Ed Charamut, a Republican candidate running for the Connecticut state Senate, last week apologized for a mailer he had sent to his voters which depicted his Jewish opponent, Democratic State Rep. Matthew Lesser as a money grabbing, crazed person.
The Anti-Defamation League listed the mailing in its report on the rise in anti-Semitic incidents.
The Hartford Courant published an editorial headlined “Ed Charamut Should Drop Out. His Mailer Is Indefensible.”
The offensive ad appeared on the same campaign Facebook page as the GOP candidate’s Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, which responded to the massacre at the Pittsburgh synagogue.
The NY Daily News reported Charamut’s campaign staff posted a statement on social media about the mailer’s “serious unintended consequences,” saying “the entire campaign committee, which includes members of the Jewish community, never discussed or considered Mr. Lesser’s ethnicity, race, religion or any other personal characteristic of Mr. Lesser and it was never our intention for the mailer to be anything more than a reflection of Mr. Lesser’s policy record.”
“However,” the apology continued, “it is clear now that the imagery could be interpreted as anti-Semitic, and for that we deeply apologize as hate speech of any kind does not belong in our society and especially not in our politics.”
Matt Lesser’s Wikipedia page says he lives on Middletown’s North End with his wife Sarah and his dog Lucy. It does not list his hobbies as including money grabbing.
