Austin Interfaith has its principles, and it tends to stick to them dogmatically (in fact, the Chronicle has not always taken the highest view of AI’s habit of demanding candidates take a yes/no approach to its agenda). But one thing that AI can’t be accused of is being partisan.
Which makes the latest story about Donna Keel‘s campaign claiming they’re in the bag for Rep. Valinda Bolton all the more baffling. Keel was invited to their accountability forum on Oct. 23, but no-showed, claiming that the issues being discussed were slanted towards Bolton. Her campaign then fired off letters of complaint to the congregations of the four churches that sponsored the event.
This isn’t the first, err, unusual campaign strategy deployed by the Keel campaign: Recently she claimed she didn’t know Speaker Tom Craddick, even though her brother-in-law Terry is his parliamentarian and her husband Thornton is treasurer for his Stars over Texas PAC. Then there was the TV ad that never existed.
AI, which was very clear that it did not want to be dragged into electoral in-fighting, would merely comment that all local candidates are invited; neither Bolton (the Bolton campaign has already explained that she had a prior engagement) nor Keel turned up; Keel did send letters to the sponsoring bodies; and three Republicans and only one Democrat were there on the day. So much for being a Dem front operation: The bigger question now is why Keel didn’t know how AI operates (we would ask, but, well, the Keel campaign isn’t talking to us).
This article appears in John McCain.
