You’d think that after letting a German Luftwaffe officer slip into his ad in Texas Monthly, lieutenant governor candidate David Dewhurst would work overtime to deny his many critics another belly laugh at his expense. For instance, he might snatch up the profoundly obvious www.daviddewhurst.com domain name before anyone — say, a prankish Democrat — beat him to it. But click on the site, and “David Dewhurst: Can you trust him?” flashes before your eyes, while a Pinocchio nose grows on Dewhurst’s face. “[E]very time Dewhurst gets caught in one of his half-truths you can bet his nose will grow just a little more,” the site says.
Authoring this pixilated poke at Dewhurst: the Austin-based communications firm Campaign Momentum, which claims that their site is unaffiliated “with any political campaign or party and has been developed solely by Campaign Momentum using publicly available resources.” According to its online portfolio, Campaign Momentum created the Web site and e-mail campaign for City Council Member Betty Dunkerley, who won her race against incumbent Beverly Griffith in May. The firm also developed the site for LiveableCity, which some cynical locals speculate is a launching pad for local environmental activist and rumored 2003 mayoral candidate Robin Rather, who supported Dunkerley. (According to www.whois.net, the “admin contact” for the LiveableCity Web site is Rather’s husband David Murray.)
This article appears in August 23 • 2002.