The 10 Most Controversial Statements of the 2010 Campaign

Sharron Angle

During a meeting with Rancho High School's Hispanic Student Union on October 18, Nevads Republican Senate Candidate Sharron Angle told the students she thought some of them might, in fact, be Asian.

"You know, I don't know that all of you are Latino. Some of you look a little more Asian to me. I don't know that. What we know, what we know about ourselves is that we are a melting pot in this country. My grandchildren are evidence of that. I'm evidence of that. I've been called the first Asian legislator in our Nevada State Assembly," she said.

Carl Paladino

Carl Paladino, the Republican New York gubernatorial candidate competing against Democrat Andrew Cuomo, has gotten into trouble for everything from cursing out Eric Holder to threatening reporters with physical violence. In early October, he caught additional flak for making anti-gay comments.

"I don't want [children] brainwashed into thinking homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option - it isn't," Paladino said at a meeting with Hasidic Jewish leaders in Brooklyn. "That's not how God created us," Paladino continued, "and that's not the example that we should be showing our children."

Harry Reid

At a campaign stop in August, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid - who faces a tight race against Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle - told a crowd of supporters, "I don't know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, okay. Do I need to say more?"

Alan Grayson

In an attack ad released in late September, the notoriously outspoken Democratic Incumbent Alan Grayson accused his opponent of being a religious fanatic - and referred to him as "Taliban Dan."

"Religious fanatics try to take away our freedom, in Afghanistan, in Iran and right here in Central Florida," a female narrator says in the ad.

Grayson's campaign later came under fire not just for inferring that his opponent was a terrorist, but also for manipulating video footage of Webster in the ad to make him seem anti-woman.

Christine O'Donnell

During a heated debate with Democratic rival Chris Coons on October 19, Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell challenged Coons on his assertion that the Constitution mandated a separation between church and state, asking, "Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?"

"Let me just clarify: You're telling me that the separation of church and state is found in the First Amendment?" O'Donnell continued.

After the debate, O'Donnell's campaign backed up the remark (which had spread around the Web) in a statement: "Christine O'Donnell was not questioning the concept of separation of church and state as subsequently established by the courts. She simply made the point that the phrase appears nowhere in the Constitution."

Jerry Brown

In recent weeks,  the California gubernatorial race between Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman has gotten increasingly personal: In October, one of Brown's associates was inadvertently caught on tape referring to Whitman as a "whore."

The remarks, which were captured on the answering machine of the Los Angeles Police Protective League when Brown failed to completely hang up the phone, are below:

BROWN: "Do we want to put an ad out? That I've been warned that if I crack down on pensions, they'll go to Whitman, because they know Whitman will give 'em, will cut them a deal, but I won't."

Rand Paul

In a May appearance on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show, Kentucky's GOP Senate candidate Rand Paul sparked controversy when he was asked about the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

MADDOW: "Do you think that a private business has the right to say we don't serve black people?"

PAUL: "I'm not in favor of any discrimination of any form. I would never belong to any club that excluded anybody for race. We still do have private clubs in America that can discriminate based on race.

But I think what's important about this debate is not written into any specific "gotcha" on this, but asking the question: what about freedom of speech? Should we limit speech from people we find abhorrent? Should we limit racists from speaking? I don't want to be associated with those people, but I also don't want to limit their speech in any way in the sense that we tolerate boorish and uncivilized behavior because that's one of the things freedom requires is that we allow people to be boorish and uncivilized, but that doesn't mean we approve of it. I think the problem with this debate is by getting muddled down into it, the implication is somehow that I would approve of any racism or discrimination, and I don't in any form or fashion."

Paul later clarified his views on the issue.

Loretta Sanchez

In September, Democratic California Rep. Loretta Sanchez took heat when, in a Spanish-language interview, she invoked racially-loaded rhetoric against her Vietnamese-American opponent Van Tran.

"The Vietnamese and the Republicans are, with an intensity, trying to take this seat from which we have done so much for our community  -  to take this seat and give it to this Van Tran, who is very anti-immigrant and very anti-Hispanic," Sanchez said.

Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin has made plenty of headlines in the past for some of her more memorable choices of words. And she also made headlines this year for creating new ones.

After taking heat for using the non-word "refudiate" during an interview on Fox News, the former Alaska Governor defended her choice on Twitter.

""Refudiate," "misunderestimate," "wee-wee'd up." English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!" she Tweeted.

Ken Buck

Leading up to Colorado's Republican Senate primaries, candidate Ken Buck was caught on tape implying that he should win the nomination due to issues related to his gender.

"Why should you vote for me? Because I do not wear high heels," Buck is shown saying in a video, which opponent Jane Norton later used in an attack ad. "I have cowboy boots. They have real bullsh** on them."