The Wild West is living up to its reputation as two Texas Republicans with an eye on Democratic Rep. Chet Edwards’ seat face off today in a primary runoff election, trashing each other over voting records and property taxes.
With the GOP trying to make the Republican-leaning 17th Congressional district a top November target, the Democrats are exploiting the Republican divisions at every opportunity. Republican candidates Bill Flores and Rob Curnock have given them ample ammunition, sparring over the usual who is more conservative, and the less typical fight over one of them voting for Hillary Clinton.
Flores, a retired oil and gas industry executive backed by the NRCC, and Curnock, who is seeking a rematch against Edwards finished atop the field during the March 2 primary. The nastiness started after a debate, when Curnock asked Flores who he’d voted for in 2008. Flores told Curnock that of course he’d had his vote. But actually, he didn’t vote at all. When called on the fib, Flores said he’d been joking.
Watch a highlight reel made by the Lone Star Project:
The story gets wackier when you examine Flores’ 2008 primary voting record. He voted, but using a Democratic ballot as Republicans tried to prolong the already nasty primary battle between then-candidates Clinton and Barack Obama. Flores’ campaign says he donated the max to the GOP nominee and did phone banking for John McCain on Election Day, though.
Flores has attacked Curnock for taking a $2,000 homestead exemption as he moved properties. Curnock said in a statement he shouldn’t have done so and will pay back taxes.
The dust-up prompted Flores to craft this sinister-sounding Web ad:
Curnock’s “volunteer” Communications Director Colin Witt wrote in a recent email to supporters that “Washington dirty politics” has arrived in central Texas, and suggesting Flores is being “paid to win” as the insider candidate.
Witt writes:
You tell us you’re angry because you’ve seen this before, in 2006, and you know it doesn’t work in November. You tell us you are sad because you see what the Clinton-era “politics of personal destruction” can do to local people who are struggling against a common foe, a liberal congressman who doesn’t listen to us.
Rather than spending the fall getting to know you at events in the District, he jumped into the race at the last minute and has spent $750,000 in just a few weeks, printing slick mailers and flooding the airwaves with ads.
Make no mistake: they are being paid to win, and win at all costs. When this election is over, they will go back to Washington and find another candidate to pay them to run his campaign. They don’t care about the damage they are doing to us, the people who live and work here, who are working to strengthen relationships and build a stronger local conservative movement. They will burn everything down to get their benefactor elected, then go on and do the same thing to another community.
Meanwhile Curnock’s last ad appears to be filmed in a museum:
Curnock and Flores recently lamented the nasty tone of the race, but went right back at each other. Flores said it amounted to “throwing rocks at each other,” while Curnock called it “sheer, ugly, brutal, bad politics.” There’s also a Curnock radio ad (listen here) saying there’s just one conservative in the race given Flores’ voting record.
The district includes Waco and is home to former President George W. Bush’s Crawford ranch. It’s one of the most Republican districts in the country, and the GOP thinks they have a shot in a year when Democrats are on the ropes. Bush earned 68 percent of the vote in 2000 and 70 percent in 2004. Despite a Democratic tidal wave the year Barack Obama won the presidency, Edwards’ district went 67 percent for McCain in 2008. Edwards, first elected in 1990, has managed to edge out a win every time.
A Bush spokesman was mum on which GOPer the former president will choose today.
