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**NOVEMBER 01, 2022**
The Craziest House Race of 2022
BY DAVID DAYEN
In Orange County, California, Republican Michelle Steel is painting her
opponent as a tool of China with unhinged red-baiting attacks.
DAVID DAYEN
Democratic congressional candidate Jay Chen, left, holds a press event
at his campaign office in Garden Grove, California, with Rep. Alan
Lowenthal (D-CA), who currently represents a portion of the 45th
District in Congress.
ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA - Just past the sign welcoming visitors to
the "All-American city" of Westminster, in one of the endless strip
malls along its wide boulevards, I saw them. High up on a couple of
light poles were a series of posters with just four words: "China's
Choice ... Jay Chen." I'd heard about the posters, done in the colors
of the Chinese flag, but wanted to seek one out, and it didn't take
long. Zooming in on my phone, I could read the disclaimer in tiny
lettering: "Paid for by Michelle Steel for Congress."
This midterm election has played host to the usual cornucopia of
misinformation, baseless accusations, and barely contained rage. But few
places have seen such a sustained bout of open demonization as Steel's
campaign against Chen, a Taiwanese American lieutenant commander in the
Navy Reserve and community college trustee, running as the Democratic
candidate in California's heavily Asian 45th District. Steel, herself
a Korean immigrant, is targeting ads at the local Vietnamese
community-the largest anywhere outside of Vietnam-which has
historically been virulently anti-communist. She is playing on that
history to tar her opponent as being in league with the Chinese
Communist Party.
China has been a punching bag on both sides of the aisle this year. Ohio
Senate candidate Tim Ryan drew criticism
<[link removed]> earlier in the year
for an ad that repeatedly set up a U.S.-vs.-China binary. Trudy Busch
Valentine, a Democrat running for Senate in Missouri, more recently
criticized her opponent
<[link removed]> Eric
Schmitt for voting to "allow communists from China to buy our farmland,"
saying that "he'd be China's senator."
But the decidedly personal and brazenly public message against Chen,
whose grandmother fled communist China, has taken things to an entirely
new level, even driving backlash within the community. A new
divisiveness has come to the area known as "Little Saigon," with the
potential to build dangerous momentum for hate.
Click here to read the full article
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AIPAC Echoes Republicans' Crime Messaging in Pennsylvania
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After failing to stop Democrat Summer Lee's primary bid, the
pro-Israel group is now helping Republicans put the seat into play. BY
AUSTIN AHLMAN
How Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders Helped Lula Win
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A democratic America took the air out of the Brazilian far right. BY
RYAN COOPER
The Missing Factor in the Election Story: Turnout
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It's the variable that matters most, but you won't see it in most of
the punditry predicting Democratic losses. BY ROBERT KUTTNER
Clash of the Titans in Maine
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Janet Mills and Paul LePage are no strangers to political acrimony in a
race that is as much about inflation as it is abortion. BY GABRIELLE
GURLEY
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