• Stabenow leads Hoekstra in Michigan Senate race

    By Michael O'Brien, msnbc.com

     

    Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow comfortably leads her Republican challenger who ran a racially-charged ad in his campaign, according to the new NBC News/Marist poll released Wednesday.

    Stabenow, a two-term incumbent whom Republicans had believed was vulnerable this cycle in the economically-challenged state, leads former Rep. Pete Hoekstra by 21 points among registered voters, according to the new polling data.

    If the election between Stabenow and Hoekstra were held today, 53 percent of registered voters said they would elect Stabenow to a third term, while 32 percent would support Hoekstra. Fifteen percent of Michigan voters said they were undecided.

    The numbers, while coming at an early point in the campaign, reflect an uphill climb for Hoekstra, whom Republicans had hoped would offer their best shot to unseat Stabenow. A former committee chairman during his time in Congress, Hoekstra had fallen short in his gubernatorial bid in 2010 after losing in the Republican primary. But the GOP's success as a whole statewide that year had stoked optimism about their chances to beat Stabenow, a senior Senate Democrat and chairwoman of the chamber's agriculture committee.

    Hoekstra's disadvantage may well reflect a degree of fallout related to an ad run by his campaign in Michigan on Super Bowl Sunday. The Republican candidate took fire for racial overtones in the ad, which depicts an Asian woman speaking in broken English, facetiously thanking Stabenow for spending policies which, the ad contends, help China.

    Hoekstra's campaign, which had initially stood by the ad, has now scrubbed it from its YouTube page and has taken down a related website.

    NBC News and Marist also tested a Senate matchup in the border state of Arizona. Republican Rep. Jeff Flake, a darling of fiscal conservatives, leads Democratic challenger Richard Carmona, the former U.S. Surgeon General.

    Forty-two percent of registered Arizona voters said they would support Flake if the election were held today, versus 29 percent who would vote for Carmona; 28 percent of Arizonans said they were undecided.

    Both Flake and Carmona are running to succeed retiring Sen. Jon Kyl, the No. 2 Senate Republican.

    The polls of Arizona and Michigan were each conducted Feb. 19-20, The sample of registered voters in Michigan has a 1.8 percent margin of error, and the sample of Arizona registered voters has a 2 percent margin of error.

  • Hoekstra under fire for racially tinged ad in MI Senate race

    U.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.

    By Michael O'Brien, msnbc.com

     

    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.