Montford Endorsement Attended By GOP Consultants
Earlier this week, when Mindy Montford was endorsed by Rick Reed (who finished fourth in the field of four primary candidates for Travis County DA) a couple of interesting characters were attending the news conference on the steps of the Austin Police Association: Republican consultants Reb Wayne and Kevin Moomaw.
Wayne, of course, is close to Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick and Lt. Governor Dewhurst and has run GOP campaigns against Austin-area Democrats like Mark Strama. Moomaw, who now works for David Dewhurst and has previously served at the Republican Party of Texas, has worked countless GOP campaigns.
This comes as we hear that many Republicans in the Capitol have essentially stopped trying to pretend they aren’t involved in the Montford race. Several sources tell Capitol Annex that Wayne, in fact, was telling bystanders at the press conference that he intends to take out several Democrats this year, starting with Montford’s opponent Rosemary Lehmberg and ending with State Rep. Donna Howard in November.
Wayne was also reportedly bragging that AT&T chief John Montford, a former State Senator, is preparing to make sure some serious money finds its way to a local law enforcement PAC for direct mail pieces on his daughter’s behalf. If this is true, it wouldn’t be the first time Montford has done something like this. When Brewster McCracken (Montford’s ex-husband) was running for his first term on the Austin City Council, his then-father-in-law, former Sen. Montford, dumped thousands of dollars into the Austin Police PAC, which then spent the money on McCracken’s behalf.
Written by Vince Leibowitz
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(On Mar 18th, 2008 at 10:31 am)
Vince,
I hope the consulting firm that is working for Lehmberg and is feeding you this junk is paying you well. Your reputation and credibility is on the line.
First, they told you that a Montford supporter George Bristol is a GOP consultant and you were ignorant enough of Texas Political history to believe them. He has never worked for a Republican in his life as far as I can tell.
Now you just make things up - or are willing to print absolute lies.
Vince, I have photos of the entire event that you speak of. Neither of the guys you refer to were at that press conference.
You give the lies the appearance of validity when you make up details such as that these two guys were “telling bystanders” things. There were no bystanders; I know everyone who was there. Let me repeat, there was no one there who I can not identify and I can show you or anyone else who would like to see photographs of everyone who was there.
This entire story is an absolute fabrication and I challenge you to have the person who told you these lies produce one shred of evidence that anything you said in this story is true regarding Montford’s campaign.
Mindy Montford is a lifelong Democrat who has always voted as a Democrat and has always supported Democrats.
Wise up or shut this thing down because by the time this runoff ends you will have so little credibility that even these guys who are paying you will see no value in continuing to pay you.
(On Mar 18th, 2008 at 4:29 pm)
David,
Why don’t you step down from your high-horse of self-righteousness for a little bit and look at the facts. I’d love to see your photographs, because evidently you weren’t paying attention to the whole crowd.
You say there were no bystanders there. You know that’s not true and you admit it by trying to claim you knew everyone there (obviously, you don’t, or you are in denial).
I’m on nobody’s payroll on this. I had not one but several people tell me the same story. I’m sure you’d have a different story if, oh, let’s say, an audio recording someone made on their PDA happened to crop up. Maybe you should go back over those photos again.
(On Mar 18th, 2008 at 5:02 pm)
Oh, and one more thing.
Leininger political consultant Bill Noble has told several lobbyists today who asked about this pair that they had to get them out of there before the press arrived. Evidently, some people who got there late to watch what was going on wondered where they had gotten to. So, if you got there just as things got started, you missed them.
(On Mar 18th, 2008 at 10:34 pm)
Vince,
I’ll post the photos here if you would like and if your site would allow. Those two men were not there. To try to find out who they were I looked up the phone number and called one of them today.
He said he was not there and so I asked him if he had happened to be walking by. He said he was nowhere near there and that he called the other guy this morning to ask him the same. He had also not been there.
I have never met either of these guys and the one I spoke with said he had never met Montford or had anything to do with her campaign.
The least you could have done is looked these guys up and asked them if they were there. Didn’t you say you used to be a real reporter?
The only people at the press conference were the press and the people in the conference. There were no bystanders and there were no two, mysterious republicans.
What you are counting on for your lie is that you think I can not prove you false. I have a better idea how we can handle this, Vince - don’t forget to check your mailbox over the next week or so. I’ll send you something…
(On Mar 18th, 2008 at 12:44 pm)
David,
How naive are you to think that a Republican lobbyist would actually tell you the truth about whether they were there or not? What a waste of time for you to even bother asking them about it. Of course, especially since the Lt. Governor’s office was well aware of my post the other day, they’ve had time to get their stories straight.