|
|
Peter Hoekstra on Principles & ValuesRepublican Representative (MI-2) |
Stabenow had accepted debate invitations at the Detroit Economic Club and Grand Valley State University, which have held U.S. Senate debates in recent Michigan election cycles. Hoekstra said he wanted debates with more exposure.
Hoekstra responded with a comment issued through his campaign: "Michigan families should be appalled that Debbie Stabenow is attempting to cancel all debates." Hoekstra said "she clearly now feels that she can't defend her record."
Hoekstra plans to attend what his campaign called a health care debate in Lansing--but he likely will be the only candidate in attendance. Hoekstra said: "I will either debate her or an empty chair. It is her choice
Actress Lisa Chan, who portrayed the young Asian woman in the ad, apologized via Facebook last week for her role. Hoekstra did not address Clark's accusations or his television ad, which has since been replaced. Pete Hoekstra's Super Bowl advertisement featured a bike-riding Chinese woman thanking incumbent Democrat Sen. Debbie Stabenow (called Spend-it-now in the promo) in broken English for helping support deficit spending that is aiding the Chinese economy. The ad received national criticism from both sides of the aisle.
Hoekstra addressed claims that his ad is inappropriate and plays on racially-charged stereotypes: "The only group of people that this ad is anti" Hoekstra said, "it's anti-Debbie Stabenow, it's anti-Barack Obama, the spending policies of the liberal left."
"You'll notice that the ad," he continued, "points to the opportunities that America's dumb economic policies--deficit spending, trillion dollars of deficits & debt--it creates the opportunities for counties like China and others to take advantage of our weakness."
When asked about the young woman speaking broken English, Hoekstra responded, "it's not a stereotype at all. This is a young woman in China who is speaking English. That's quite an achievement."
The Adherents.com website is an independent project and is not supported by or affiliated with any organization (academic, religious, or otherwise).
Such factors as religious service attendance, belief, practice, familiarity with doctrine, belief in certain creeds, etc., may be important to sociologists, religious leaders, and others. But these are measures of religiosity and are usually not used academically to define a person’s membership in a particular religion. It is important to recognize there are various levels of adherence, or membership within religious traditions or religious bodies. There’s no single definition, and sources of adherent statistics do not always make it clear what definition they are using.
OnTheIssues.org interprets the 2006 AU scores as follows:
Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom. AU is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to preserving the constitutional principle of church-state separation as the only way to ensure religious freedom for all Americans.
Americans United is a national organization with members in all 50 states. We are headquartered in Washington, D.C., and led by the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director. AU has more than 75,000 members from all over the country. They include people from all walks of life and from various faith communities, as well as those who profess no particular faith. We are funded by donations from our members and others who support church-state separation. We do not seek, nor would we accept, government funding.
As Republican Members of the House of Representatives and as citizens seeking to join that body, we propose not just to change its policies, but to restore the bounds of trust between the people and their elected representatives. That is why, in this era of official evasion and posturing, we offer instead a detailed agenda for national renewal, a written commitment with no fine print.