By J.R. Labbe
jrlabbe@star-telegram.com
The Star-Telegram Editorial Board had recommended David Dewhurst over his primary and general election opponents in every political campaign since his 1998 run for Texas Land Commissioner. Until now.
Dewhurst, 66, did not get the paper's stamp of approval in his current bid to be the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate. Former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert received the nod for offering a detailed plan for boosting the economy and reforming the tax code.
Leppert, 57, pointed to the across-the-board sequestration cuts in the military as a perfect example of what's wrong with D.C.
"If this goes through, it will gut the military," Leppert said during a meeting with the Editorial Board. "If you cut in the wrong places, you end up with a more expensive problem."
Leppert said he would work to make sure the benefits received by members of Congress and their staff were not better than the midpoint of the private sector.
"How can you vote yourselves benefits so superior to the people you represent?" he said.
He also supports Sen. John Cornyn's efforts to sell new F-16s to Taiwan.
Members of the Editorial Board would have loved the opportunity to ask questions of Dewhurst, such as how the Houston businessman-turned-career politician explains his swing to the more dogmatic positions that our Sunday editorial referenced. But in a dramatic reversal of what had been the lieutenant governor's practice throughout his time in office, he wasn't taking our calls. Or anyone else's. The Dewhurst campaign has apparently decided that skipping editorial board interviews worked so well for Gov. Rick Perry that it might as well do the same.
This turn of events is interesting given Dewhurst's history of accessibility with us, sometimes when we didn't ask for it. If we dared to run an editorial that mentioned him in less than glowing light, you could bet that my phone would be buzzing the morning of publication.
He was never rude, never out of control. But he would go on -- and on -- about how wounded he was that we didn't give him an opportunity to discuss the issue before writing the editorial.
Dewhurst has changed in more ways than ducking editorial boards and limiting candidate debates, and Texas opinion writers aren't the only ones to notice. The Ted Cruz campaign describes Dewhurst as an "establishment moderate" every chance it gets.
It's meant as a put-down, but that's what Dewhurst used to be -- and he was an effective lieutenant governor.
The Senate race has been a rush to the right, and the spotlight's been on the spitting contest between frontrunner Dewhurst and Cruz, the former state solicitor general. Neither has been above playing fast and loose with the facts.
Dewhurst repeatedly mischaracterizes Cruz as a "trial lawyer," bringing to mind an ambulance-chasing personal injury attorney who goes after big bucks from some deep-pocketed company or individual. Cruz, a smart and aggressive litigator, is an appeals attorney who's never taken the plaintiff's side of a personal injury case.
For his part, Cruz is lying when he says Dewhurst pushed a corporate income tax for Texas, a claim that received a "pants on fire" assessment from PolitiFact Texas of the
Austin American-Statesman. Dewhurst, in a January debate, countered Cruz's in-your-face accusation by saying he was talking about the gross receipts tax for businesses.
Beyond the cacophony of negative campaign ads is Leppert, who has maintained the high road, at least to this point. No telling whether he'll be able to resist going negative now that Dewhurst's people are taking him seriously.
In an internal campaign memo leaked to
Politico.com, political adviser Dave Carney says Dewhurst's machine needs to gear up to blunt any momentum Leppert might be gaining as he moves "well within the margin" to finish second -- in a race that's expected to go into a runoff.
"Expect the mayor to define and engage Cruz outside of Dallas so he can bury Cruz and finish second," Carney wrote. "If the Leppert folks do begin to act like a campaign and gut Cruz in the press and in paid media then we will need to watch carefully how far Leppert grows."
Jill "J.R." Labbe is editorial director of the Star-Telegram. 817-390-7599Twitter: @jrlabbe55
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