Pro-Dewhurst Super PAC Releases TV Ad Targeting Cruz

The Texas Conservatives Fund, an independent Super PAC supporting Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's bid for the U.S. Senate, released a new television ad Friday deriding characterizations of former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz as a conservative.

"Cruz, a conservative? You've got to be kidding?" an incredulous announcer says at the start of the ad. The 30-second-spot goes on to cite Cruz's work as an appellate lawyer for a Chinese tire company that was sued by an American businessman for intellectual property theft and donations to President Obama made by the law firm that currently employs Cruz.

The ad also claims Cruz was opposed to lowering the property tax cap by citing a 2006 Houston Chronicle article in which Cruz is quoted as describing plans that would lower the cap as "moving backwards." In the article, Cruz was testifying to a state Senate panel in his role as state solicitor general about how the Legislature could address a Texas Supreme Court ruling that the public school funding system was unconstitutional. Cruz told the panel that plans that involve lowering property tax caps were "moving backwards" in regard to addressing the high court's ruling.

The ad will run throughout the state on both cable and broadcast stations, according to Rob Johnson, the Super PAC's executive director and a former chief of staff for Dewhurst.