AUSTIN – A national conservative organization today is launching a television commercial in Austin and nationally comparing Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle to an attack dog because of his prosecution of U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay. “A prosecutor with a political agenda can be vicious,” the ad says over footage of a snarling dog.
The ad, sponsored by the Free Enterprise Fund of Washington, D.C., reminds viewers that Earle, “a liberal Democrat,” once tried to prosecute U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican. The ad says Earle now is going after DeLay of Sugar Land because he is a Republican, too. “Bad, Ronnie, bad. It’s not a crime to be a conservative,” the commercial says.
Saturation ad buy – The commercial will have a saturation buy in Austin and will run at times on the Fox News Network, said fund spokesman Todd Schorle. He said the fund is not trying to affect the potential jury pool in DeLay’s case. He declined to say how the commercials were financed.
The investigation of DeLay and political associates John Colyandro and Jim Ellis has focused on whether they illegally funneled corporate money into Texas House races in 2002. They are charged with conspiring to violate state election laws, conspiracy to money launder and money laundering. All three have claimed they are innocent.
Use of corporate money – Under Texas law, corporate money can be used for issue advertisements such as the one the fund is running against Earle because he is not a candidate for elective office. This will be the second commercial the Free Enterprise Fund has run against Earle, claiming his investigation of DeLay is meant to harm the Republican “free market agenda.”
Mallory Factor, chairman of the Free Enterprise Fund, said the commercial is intended to show Earle as abusing the power of the prosecutor’s office. “By pushing grand juries to issue politically motivated indictments of prominent Republicans, Ronnie Earle is trying to make it a crime to be conservative, to support an agenda of lower taxes and less government. That’s un-American,” Factor said.
Earle declined comment.
See the video here.
Previous:
Delay Fighting Back
The Delay Indictment
See author page