In a Houston city council runoff election, a desi candidate’s campaign alleges he’s being called a ‘dot-headed terrorist.’ Again. Let’s stop this shit cold this time. Donate five bucks now.

We now know that ‘terrorist’ is the big new desi slur. You might think that the slur would be thrown around by hard-right Republicans angling for the redneck vote in the deep South.She… ‘joked’ to one of our supporters she was worried that if he lost, he might fly a plane into her building

Not so, says a friend working on Jay Aiyer’s campaign for Houston city council. In the Dec. 10 runoff election, his opponent Sue Lovell, a fellow Democrat and lesbian progressive, reportedly has a campaign official who’s called Jay a ‘dot-headed terrorist.’ As far as I can tell, Lovell says she’s reprimanded the official but has not disavowed the statements in public:

In May, I signed the Texas Code of Fair Campaign Practices, partially in response to disturbing racially bigoted comments coming from Ms. Lovell’s campaign… I called on the other candidates in the race to join me in signing the pledge. No one else signed. [statement from Jay Aiyer]

She’s even occasionally called off her supporters attacks on Jay for being a “terrorist” though that practice still continues to this day. [Link]

Our opponent, Sue Lovell, has a senior campaign adviser who has been publicly calling Jay a “dot-headed terrorist” and attempting to whip up racist sentiment against him within the Democratic party establishment…

… the “dot-headed terrorist” comment- a senior campaign adviser of Jay’s opponent made this comment to our campaign manager and one of our volunteers publicly at a Democratic Party event… But it’s not a one time deal- she also called him a terrorist at a statewide Democratic meeting and “joked” to one of our supporters she was worried that if he lost, he might fly a plane into her building. [email from Mini Timmaraju, a college friend who’s an Aiyer campaign consultant]

Let’s think about this for a sec.

Jo Redneck doesn’t give a shit about the gun-and-grenade attack on the Indian Parliament. But Jo Redneck is happy to call a fellow American a ‘terrorist’ because of the color of his skin.

Insulting? No, clueless and pathetic.

Aiyer won 26% of the vote vs. Lovell’s 32% before the runoff and is endorsed by the Houston Chronicle. He’s trying to raise $10K within the next nine days:

We are now down to the wire. The run-off is in less than 9 days and our opponent is getting desperate and this campaign has taken an ugly turn… We could literally win or lose this election with a handful of votes. Every vote, and every dollar, counts. Please do what you can to help Jay.

Remember that Don Sherrill beat Tom Abraham by calling him a terrorist. It only costs five bucks to vote against racism in Houston. Donate to Aiyer.

Update: I’ve emailed the Lovell campaign in case they wish to respond.

Update 2: A pro forma denial from the Lovell campaign’s PR agency, via email:

No one on my campaign staff made such a remark. I condemn all discriminatory statements in the strongest terms. If anyone on my campaign team ever made any kind of discriminatory remark, I would fire that person immediately. [Sue Lovell]

Update 3: Mini responds:

… She’s just splitting hairs- this person is a “senior campaign advisor” and from we can tell, is doing this “pro bono” so she can’t be technically fired. She is however STILL representing the campaign at public functions and helping them out with fundraising, media, grassroots efforts, and using her influence to gather endorsements. [Mini Timmaraju, Aiyer campaign consultant]

Update 4: Sue Davis, Lovell’s PR person, writes:

… even though I am volunteering for Sue, she would be well within her rights to “fire” me or anyone else who had made such a remark.

Journalists to contact: Kristen Mack, kristen.mack@chron.com, wrote several stories on the election; Matt Stiles, matt.stiles@chron.com, wrote this story.