Offensive Pete Hoekstra Ad Draws Big Bucks for Rival Sen. Debbie Stabenow

By Amy Bingham, ABC News

The racially insensitive campaign ad that ignited an onslaught of criticism against Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra has inspired a flood of fundraising for his chief rival, incumbent Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.

Within hours after the Hoekstra ad aired during the Super Bowl Feb. 5, featuring an Asian girl commending “Debbie Spend-It-Now” in broken English for shipping  U.S. jobs to China,  Stabenow launched a money “bomb” in response to what she called the “shocking” and “nasty” ad.

As of this morning, one week after Stabenow’s money “bomb” launched, her re-election campaign had brought in $169,210, about $25,000  more than Hoekstra spent on the ad attacking her.

Critics on both sides of the aisle lambasted Hoekstra’s ad last week, calling it “offensive and insensitive,” “very disturbing” and “really, really dumb.”

The ad attacks Stabenow for supporting policies in the Senate that lead to U.S. jobs being outsourced to China.

“Debbie spend so much American money, you borrow more and more from us,” says a young Asian woman riding her bike through rice paddies at the beginning of the 30-second ad. “You’re economy get very weak. Ours get very good. We take your jobs. Thank you Debbie ‘Spend It Now.’”

Hoekstra replaced the controversial ad Thursday and redirected the accompanying web page, debbiespenditnow.com, which featured Stabenow’s face on an Asian fan, stereotypical Asian music and gongs, to his campaign homepage.

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