The resurrection of Coleman Young -- GOP tries to tie corrupt Kwame Kilpatrick to Macomb County candidate

The state House Republicans have engaged in a last-minute, shameful campaign ad that features a large photo of discredited former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and ties Democrat Henry Yanez, running for an open seat in Sterling Heights, to the corrupt Kilpatrick administration.

In the old days, the GOP engaged in race-baiting by linking Macomb County Democrats to then-Detroit mayor Coleman Young, who was much less the scoundrel than Kilpatrick is. One might think that with our first black president in the White House, times had changed.

Apparently not.

The anti-Yanez ad distributed over the weekend is not subtle. It claims that Yanez, a Sterling Heights firefighter, “loves” more government spending.

“Politicians in Detroit, like Kwame Kilpatrick, gave millions of dollars to their cronies and now Henry Yanez expects us to pick up the tab,” the brochure alleges.

Wow. This is so ‘80s. And in such a regressive, cynical way.

Calling Yanez a “selfish,” pro-Jennifer Granholm candidate for state House, the flyer adds this: “Sending Henry Yanez to the Legislature will guarantee that our tax dollars are sent to Detroit to pay for years of corruption and wasteful spending.”

It’s important to point out that Yanez has absolutely no ties to Kilpatrick and has voiced no old-style, liberal allegiance to generous state funding for Detroit.

To be fair, it’s also worth pointing out that this trashy brochure may have only been mailed to a small part of the 25^th House District, perhaps a section in north Warren, and there is no evidence to suggest that Yanez’s GOP opponent, Sean Clark, had any input into the advertisement.