Posted on 03/03/2004 10:31:38 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez lashed out at Democratic opponent Henry Cuellar on Tuesday in his most visible show of negativity yet in this down-and-dirty congressional matchup.
Spurred on by a harshly critical Cuellar mailout last week, Rodriguez is fighting back with literature in district mailboxes set to hit today that paints Cuellar as a party-hopping political opportunist.
"We would have liked to have not gone negative, but we feel it's important to set the record straight," said Rodriguez campaign manager John Puder.
The grudge match, one of the most watched and competitive Texas races heading into Tuesday's primary, pits two former Texas House Democratic colleagues against each other in a test of gritty South Texas politics.
Spite has replaced old alliances and mud is beginning to fly between the two camps.
Tuesday, the Cuellar faction fired another salvo at Rodriguez's candidacy with a complaint to the Federal Election Commission that accuses the four-term incumbent of violating federal election laws — a charge the Rodriguez camp hotly denies.
The complaint says Rodriguez purchased ads in the Mexican newspapers El Mañana and El Diario that call Cuellar a fair-weather political ally. The ads don't carry a disclaimer that they were paid for by Rodriguez, said Cuellar campaign manager Colin Strother.
"This is just more of the same stuff. It's disgusting," Strother said.
Puder denied that the Rodriguez campaign had anything to do with the ads.
"It's quite interesting that Henry has chosen to go negative in Laredo," Puder said. "It's a clear indication of how much impact we've had in Webb County."
El Mañana editor Juan Lucio said Tuesday that someone visited the newspaper offices in Laredo on Monday claiming to be with the Rodriguez campaign.
The person paid $200 cash and provided material on a computer disk to the advertising department, said Lucio, who did not remember the person's name.
The ad was only scheduled to run Tuesday, Lucio said.
Meanwhile, Rodriguez's latest fliers, which are scheduled to hit 42,000 mailboxes across the district today, call Cuellar a "Democrat then Republican, Republican then Democrat."
The literature accuses Cuellar of siding with Republican interests, such as supporting Gov. Rick Perry's 2001 veto of legislation that would have provided funding for border health programs in Texas colonias.
Cuellar was Texas secretary of state at the time and said Perry was "the first governor that I know of in the last 14 or 15 years that has really emphasized the border more than anybody else has."
Rodriguez also accuses Cuellar of favoring "Republican policies" that include massive tax cuts for the wealthy, a drug plan that benefits pharmaceutical companies and budget cuts that have affected veterans, teachers and college students.
Cuellar has not been a Texas House member since 2001 and has not served in Congress, so he could not have voted on such legislation.
Rodriguez's current mailout follows a highly-charged Cuellar flier last week that accused Rodriguez of being an AWOL congressman during his seven years in Congress and voting down funding for Texas parks, teachers and border security.
The ad says Rodriguez didn't cast 132 congressional votes during his seven years as a congressman. Rodriguez said that figure is misleading, because there have been more than 4,500 votes cast during that time.
"That's better than a 96 percent voting record," Puder said.
Rodriguez is hoping for Bexar County turnout of about 18 percent in the district, compared with 12 percent during the 2000 race.
So far, early turnout is up about 30 percent from 2002, said Christian Anderson of Election Support Services.
------------rrodriguez@express-news.net
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