tell things as they are. This is great.
It will be allright. The demoncrats will not have to pay the money back anyway. The people that pay all of the taxes now will have to. Demoncrats do not have much, if any, skin in the game. Whine, gimme, you are racist, blah blah blah. The demoncrat montra.
Stupidity has no politcal boundaries
No the ad is not racist, only on MSNBC...always pulling the race card. So sick of even hearing the word because it's B.S.
You wouldn't know Racism if it bit you in the A@#. Asking the GOP/Tea Baggers to recognize Racism is like asking the Nazi's to recognize that they did not like the Jews.