In a political rarity, the state Republican Party has mailed an apology to voters for “erroneous” attack ads against the Democratic candidate in Texas House District 105.
The retraction comes after a federal agency dismissed the Rodney Anderson campaign’s accusations — widely promoted on GOP mailers — that Democrat Susan Motley was breaking the law by running for the seat.
And it raised questions about whether Anderson led his party astray over the accusations.
“At the time we sent the mailing, we believed in good faith both mailers were true,” party chairman Steve Munisteri wrote in the apology, due to hit tens of thousands of mailboxes in Irving and Grand Prairie this week.
Two weeks ago, Anderson’s campaign blasted out news that it had filed a federal complaint against Motley for violating the Hatch Act. The act bars some government employees from politics, but Anderson’s team argued it also restricted Motley because she works for a federally funded nonprofit.
Experts, including former Republican White House attorneys, rejected Anderson’s portrayal of the law. But GOP-paid mailers promoted the charges, warning that Motley “may face fines and termination.”
The accusations began to unravel last week, when the U.S. Office of Special Counsel said that no complaint had actually been filed against Motley.
“We had been furnished with a copy of the purported complaint and told it was filed,” Munisteri explained in his retraction, which cited reporting by The Dallas Morning News to the contrary.
The Anderson campaign had also provided the media a copy of its complaint, and blamed a possible “clerical error” after the agency could find no record of it.
After Anderson’s campaign finally sent the Office of Special Counsel the complaint early last week, the agency quickly dismissed the charges.
Motley’s lawyer then wrote Anderson and the GOP to demand they retract the mailers — lest Motley “hold you personally liable for your defamation.”
The Democrat hadn’t expected the party to comply.
“We sent that letter as a buckshot thing,” said Motley’s campaign manager, Tom Schwarz. “They really took it seriously.”
“We apologize for any confusion or misunderstanding this may have caused you and we apologize to Ms. Motley for any erroneous information that was disseminated,” Munisteri wrote in the retraction.
Munisteri said he wasn’t worried about a lawsuit. He issued what was likely the party’s first written apology and retraction, he said, because “this is the first mailing in dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens where someone has said we disagree with what’s in there.”
Anderson’s campaign didn’t have a say in the retraction, the party chairman said. “We just told them we were doing it. They didn’t have a problem.”
Asked whether he felt Anderson had given the party accurate information about the complaint, Munisteri said: “they have to speak for themselves.”
The Anderson campaign, meanwhile, did not respond Tuesday. Earlier Anderson’s strategist, Corbin Casteel, refused to speak with The News after it reported on the complaint’s dismissal.
“You have lost the privilege to speak with the Anderson campaign,” Casteel wrote in an email.
Motley was waiting to hear from Anderson, too.
“The person most silent is Rodney Anderson, who misled not only voters but his own party,” Motley said. “He owes voters an apology.”
