Here’s a tip for the tea party Republican attempting to win a general election: don’t let Democrats find out you employed Chinese labor to publish your books about American heroism.
Such is the fate of Kim Simac, a tea party leader founder and Republican party choice to win the Wisconsin state Senate recall election against incumbent Democratic Sen. Jim Holperin. Simac was last seen scrubbing the web of her past writings comparing the public schools to Nazi Germany.
Now she’s stuck having to explain away why her uber-patriotic children’s books are published in China.
Last week, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel told the story:
[Simac] wrote a children’s book called “American Soldier Proud and Free” in 2007. She refers to the 32-page book – in which a kid details his love of God and country in an extended poem – occasionally on the campaign trail…the self-published book indicates it was “printed in China.” The same is true of her second book, “Girls Play Hockey Too!”
Simac’s campaign told the Journal-Sentinel that the publisher she used, RR Donnelley made the decision to publish the books in China, and she had no choice in the matter.
Cue the Democratic backlash. We Are Wisconsin, a labor-backed PAC playing in the recalls with the hopes of flipping the Wisconsin Senate from Republican to Democratic control, rolled out Kathleen Marsh, a author and publisher who had her last book printed right in Simac’s hometown of Eagle River, WI.
Marsh makes a compelling case that Simac could’ve found an American printer if she wanted, suggesting that Simac went with Chinese printing — as so many children’s book authors these days do, she told TPM — to save money.
Simac’s books are also published by Nordskog, a California company that specializes in Christian books.
The impact of where Simac’s books are published plays well to the progressives and labor-focused activists lined up against her. Whether or not it makes a big impact with voters remains to be seen.
