Lonegan Campaign Tweet Called Racist – Do You Think So? [POLL]

I hate that the word “racist” is used as frequently as it is. It’s like the “boy crying wolf” too many times. After a while, you lose sight of what is and isn’t racist.

We get to a point after a while where we feel as though we have to walk on eggshells every time we open our mouths.

However, you do have to wonder if a tweet sent by a staffer from the campaign to elect Steve Lonegan the next US Senator from New Jersey was indeed racist or just a bad attempt at humor.

According to NJ.com,

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Lonegan said today that controversy over a racially tinged tweet a campaign worker sent last week was merely “a tempest in a teapot.”

“I think it’s time to move on,” the former Bogota mayor said in an interview during a campaign stop in Hawthorne, where he greeted Republicans at a barbecue on a quiet suburban block.

The incident started Thursday night as Cory Booker, Newark’s mayor and the favorite to win the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination on Tuesday, took part in a televised debate with his three primary opponents.

During the debate, a Twitter account run by Lonegan’s campaign staff sent a tweet that read, “just leaked — Cory Booker’s foreign policy debate prep notes.”

Below it was a map of Newark, with the words “West Africa, Guyana, Portugal, Brazil” and “Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, plus Bangladesh and Trinidad” scrawled on top, apparently depicting the ethnic makeup of the city’s different neighborhoods.

The tweet was deleted within several minutes.

Lonegan again today dismissed claims that the tweet was racist, saying “the left is going to use every excuse to pull the race card.” The conservative, who dressed in a jacket and tie and arrived at the barbecue in a pickup truck, said a 21-year-old campaign worker made a “mistake” by sending the tweet. He said he would not fire him.

He has to know that humor like that doesn’t belong in any campaign; never mind the line about “sacrificing someone on the altar of political correctness.”

If he honestly believes what he says when he says “I don’t want any funny, clever stuff on my campaign,” then he would need to fire the campaign worker that put it up there in the first place.

Dopey comments like the tweet shouldn’t derail a campaign; but don’t blame the media for blowing it up. It's out there for the whole twitterverse to see.

Tweets like that only indicate a lack of knowledge about the ethnic diversity of the state; and perhaps about the candidate's ability (or inability) to represent the interests of all its citizens

Take responsibility for the tweet, then we can all move on!