Davis, Shelton square off over campaign ads

By Anna M. Tinsley

atinsley@star-telegram.com

FORT WORTH - The war of the airwaves has begun.

In the fierce battle for Texas Senate District 10, incumbent Democrat state Sen. Wendy Davis on Friday released scripts of campaign ads she said were prepared by her opponent, Republican state Rep. Mark Shelton, noting that the bulk of the contents - which have not yet aired - are false.

"I believe voters deserve an honest debate about the issues and the future of Texas and Mark Shelton obviously disagrees with that," said Davis, of Fort Worth. "His ads expose a strategy built upon false and negative attacks designed to mislead and disillusion voters. ... There are many, many lies and distortions in the ads."

The three ads for Shelton, believed to have been prepared by the Fort Worth-based political consultant firm The Eppstein Group, include allegations that Davis has voted for higher taxes and against balanced budgets, accuses her of being a "local government lawyer lobbyist enriching herself off public service" and alludes to an FBI investigation is underway potentially regarding Davis or her law partner, Brian Newby.

Shelton's campaign sent out a statement late Friday saying that Davis' "prank of claiming she has stolen the scripts of his campaign TV ads now raises legitimate questions about Davis's unethical involvement with a lobby business and the use of her state Senate office to steer lucrative public contracts to her own law firm."

Shelton says he's calling on Davis - who began airing her first TV campaign ad this week, telling the story of her path to the Texas Senate - to answer, during upcoming debates, questions about using her influence as a lawmaker to, among other things, steer lucrative public contracts to her "own lobby and law practice" and why she didn't list "key information about her conflict of interest business relationships with registered lobbyists."

"Those and other questions need to be answered by Sen. Davis," said Shelton, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Cook Children's Medical Center and a two-term House member. "It is not right for Davis to vote to raise taxes and then steer herself lucrative public contracts. This abusive self-enrichment is nothing short of Davis being a greedy public office who is robbing taxpayers pockets to line her own pockets."

Shelton's campaign has filed open records requests seeking documents regarding Davis' phone records, travel records, calendars and schedules, district office space leases and correspondence between Davis and the North Texas Council of Governments and North Texas Tollway Authority.

Davis and Shelton are locked in a high-stakes battle for the state Senate District 10 seat that includes part of Fort Worth, Arlington, Mansfield, Colleyville and other areas of south and Northeast Tarrant County. Four years ago, Davis unseated longtime Republican state Sen. Kim Brimer, narrowly winning the race with less than 50 percent of the vote.

Davis' campaign said that someone in Shelton's campaign gave the ads to someone else, a "third party," who shared the ads electronically with the Davis campaign this week.

She refuted the allegations made in the ads, saying public records show she's not a lobbyist, there's no conflict of interest and no FBI investigation is underway. And she said she didn't vote for last year's budget, but she also said it wasn't a balanced budget.

"Mark Shelton did not vote for a balanced budget," she said. "He voted for Rick Perry's budget and it doesn't balance and ... has a hidden shortfall in it between $12 and $15 billion. I voted against Rick Perry's budget because he used gimmicks and accounting games to hide a funding shortfall and it badly harmed public schools."Rather than talking about the issues that matter to people in Tarrant County, Mark Shelton is using actors and actresses to say things that aren't true."

Anna M. Tinsley, 817-390-7610

Twitter: @annatinsley

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