HOUSTON, Texas — As democratic state senator and gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis continues to suffer in polls and funding, she has apparently turned to negative campaigning. Davis released her first television commercial on Friday. In the 60 second ad, Davis attacked her opponent, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, for apparently not siding with a rape victim while he was a judge in the early 1990’s.
In a statement to Breitbart Texas, a spokesman from Abbott’s campaign called the commercial “despicable” and “desperate.”
The ad portrays the story of a woman who was raped in her home by a vacuum salesman. The woman and her husband subsequently filed a lawsuit, and by a 6-3 vote, the Texas Supreme Court ruled in their favor. Justice Greg Abbott was on the dissenting side.
“Greg Abbott sided with the company against the victim. Saying the company had no responsibility,” Davis’ ad stated while ominous music played in the background.
In Abbott’s dissenting opinion, he wrote that the vacuum company, Kirby Co., had no control over “who was to perform that work,” according to Your Houston News.
Abbott spokeswoman Amelia Chasse provided Breitbart Texas with a statement that said, “This ad is a continuation of the type of rhetoric we’ve seen from a candidate who is paper-thin on substance and running a failing campaign devoid of any real vision for the future of Texas. Texans deserve better than the gutter politics they are getting from Sen. Davis.”
Chasse continued, “No one has a stronger record fighting the heinous crime of sexual assault than Greg Abbott. Not only did he create dedicated units to arrest and prosecute sex offenders and protect women and children from assault, he’s responsible for putting more offenders in jail than all of his predecessors combined. In the case referenced in Sen. Davis’ despicable ad, Greg Abbott’s decision left intact the liability against the sex offender and his employer. No amount of desperate distortion attempts or token ad buys by Sen. Davis can change the facts of Greg Abbott’s record of fighting for Texans.”
It is unclear if Davis’ ad will be effective; it has received mixed reviews from supporters.
In a column for the Washington Post, Diana Reese wrote, “Such a campaign doesn’t seem in keeping with the Wendy Davis in red running shoes who filibustered her way after 13 hours to national publicity and an image as an up-and-coming Democratic star. She made us believe she had guts and grit and determination — and that she was better than the run-of-the-mill politician.
“Her star has faded in the year since then, with details emerging about her claims of teenage motherhood and living in a trailer park before eventually graduating from Harvard Law School. The truth was more complicated, although most of what she said is true, and her now-adult daughters have come to her support.”
The negative attack ad comes as Davis has struggled to raise funds.
Breitbart Texas previously reported that Abbott raised three times as much campaign money as Davis. While 95 percent of Abbott’s funding has come from donors in Texas, Davis has had to turn to blue states around the nation to rake in cash.
Follow Kristin Tate on Twitter @KristinBTate.
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