The Smears are Here!

Maldonado: Getting ahead of the attacks

As if anyone was really surprised, the local House races have taken a sharp turn for the negative as Republicans start to get worried about those grim, grim national numbers.

First off, the Tim Kleinschmidt campaign in Bastrop's House District 17 went after Democrat Donnie Dippel by trying to tie him to Obama (err, and this hurts him how?). It gets worse for Kleinschmidt that his mailer uses a photo by local blogger Mean Rachel. Then again, the Texas GOP is kind of big on using material without permission this year, including from the Chronicle.

Meanwhile, up in Wilco's HD-52, Diana Maldonado's campaign has started issuing what it calls bamboozle alerts. These are meant to debunk opponent Bryan Daniel's attacks (painting her as an ultra-partisan Democrat even though, as her campaign points out, in 2006 she held her Round Rock ISD trusteeship – a non-partisan election for an at-large position – by 79%) and what they see as smear mailers before they can gain traction.

With the final burst of campaigning and campiagn fund contributions about to hit, it'll be interesting to see if big wads of cash get dumped into late attack pieces, since it'll be hard to build any positive, issue-based momentum in close races before election day.