Marisa Schultz of the Detroit News reports “Former U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra has taken down a controversial Chinese-themed website and is phasing in a new TV commercial in the slot of his original Super Bowl ad that was panned as racially insensitive.” When Schultz asked Hoekstra campaign spokesman Paul Ciaramitaro about dropping the old, he [...]

Pete Hoekstra for U.S. Senate supporters received an email Thursday morning, announcing the launch of a new television ad:   Thankfully, this time around, there is no racially-charged imagery or Chinese-American actresses speaking fake splintered English. Here’s the original commercial:   One quick note: Hoekstra originally posted the offensive ad on YouTube and as soon [...]

Public Outcry 1, Pete Hoekstra 0. In a matter of roughly 72 hours, Pants-on-Fire Pete Hoekstra went from calling his “Debbie Spend-it-Now” Super Bowl ad “overwhelmingly positive” to replacing the racially-charged commercial with a new, non-culturally insensitive ad and pulling down the debbiespenditnow.com site entirely. Visitors who go to www.debbiespenditnow.com are automatically redirected to petespenditnot.com. [...]

(Editor’s Note: Another guest post from our long-time reader and new PeteHoekstra.com contributor.) With Rick Santorum’s caucus and primary victories in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri, we’re reminded of one of Pete Hoekstra’s “greatest hits,” back when he was chair of the House intelligence committee. It was in June, 2006 that the senator from Pennsylvania Santorum [...]

WashingtonPost foreign correspondent Keith Richburg reports, “The now-infamous Super Bowl ad by Michigan senate candidate Pete Hoekstra has attracted as much curiosity as outright criticism here in China, the intended ‘subject’ of the ad.” Richburg says the popular Web site Shanghaiist called the ad “creepy” and “racist,”and he points out something we’ve been thinking the [...]