A GOP U.S. Senate hopeful in West Virginia is comparing a local ban on smoking in bars, restaurants and hotels to the Nazis’ persecution of the Jews.
John Raese, who's campaigning to unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Joe Manchin this November, likened indoor air rules that took effect in Monongalia County last month to the yellow Star of David that Nazi Germany forced Jews to wear.
In all, 20 counties in West Virginia prohibit smoking in commercial establishments, WDTV-5 reported.
"But in Monongalia County now, I have to put a huge sticker on my buildings to say that this is a smoke-free environment," Raese told an audience at the GOP Lincoln Day Dinner in Hurricane, W.Va. last week. "Remember Hitler used to put Star of David on everybody’s lapel, remember that? Same thing.”
Raese also compared the smoking ban to the Depression-era National Recovery Act, which authorized President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom Raese referred to as "General Roosevelt" and "Fidel Roosevelt," to take steps to spur economic recovery.
These kinds of analogies to Nazi Germany are offensive and inappropriate," Deborah Lauter, director of civil rights for the Anti-Defamation League, told the Daily News. "They're out of bounds for everyone, including elected officials."
"We just hope that candidates use more common sense and can be more careful with their words," added Lauter, who noted that Thursday is Holocaust Remembrance Day, an international day that marks the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising.
For his part, Raese stood by the Hitler analogy. "No, this is not a standard line, nor a misstatement. It is a loss of freedom," he told Politico in a statement. "As Ronald Reagan once said, there is no such thing as partial freedom, there is only freedom."
Raese, a businessman who lost to Manchin in a special election in 2010 to fill the remainder of a term left vacant by the late Sen. Robert Byrd, has a history of suggestive remarks.
He referred to Manchin, whose grandfather was an Italian immigrant, as "Gov. Soprano," in a 2010 interview, and to U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu by other Asian-sounding last names, the Charleston Daily Mail reported.
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