Frost, Sessions may team up to halt ads

For a pair of political enemies who rarely agree on anything, Congressmen Pete Sessions and Martin Frost may unite in telling political interest groups to get out of town.

The rivals – independently – said Wednesday that they're willing to negotiate a joint statement demanding that such groups stop purchasing television advertisements that attack either candidate. Such an agreement is effectively unheard of in Dallas.

"Mr. Frost and I are very capable of campaigning, raising money and running our own races," Mr. Sessions said. "No one else speaks for me, just me."

Mr. Frost said: "I would like for us to jointly contact all the groups that have been advertising nationwide. We should settle this mano a mano, Pete Sessions and I. It'd be healthy; it would be good for Dallas."

Mr. Sessions, a Republican, and Mr. Frost, a Democrat, say they have yet to contact one another regarding the joint statement but plan to have their campaign staffs contact the other within the next week. An agreement between the two congressmen wouldn't be binding on political interest groups.

Their pledges come a week after an anti-immigration organization purchased two weeks of television spots blasting the record of Mr. Frost while using images the Frost campaign deemed racist.

Although opposing candidates in states such as Wisconsin have occasionally signed agreements telling interest groups to air their advertisements elsewhere, such pacts are rare, said Paul S. Herrnson, director of the Center for American Politics and Citizenship at the University of Maryland at College Park.

But in this race, in which both campaigns value control over their images, such an accord might benefit both candidates, Mr. Herrnson said. The recent immigration advertisement is an example of a spot that may hurt Mr. Sessions as much as it hurts Mr. Frost.

Federal law prohibits candidates from coordinating with interest groups to create advertisements or purchase air time for them. "You could be worried these ads could hurt you, whether they're designed to hurt you or help you," Mr. Herrnson said. An advertisement slamming one candidate may, at the extreme, inadvertently paint the other candidate as "racist, sexist or any number of things that could take his race off message."

Mr. Frost accused Mr. Sessions last week of hiding "behind the white sheets of white supremacy" by not denouncing the advertisements. But Mr. Sessions refuses to decry them, saying that he has no association with the group and that he's heeding his lawyers' advice to withhold comment on the spots.

The congressmen are running for the seat representing Texas' 32nd District, in what many political observers – and the candidates – regard as one of the nation's most high-profile and expensive races. Mr. Frost is in his 13th term, Mr. Sessions his fourth.

The latest round of campaign finance reports must be submitted to the federal government by this evening, and Mr. Sessions said he would report having $1.9 million in campaign funds available after raising nearly $1 million between late February and the end of March. The most recent batch of money is in part taken from 1,400 individual donors, 1,004 of whom live in Dallas County, and 587 of whom reside in the 32nd District, Mr. Sessions said.

"People are banging down our doors to donate," Mr. Sessions said. But, he acknowledged, "We wouldn't be doing what we're doing now if Martin Frost wasn't in the race." "But I'm so proud of this opportunity," he said of running against Mr. Frost instead of another Republican. "It's sort of like seeing you have your wife or child sick and saying, 'Gosh, I wish that was me.' "

Mr. Sessions said he expects Mr. Frost to raise more money than he by Election Day in November. But Mr. Frost thinks his opponent will lead the fund-raising race.

"Considerably in excess of $1 million" is Mr. Frost's characterization of his cash on hand as of March 31, but he declined to offer more specific information. "Quite frankly, I don't care how much money he has, because he doesn't have much of a record," Mr. Frost said of Mr. Sessions. "We're ready for a full-scale campaign."

The rivals – independently – said Wednesday that they're willing to negotiate a joint statement demanding that such groups stop purchasing television advertisements that attack either candidate.

Their agreement would have no force. What's the point other than to say they're afraid of a little free speech?

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