Wendy Davis served notice Wednesday she is not backing down from a hard-hitting TV ad accusing GOP gubernatorial opponent Greg Abbott of getting a big disability award and then working to close the courts to others. “I saw the ad. I stand by the ad,” Davis told reporters.
Davis has been attacked by Abbott allies who say the spot is insensitive because the attorney general is in a wheelchair. And she has been questioned by some Democratic supporters who say the 30-second spot will turn off voters, even if it’s accurate. Abbott is paralyzed and in a wheelchair. He was struck by a tree while jogging in 1984, sued the homeowner and a tree company and received a multimillion dollar settlement. Abbott has been a leader in efforts to curb access to the courts by injured people suing business. Abbott says despite considerable changes in civil law in Texas over the last decade, a person injured together could receive the same settlement he did. Davis disputes that.
“He has shown that he is actively seeking the deny them the same justice he received. And the ad calls into stark contrast the issue in a way voters deserve to know,” Davis said while campaigning at a restaurant in Austin.
Abbott’s campaign has condemned the ad as “disgusting.” Spokeswoman Amelia Chasse says the spot is the sign of “a desperate politician” who trails in the polls and in campaign money: “Sen. Davis is showing that if she is going to fail, she will do it in spectacular fashion. Her reprehensible rhetoric has reached a level of demagoguery that is as desperate as it is disappointing.”
Davis said any of her allies who worry the commercial will backfire among voters are wrong. “What we know from testing this ad with the votrers is it’s an incredibly effective ad,” she said. She disputed Abbott’s contention that an injured person today would get the same settlement under state law. She noted that Abbott’s own lawyer in the case has said that changes in Texas tort law would make it virtually impossible for someone today to win the kind of settlement that Abbott received.
She cited a case before the Texas Supreme Court when Abbott served as a justice. “Greg Abbott ruled against a woman who was the victim of a brutal rape by a vacuum cleaner salesman when a company could have done a background check … and would have discovered that he had a sexual criminal history. Greg Abbott ruled that company owned her no obligation. Put that in strong contradiction to his belief that a homeowner and a tree-company owned him an obligation. He rightfully received justice, she deserved to rightfully receive justice.”