Detroit pastors call on Hoekstra corporate contributors to apologize for TV ad

A Detroit pastor who denounced Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra’s new campaign ad as racially insensitive toward Chinese has called on the Holland Republican’s biggest corporate supporters to issue an apology and to pressure the candidate to take the TV ad down.

The Rev. Charles Williams II and a coalition of clergy had demanded an apology from Hoekstra for the controversial Super Bowl Sunday ad but so far the former congressman has declined. The pastors joined together today to take the issue to the biggest financial contributors to Hoekstra’s campaign.

They are sending letters to corporate supporters asking them to demand of Hoekstra that “their dollars are spent on educating the public about who their candidate is, rather than the racist commercials against folks of Asian descent,” according to a press release. Apparently, one of the largest donors to the former congressman is Quicken Loans.

The 30-second ad, which has become national news, features an Asian woman speaking broken English while standing next to what is apparently a rice paddy. She refers to the incumbent Democrat in the race, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, as “Sen. Debbie Spenditnow.”

On Monday, Hoekstra called the barrage of criticism that followed “way out in left field,” insisting that the ad was focused on Stabenow’s support for spending bills that resulted in the Chinese buying up chunks of U.S. debt.

But the commercial drew a sharp rebuke from Republicans and Democrats, as well as Asian-American community leaders and the Rev. Williams’ group.

Williams serves as pastor of the historic King Solomon Baptist church, where Malcolm X delivered speeches in the 1960s, and he is state director of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. Another key member of the coalition is the Rev. Maurice L. Rudds, pastor of Greater Mt. Tabor Baptist Church, and Michigan chapter president of the National Council for Community Empowerment.

“The politics of racial division is alive and well in Hoekstra’s campaign,” Rudds said. “What’s next? A commercial mocking African American hip hoppers?”