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Hoekstra ad raises sensitivity question

AP Modified

By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN, Associated Press

Updated: Feb 6, 2012 11:26 PM

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A coalition of black ministers in Detroit called Monday for U.S. Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra to apologize for his Super Bowl ad featuring a young Asian woman speaking broken English to describe the impact of the Democratic incumbent's economic policies.

The request came a day after an Asian-American group called the ad "very disturbing."

The Michigan Republican began taking heat after his ad targeting Democratic incumbent Debbie Stabenow as "Debbie Spenditnow" ran statewide Sunday during the Super Bowl. Some detractors said the ad was racially insensitive, while national GOP consultant Mike Murphy tweeted that it was "really, really dumb." Foreign Policy magazine managing editor Blake Hounshell called the ad "despicable."

The Rev. Charles Williams II of Detroit's King Solomon Baptist church, where Malcolm X spoke in the 1960s, joined with several other Detroit pastors calling for Hoekstra to pull the ad.

"The Asian woman speaking in this video would be no different than him having a black person speaking in slave dialect," Williams said in a statement Monday. "If Pete Hoekstra does not see any wrong in this commercial, he doesn't deserve to be in the race."

The 30-second ad created by media strategist Fred Davis of California-based Strategic Perception Inc. opens with the sound of a gong and shows the Asian woman riding a bike on a narrow path lined by rice paddies.

Stopping her bike, the woman smiles into the camera and says, "Thank you, Michigan Senator Debbie Spenditnow. 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. Thank you, Debbie Spenditnow."

The scene then shifts to Hoekstra telling viewers near a cozy fire, "I think this race is between Debbie Spenditnow and Pete Spenditnot."

Hoekstra defended the ad. He was in Marshall Monday night speaking before the Calhoun County GOP. 24 Hour News 8 asked him directly about the images presented in the ad before his speech.

"The only stereotype in the ad is stereotyping liberal Democrats in the U.S. Senate for their spending and their records on deficits and debt," said Hoekstra.

Hoesktra said, however, that he never meant to offend anyone.

"If there are people that are offended, I'm sorry and disappointed that they're offended," he said. "That's not the intent of this ad. The intent of this ad is to lay out a pathway to bring jobs and economic growth back to America."

Hoekstra got a warm welcome at the event. It wasn't until about 10 minutes into the speech that he made reference to the ad, saying, "The liberal media hasn't liked it, obviously Debbie Stabenaw hasn't liked it."

He went on to defend the ad again.

"If you take a look at the ad, it's very very clear we are pointing the blame directly at Debbie Stabenow and Barack Obama for the policies that they are putting in place and by extension China benefits," said Hoekstra at the event.

And Hoesktra told reporters during a Monday morning conference call that it has "jumpstarted the debate" over deficit spending. He said it's only "insensitive" to the Democratic philosophy of Stabenow and President Barack Obama, noting the ad doesn't criticize China.

"The ad is only insensitive to Debbie Stabenow and her spending," said Hoekstra.

Asked about the woman in the ad, Hoekstra said that "her parents are 100 percent Chinese."

"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."

Michigan Democratic Chairman Mark Brewer, whose party launched an anti-Hoekstra web ad Sunday, said it's Hoekstra's record as an 18-year congressman that won't hold up under voters' scrutiny.

"Hoekstra ran up our debt to countries like China by voting for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, and for trillions in unfunded giveaways to billionaires and special interests," Brewer said in a statement. "Debbie Stabenow has been one of our strongest leaders in cracking down on other countries' illegal trade violations."

U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow said Hoekstra should be "embarrassed" by his new campaign ad.

Stabenow held her own conference call talking about her efforts to protect U.S. intellectual property, patents and more from the Chinese.

"I want to commend, first of all, Chrysler on another wonderful ad with Clint Eastwood and it made us all proud in Michigan and it talks about bringing people together and working together for the future," said Stabenow during the call, which was planned before the ad aired. "I think Pete Hoekstra should be very embarrassed about his ad and it divisiveness."

Stabenow said she didn't want to comment further, saying that would only add to what she categorized as the commercial's divisive nature.

A barrage of criticism hit Hoekstra's Facebook page early Sunday evening after the ad ran, but most of the negative comments were deleted by Monday morning. On YouTube, the ratings buttons on the ad were disabled after it aired, although another copy of the ad placed there by others was getting a mostly negative response.

The nonpartisan Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote group's Michigan chapter said it was "deeply disappointed" by the ad.

"It is very disturbing that Mr. Hoekstra's campaign chose to use harmful negative stereotypes that intrinsically encourage anti-Asian sentiment," the group said in a statement. In 2010, Michigan's 236,490 Asian-Americans made up 2.4 percent of the state's population, up 35 percent from 2000.

Two of Hoekstra's GOP opponents, Clark Durant and Gary Glenn, issued statements questioning whether the current front-runner is the right candidate for Republicans to support.

GVSU Professor Eric King says that when an ad creates an unexpected buzz, the original message can get lost.

"What gets discussed then is what is in the content of the ad that has nothing really to do with the message," said King.

Steve Mobley, the outgoing chairman of the Calhoun County Republican Executive Committee, said at the Monday evening event in Marshall that he agrees with Hoekstra's overall message -- but though the ad wasn't well executed.

"That's their decision on how they want to approach it," said Mobley. "I would have approached it differently."

Mobley resigned from the Calhoun County GOP at Monday night's event because he plans to work for the campaign of Republican Jack Hoogendyk, who is running for the 6th District U.S. House Representative seat.

"I can easily see how people can call it very insensitive," said Vietnam-born Steve Robbins, who now works on diversity and inclusion issues.

Robbins said he sees the issue through the eyes of an academic, but knows that such portrayals of any group of people resonates differently depending on life experience.

"Especially those who live a lifetime of experience as an outsider and there are a lot of stereotypes or mental models existing in our environment, this just reinforces it," said Robbins.

Robbins said for others, it may be just part of another  political campaign.

Robbins also pointed out the the ad -- no matter what the intent or impact -- is garnering a lot of talk and far more exposure than an everyday television commercial.

Hoekstra told 24 Hour News 8 that he paid around $150,000 for the ad to run for several weeks, which included the Super Bowl spot. Despite the controversy, he said the ad will run for the duration and does not plan to pull it.

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24 Hour News 8's Rick Albin and Marc Thompson contributed to this story.

Copyright 2012 AP Modified. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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