TDH: 5/4/11

With a little under 10 days left until Election Day, shit’s finally getting grimy on the campaign trail. After the jump, the Hustle attempts to corral all the attacks, weasel-like word parsings and wanton character assassination he can find.

It’s no surprise that, like the rest of the campaign, the action’s in Place 3. For starters, we see Texans for Accountable Government honcho John Bush doubling down on his charming “Shady the Clown” attacks on incumbent Randi Shade. Here, he shares some guffaws from the recent Libertarian forum, where Shade was asked if she’d like a camera installed in her office.

“I think it would be a pathetic waste of resources because that's not where the crimes are happening,” she replies, prompting some laughs in the process because, as the video states, “everybody knows” crimes are occurring/the fix is in/Osama’s really still alive at City Hall. (I guess the founding fathers’ patriotic principle of due process only applies to gold-hoarding Ron Paul fanboys.)

Staying in Place 3, Kris Bailey is attacking Shade over the council’s decision to postpone a permitting decision for Chris Nielsen’s fleet of solar powered golf carts electric vehicles. Nielsen, you’ll recall, announced a Place 3 run of his own, before bowing out/failing to file his paperwork on time. The audio of Shade is taken from a forum sponsored by the Real Estate Council of Austin and other business associations, where candidates could pose questions to each other.

Shade’s latest e-mail is going on the offense against Kathie Tovo for her self loan of $40,000. “In case you hadn't heard, one of my three opponents loaned her own campaign $40,000 even after signing a ‘Fair Campaign Pledge’ that's supposed to limit personal loans to $3,750,” the incumbent writes in her latest fundraising appeal. “And if this race goes to a run-off, she will exploit a provision in the ‘Fair Campaign’ ordinance that gives her access to almost $60,000 in public money!”

It’s been argued in corners of the local blogosphere that the ‘Fair Campaign’ pledge Tovo signed was rendered moot by her late entry into the race. The charge is identical to the question Shade directed at Tovo at that same forum sponsored by RECA, et. al.; Tovo’s response, according to a forum write up from In Fact Daily, was “I'm not exploiting a loophole … It's part of the fair campaign provision – and I am the only candidate in all of these races who has signed it – that if somebody has entered the race and has not signed it … no one is obligated to abide by them.” RECA has since posted the audio of the forum online, for all you burgeoning oppo-researchers.

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