Carter Disappointed Carol Kent Defends Watchdog’s Allegation of Double-Dipping

August 29, 2010

The Honorable Carol H. Kent
P.O. Box 743713
Dallas, Texas 75374
Dear Representative Kent,

It comes with great surprise and disappointment that I receive a letter from you defending the practice of double-dipping and asserting that my campaign has been negative.

As an initial matter, your personal ethics have been questioned by an independent non-partisan watchdog group. If you have an issue with the allegations, take them up with the watchdog group. Having said that, the issue is not whether other state representatives engage in the practice or defend it, but how you can justify to our constituents receiving taxpayer-funded reimbursements while also receiving campaign reimbursements for the same expenditures. Your denial frankly leaves a lot to be desired. If you are not paying for living expenses out of campaign funds, then why did you indicate on your campaign finance report that you planned to seek reimbursement for five months of rent? Which statement should we believe is the lie: the one that was notarized at the time you submitted your report, or the one made now in the heat of the campaign as you backtrack from what is on your filed paperwork? Furthermore, on at least one occasion your campaign account wrote a check to the same individual to whom you paid rent several times in 2009, and the description for that July, 2009 expenditure was listed as “Austin Apartment Rent.” You can attempt to parse your words, but it will merely demonstrate that you are truly a professional politician.

Second, I want to mention I recently was in fear of my own safety, and the safety of my campaign staff and volunteers, when I became aware of individuals on three separate occasions sitting in their cars, after 10:00 p.m., parked cattycorner facing our campaign offices, apparently spying on and video recording our campaign’s activity. Related to these incidents, my campaign office has called 911 twice over the last few weeks, because we sought to leave our campaign office but were sincerely in fear of leaving with the suspect vehicles parked near our cars. It is truly a sad day when a candidate, also a former prosecutor, has to call the police simply to leave her campaign office. My strong desire is that this campaign be conducted without the specter of intimidation, or gutter level tactics. It is not my place to cast aspersions about your involvement, or the involvement of your campaign, in these particular incidents, but the license plate numbers on the vehicles involved frankly suggest they may be connected to your campaign. As a former prosecutor, I can assure you I would not condone, nor be complicit in, the kind of confrontation you described in your letter. People do deserve answers on your voting record, however, and you are certainly not above answering them.

It is these kinds of campaign shenanigans, personal attacks and dirty politics of which people are sick and tired going into November. To the extent your campaign has been involved in the stalking, spying and harassment, please stop, and please start being honest with the voters. Lies and unethical behavior will not bode well. I would much rather this race stick to the issues, so you can explain why you have coddled criminals and spent taxpayer money like an Obama liberal (which is presumably why you have been ranked in your only term as one of the ten worst legislators in this State on fiscal and tax issues[1] and one of the five worst legislators in this State on small business issues[2]). The previous personal attacks by your campaign make me doubt you want to talk about your poor voting record, but I can assure the campaign I run will be about what is important to the voters of District 102.

I hope you will join me in an issues-based discussion of the issues that put voters first.

Respectfully,

Stefani D. Carter

[1] Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, “Fiscal Responsibility Index” (81st Regular Session).

[2] Texas Association of Business, “The 2009 Report of the Texas Legislature” (81st Regular Session).