Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis trails her opponent Greg Abbott by double digits, so she needed to shake things up during Tuesday night’s debate.
Davis decided to go after Abbott for a 2004 ruling that allowed the Texas government to keep confidential records pertaining to recipients of the Texas Enterprise Fund, a program to lure businesses to the Lone Star State. Five applications for businesses that received funds from the program – totaling $67 million – were never formally submitted, meaning the companies received money without applying.
Abbott, in his ruling, told Texas Gov. Rick Perry to keep the records secret, citing exemptions in state transparency laws. Since those applications didn’t exist, Davis and others are questioning why Abbott told Perry to keep the records confidential.
“Will you agree to release any documentation, any communications that represent communications that you had during that time in reaching that decision?” Davis asked Abbott at the debate.
Abbott was prepared for the question, as the Houston Chronicle had floated Davis’ possible attack line on Monday.
Abbott pointed out that one of the companies with a missing application was Cabela’s, which received $400,000 from the TEF in part to open a superstore in Fort Worth. Davis, then a city councilmember in Fort Worth, voted to give Cabela’s tax incentives to open the store.
Abbott also noted that Davis’ title insurance company, Republic Title of Texas, helped close the sale of 50 acres to Cabela’s.
“It was your title company that benefited by closing that deal,” Abbott said during the debate. “So you personally profited.”
Davis, naturally, accused Abbott of lying, but stepped on her own line of attack when she tried to play “gotcha” with the attorney general by saying “we did actually have an application that we reviewed very carefully.”
It should be noted that a state audit of the TEF found no wrongdoing on Abbott’s part. And a city attorney in Fort Worth, in a 2004 advisory opinion, said Davis did nothing wrong in her dealings with Cabela’s.
Davis also tried to hit Abbott for accepting campaign contributions from donors connected to some of the groups that received state funds through the TEF without applying.
Abbott was not responsible for doling out funds or making sure it was used to create jobs as promised, but rather to take legal action to recoup improperly spent funds, which he claims to have done multiple times.
Abbott has also said during the campaign that he wanted to re-evaluate the TEF because the government should “get out of the business of picking winners and losers.”
Davis’ campaign did not respond to a Washington Examiner request for comment.
