Source: India-West Newspaper
http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=82fcb93eeb029571fcc67c7852ea7c7b
On November 12, 2002 India-West Newspaper reported that "derogatory comments made by a Republican state Assembly candidate in Iowa about her opponent's Indian heritage may have backfired on election day, as Indian American Swati Dandekar swept to an easier victory than expected Nov. 5 for the 36th district seat in the Iowa state legislature. In Tennessee, Democrat Phil Bredesen, the former mayor of Nashville, edged his Republican opponent, Congressman Van Hilleary, 51 percent to 48 percent, after Bredesen blasted Van Hilleary for a state Republican Party's campaign strategy that criticized the core curriculum in Nashville schools for teaching the basics of Buddhism and Hinduism to second graders."