More Political "Dirty Tricks" In Fort Worth

Fort Worth has not traditionally been a hotbed for political "dirty tricks", but it looks like that may be changing. A few days before the election, someone tried to suppress the Hispanic vote by passing out fliers with the wrong election date on them. The flier urged people to vote on Saturday the 10th, when the election was actually Tuesday the 6th.

Now there has been a second incident. On the morning of the election, an automated phone call went out to many voters. The call accused Republican and former state rep. Bob Leonard of voting in the past to raise taxes. The inference was that this was an anti-Republican vote, when in fact the bill he voted for was negotiated by Republican leadership. Here is the text of that call:

"This is a voter alert. Please pay close attention. Bob Leonard does not want you to hear this message. Craig Goldman's supporters recently revealed that as a state representative in the mid-1980s, Bob Leonard voted to raise your taxes. One of his last votes was to increase taxes on most household goods, cars, guns -- almost anything you can think of, Bob wanted to tax. Maybe that is why he quit to become a lobbyist after making that vote. Today cast your vote for Texas and against Bob Leonard."

Some believe this call could have changed the outcome of the election. In early voting totals, Leonard finished second to Democrat Dan Barrett. But after election day votes were totaled, Mark Shelton finished in second place.

The call, which many received about 8:00am, was illegal in several ways. Automated calls can't be made before 9:00am, must state the nature of the call, give the identity of the caller, and give either the phone number or address of the caller. This call did none of those things.

So far, all of the candidates have denied being resposible for the calls. But regardless of who is responsible, both the calls and the fliers are illegal. I hope those responsible parties can be found and prosecuted.

This kind of behavior cannot be tolerated in a democracy.