GOP Senate Race Growing Nastier In Final Days
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz has fired back at Lt. Governor over his latest radio ad in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate.
At a news conference in Fort Worth Friday, Cruz said, "It's an absolute, bald-faced, naked lie that David Dewhurst is spreading."
Dewhurst claims Cruz, whose family is from Cuba, supports amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Cruz said, "I have been the most out-spoken opponent of amnesty, and he knows that."
In response, the Dewhurst campaign released this statement: "...Cruz is shamefully attempting to play the victim again, but the reality is Ted Cruz has a troubling problem with taking responsiblity for his own actions..."
But the finger-pointing doesn't stop there.
At a campaign stop in North Dallas last Monday, Dewhurst complained that Cruz and his supporters are distorting his record.
The Lieutenant Governor has spent millions of dollars of his own money on tv ads.
Dewhurst said, "I'm forced into a position in which I have got to defend myself.")
But Dewhurst has also launched a new website and tv ad against fellow Republican, former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert.
In the ad, Mr. Leppert is compared to President Obama.
Leppert dismissed Dewhurst's ad saying, "There's a just a lot of mis-truths and lies that are being thrown out there, and that's the way politicians have played that for decades."
Dewhurst's campaign says it's just trying to inform voters.
But political analyst and veteran campaign manager John Weekley says Dewhurst's ads could backfire.
He says, "The ads smack of desperation."
Weekley questions Dewhurst's campaign strategy all along. "This was Dewhurst's race to lose. And he ran a rose garden strategy, much of the campaign didn't show up to debate."
A lot is at stake Tuesday.
Dewhurst is trying to avoid a run-off.
But the polls show he hasn't yet reached over 50 percent which he will need to win the Republican primary outright.
