'Amnesty' ad jolts Texas' US Senate race

Associated Press

Posted on May 25, 2012 at 9:03 PM

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? The already vicious Republican primary battle for a U.S. Senate seat turned nastier Friday when Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst implied that tea party favorite Ted Cruz supports amnesty for illegal immigrants and Cruz retaliating by saying Dewhurst is "race-baiting" and making generalities about Hispanics.

Dewhurst and Cruz, an attorney and former state solicitor general, are seeking the GOP nomination to replace retiring Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, as are former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and Craig James, an ex-NFL running back and EPSN commentator. If no one gets at least 50 percent of the votes in Tuesday's primary, a runoff is set for July 31.

Dewhurst's television ads have long attacked Cruz for his firm representing a Chinese tire manufacturer in an intellectual property dispute with an American company. But Cruz has won the support of national limited-government groups, such as the Club for Growth, which have organized media campaigns claiming Dewhurst has been too moderate during his nearly nine years overseeing the Texas Senate.

Tensions spiked, though, over a 60-second Dewhurst radio spot featuring two women talking while birds chirp and children play in the background. It says Cruz "helps run two national organizations that have been leading the push to give amnesty to illegal immigrants."

Cruz hasn't denied being involved with the Hispanic Alliance for Prosperity Institute and the Hispanic Leadership Fund, but says he's always opposed amnesty. He denounced the ad on a Dallas radio station as "designed to say anyone who is Hispanic must support amnesty."

"It's flat-out lies," he said. "They should pull this ad. It's deceptive and it's unethical."

Cruz's father, Rafael, was born in Cuba and fought with Fidel Castro's rebels, but fled to the United States before Castro took power. And Dewhurst once worked for the CIA, learning Spanish on assignment in Bolivia.

Both sides say the ad indicates desperation. Cruz said that "the moderate establishment has circled their wagons around David Dewhurst," and his campaign issued a statement accusing the lieutenant governor of "shameful race-baiting." Dewhurst supporters charged that Cruz's only defense from the issues raised by the ad was to play the race card.

The Dewhurst campaign made available for comment Jacob Monty, who serves with Cruz on the board of the Hispanic Alliance for Prosperity Institute and said the right-leaning policy group has "been champions of immigration reform since 2002."

Monty added of Cruz, "he defended our position. But that was pre-tea party."

"I think it's a fallacy that, in order to be elected, you have to use illegal as a noun and call people 'illegals,' " he said. "Ted Cruz was there with us. He's not there now."

The Cruz campaign countered with its own surrogate, George P. Bush, who serves on the boards of both the Hispanic Alliance for Prosperity and the Hispanic Leadership Fund.

"It's very disappointing to see David Dewhurst resort to blatantly false attack ads," Bush, nephew of former President George W. Bush, said in a statement. "I was offended not only as a Hispanic but as a Republican."

Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department says it plans to monitor primary elections in three Houston-area counties to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Monitors will be assigned to polling places in Harris, Fort Bend and Jefferson counties and will watch and record activities during voting.

The move comes after the Houston-based tea party group, the King Street Patriots, dispatched hundreds of observers to polling stations during the 2010 general election. That sparked complaints of intimidation from minority organizations, but the King Street Patriots said its observers were simply looking for evidence of voter fraud.

Also Friday, Dewhurst unveiled a TV ad branding Leppert as too liberal.

Leppert, visiting iconic Dallas eatery Dickey's on Friday, summed up the primary race.

"What you've got is a lot of negative campaigning," he said. "There's just a lot of mistruths and lies that are thrown out there."

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Associated Press Writer Nomaan Merchant in Dallas contributed to this report.

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