October 11, 2004

Republican Campbell Denies Spa Incident
while Dems Go on Offense in Close Races

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

Democrats went on the offensive Monday in two of the state's tighest Texas House races while a Republican incumbent came out swinging against charges that have left his campaign teetering on the brink of self-destruction during the past few days.

In an interview with a hometown television station, State Rep. Scott Campbell of San Angelo denied a claim by a local masseuse who had accused him of indecent exposure after an alleged visit to a day spa where she worked in May. The allegation was published late last week by the San Angelo Standard Times after the newspaper obtained an offense report that had been on file at the city's police department. Despite making the potentially career-ending accusation, Campbell's accuser has declined to press formal charges. She is no longer an employed at the spa, according to news reports.

While returning to San Angelo from a speaking engagement in Kerrville, Campbell pulled over and was parked on the side of the road during the middle of the afternoon. A DPS who went to check on the lawmaker reported that the lawmaker's speech was slurred and he appeared off balance. But Campbell apparently was not asked to take a field sobriety, blood alcohol, urine or breath tests at the time of the alleged offense. Campbell now denies that he was drunk at the time, although he has acknowledged that he had consumed a minor amount of alcohol that day. Campbell had gone to Kerrville for the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers Association convention. According to an association official quoted by the Snyder newspaper, the lawmaker did not complete his speech to the group before leaving the podium. Campbell says he pulled over on the way back to San Angelo because he felt ill. He told the local paper that he checked himself into an alcohol rehabilitation program for 28 days following the incident involving the DPS.

The DWI was filed in Concho County, where the legislator's brother, Bill Campbell, is the county attorney. The Snyder newspaper reported that the local prosecutor will recuse himself and turn the case over to a special prosecutor. The state lawmaker, who was elected to the House District 72 seat after former Democratic Rep. Rob Junell decided against a re-election bid two years ago, was charged with DWI 10 years ago while running for Congress, according to the Snyder paper.

The sudden rash of publicity has threatened to derail what for months appeared to be a relatively easy re-election effort for Campbell in a district with twice as many Republicans as Democrats. While Campbell has vowed not to resign the seat, the reports about his personal life have opened the door for Democratic challenge Jeri Slone, who had been running television advertisements for several days before the stories about the Republican began to circulate in the four-county House district. The HD 72 contest is a rematch of the 2002 campaign, which ended with Campbell defeating Slone with more than 68 percent of the general election vote. Despite the loss two years ago, the challenger reported raising slightly more than $8,000 for her campaign during the past three months to go with almost $10,000 in loans to her campaign this year. Campbell raised less than $6,000 during that time.

In Waco, State Rep. John Mabry of Waco accused Republican challenger Charles "Doc" Anderson of systematically violating the state's law banning corporate campaign contributions first entering the House District 56 competition more than two years ago.

Attempting to repeat the longshot victory that he claimed in a Republican district two years ago, Mabry charged that Anderson has taken 21 illegal corporate donations since 2001 including four that he accepted during the general election phase of this year's campaign.

The Democratic incumbent said Anderson accepted illegal corporate contributions when he had thousands of flyers, stationery and other campaign materials furnished by a Waco printing firm. Mabry also pointed to a $1,000 contribution that Anderson received from the Princess Three Corp. in Henderson earlier this year before returning in July after the McLennan County Democratic Party chairman filed a complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission. Anderson, who defeated two primary opponents en route to the Republican nomination in HD 56, dismissed the Princess Three contribution as an inadvertent mistake after it was spotted and publicized by Mabry.

Mabry's accusations came three weeks after a Travis County grand jury indicted three Republican operatives and several corporations on charges involving allegedly illegal corporate contributions in the 2002 state House races. Two of the consultants were also charged with laundering corporate money to GOP House candidates through the Republican National Committee during the elections two years ago.

To the south in San Antonio, Democratic challenger David Leibowitz portrayed State Rep. Ken Mercer as anti-middle class as a result of a 2003 vote to allow public colleges and univerities to raise tuition without legislative approval.

Leibowitz, who has spent considerable sums of his own money in an attempt to wrestle HD 117 back into the Democrats' column, said that public college tuition has soared 32 percent since Mercer backed House Republican leaders' call for tuition deregulation last year. The Democatic challenger says the higher cost of college is tantamount to a tax hike on middle-income Texans who plan to send their children to college in the state.

Democrats appears to have a lock on the San Antonio district until their nominee for the seat was indicted shortly before the election in 2002. Mercer, who had been considered a longshot, won on what appeared to be a protest vote against the embattled Democratic candidate in the race that year. The reverse took place in HD 56 in Waco as Mabry pulled off a major upset against a Republican who held the seat briefly before his campaign came unglued amid a series of gaffes in 2002. Thanks to the inherent advantages of incumbency, Mercer and Mabry are considered to have 50-50 shots at re-election this year.