Labor & Employment Law

W.Va. AFL-CIO Demands Apology from Raese for Hick Ad

By Mike Hall

West Virginia working families have long been fed up with the stereotyped, out-of-state image that they are backwoods hicks or hillbillies.

The recent revelations that Republican National Senatorial Committee sent out a casting call for ?hicky? looking blue-collar types for a television campaign ad for Republican U.S. Senate candidate John Raese has set off a new round of anger in the Mountain State and a call for an apology from Raese.

Raese said he wasn?t upset by the effort to portray West Virginians as hicks but then his connections the state are aren?t real strong. He owns a mansion with a pink marble driveway and two limousines in Palm Beach, Fla., where he spends most of his time and where his children attend school. He also owns a home in Colorado along with multiple homes in West Virginia.

West Virginia AFL-CIO President Kenny Perdue, who’s helping spearhead a petition demanding Raese apologize, says:

If Raese was a real West Virginian, he would?ve been outraged at the ?hick? stereotype. He?d have apologized immediately. And he?d demand Mike Stuart?the man who was responsible for filming the ad?get canned as head of the West Virginia Republican Party. But instead, he just joked, ?I?m a hick….I?m a hillbilly,? and said he had ?no control? over the ad.

Raese owes all of us an apology. This goes beyond politics?the ad is so insulting it strikes at the heart of who we are. That?s why we?re delivering a petition to Raese with a clear message: Apologize or get out of our state.

Click here to add your name to the petition.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on October 19, 2010 (boomark / email).