UPDATED  KARE-TV’s story about the National Republican Congressional Committee ad that darkens the skin tone of Ashwin Madia, the Democrats’ 3rd Congressional District candidate, has attracted growing media attention. Aaron Landry at MnPublius started a national tally – including the Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire blog, Crooks and Liars and Daily Kos – to which I’ll add HuffPost and today’s Democracy Now! broadcast.

South Asian organizations, the Indian press and Indian-American-oriented bloggers had already taken note of Madia and his travails as he strives to become the third Indian-American elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, with Usree Bhattacharya and Sepia Mutiny quick to pick up on this latest flap.

UPDATE: In an interview, Minnesota Sen. Satveer Chaudhary tells the Indo-Asian News Service: “These ads portray Madia as a dark, sinister intruder at best, and at worst a terrorist. It’s the race card.”

Locally, the Strib’s Tim O’Brien opines briefly and KARE revisits the topicwith a slide show and comparison with an ad by U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., that darkens an already bearded photo of his now clean-cut (and white) Democratic Party challenger, Tom Perriello. (Goode raised a ruckus in 2006 about U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison’s being a Muslim.)

Not in reference to the skin color issue, but as part of a wrap-up of African-Americans running for office, Mshalenoted support for the Indian-American Madia within the local African community.