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 battle for Texas Senate District 10, Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis released scripts of campaign ads Friday that she said were prepared by her opponent, Republican state Rep. Mark Shelton, and said the bulk of the contents -- which have not 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 Eppstein Group, a Fort Worth political consulting firm, include allegations that Davis has voted for higher taxes and against balanced budgets, accuse her of being a "local government lawyer lobbyist enriching herself off public service" and suggest that an FBI investigation may involve Davis or her law partner, Brian Newby.

Shelton's campaign issued a statement late Friday saying 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 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 about 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 official who is robbing taxpayers' pockets to line her own pockets."

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

Davis' campaign distributed a second news release late Friday saying, "Mark Shelton is clearly frustrated that his claims are without substance or corroboration, so he has resorted to simply making wild accusations, hoping the media will report his false claims without requiring any credible evidence supporting them."

Davis and Shelton are battling for Senate District 10, which comprises part of Fort Worth, Arlington, Mansfield, Colleyville and other areas of south and Northeast Tarrant County.

Davis' campaign said someone in Shelton's campaign gave the ads to a "third party" who gave them electronically to the Davis campaign this week.

She rebutted allegations made in the ads, saying public records show she's not a lobbyist, there's no conflict of interest and no FBI investigation. 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. ...

"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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