House District 46 challenger Brian Thompson has replied to claims from the family of Rep. Dawnna Dukes that he defamed them in campaign ads. But rather than backing down, he’s trying to turn the spotlight even harder on the embattled incumbent.
The family’s pleading named and blamed Thompson for two ads. One was actually the work of Sal Costello and the Austin Toll Party and nothing to do with Thompson. The other is from the Thompson campaign, and implies there may be something fishy about the fact that Dukes sits on the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, which oversees the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, which gave a toll road contract to engineering firm HNTB a week after the company subcontracted the rep’s firm Stacey Dukes-Rhone as a PR consultant. He’s not backing down, saying he has the facts on his side. He cites a 2004 Austin-American Statesman article which raised specific questions about potential conflict of interest for Dukes.
It’s unlikely the suit would be heard before Tuesday’s election, and even if Dukes wins the primary, this issue may not go away. “Since defamation cases allow for an open and extensive discovery process, I look forward to exploring Rep. Dukes’s and Stacy Dukes-Rhone’s alleged contracts and associations with numerous governmental entities around Austin,” said Thompson.
The contentious section of the ad says “Dawnna votes for toll on East Austin roads but hides her sister’s toll road contracts. Dawnna’s family profits while you pay the tolls.” Feel free to parse this to detect defamation.
This article appears in February 29 • 2008.
