The ongoing Republican “you thought that was anti-Semitic? check this out” competition has jumped to central Connecticut, with a Republican campaign mailer depicting Democratic state Rep. Matthew Lesser as a caricature of the money-grubbing Jew. Lesser is running against Republican Ed Charamut for an open state Senate seat.
The photo on the “VOTE NO ON MATT LESSER” flyer shows Lesser’s face bearing a greedy grin while clutching a few $100 bills in his hands. The image is recognizable as Lesser, but is clearly edited heavily. He said he has already heard from local Republicans who are also outraged about the Charamut team’s decision to mail the flyer.
“It’s imagery used to depict Jewish people going back hundreds of years,” he said. “Whether that was intentional or not I can’t say. That’s not what our community is about. On Sunday evening in Middletown we had a community gathering on the South Green in light of what happened in Pittsburgh, and it was the best of our community and it was really heartening. It’s demoralizing to see the campaign go in this direction.”
According to state Republican Party Chair J.R. Romano, it’s not anti-Semitic at all, it’s “pointing out the fact that Matt Lesser is a tax-and-spend Democrat. If you criticize any Democrat for failures and their record, they run into this shield that you’re a racist.”
When told that Jewish community members raised objections to the mailer, Romano said, “Did you look to see their political affiliation?”
Because if they’re Democrats, then any old Republican gets to dismiss their objections to anti-Semitism as merely partisan. Today’s Republican Party really is committed to finding the rock bottom no matter how many layers of muck and slime they have to tunnel through to get there.
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