Cruz accuses Democrats of violating ethics law to help Allred

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WASHINGTON – Sen. Ted Cruz accused national Democrats on Thursday of illegally exceeding campaign contribution limits for his opponent, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred.

But Democrats say they are simply doing what Republicans did in their ads.

Cruz alleged that the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (DSCC) illegally spent more than $10 million on television advertising in Texas to benefit Allred. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) allows national party groups to spend about $2.8 million in coordination with Senate candidates in Texas, an amount based on the state's voter count. Party groups prefer to run ads in coordination with candidates because candidates benefit from cheaper rates than non-spending groups.

National party groups can exceed the coordinated spending limit through “hybrid ads,” which must spend half the time of each ad on “general credential candidates.” Exactly what that means has been the subject of contention within the FEC and the basis for Cruz's complaint.

Cruz's complaint focuses on four ads from the Allred campaign and the DSCC. One of the ads devotes about half its time to abortion and features Kate Cox, a Texas woman who had to leave the state to terminate her unviable pregnancy. Cruz claims that the ad contains no references to “commonly referenced candidates” and therefore does not follow FEC guidelines. The other ads contain references to Cruz “and extremists” with images of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, but Cruz contends that's not enough to constitute an attack on “commonly referenced candidates.”

However, in a recent ruling, the FEC was unable to determine whether similar cases violated the law. In an Oct. 10 ruling on a complaint filed by Democrats, the FEC disagreed on whether references to “greedy politicians” or former President Donald Trump “constitute a reference to generic Republican Party candidates that is party advocacy.” “.

A standstill effectively allows candidates to carry on as they did before the verdict.

The recent FEC ruling was in response to a DSCC complaint about Republicans' frequent use of hybrid ads to obtain lower rates.

“The DSCC is running the same type of advertising that the NRSC, the Republican National Committee, and the Republican members of the FEC have all deemed legal – and that is being run by Republican Senate campaigns across the country. “Ted Cruz is doing everything he can to distract Texans from his support for a ban on all abortions and his self-serving politics,” Amanda Sherman Baity, a spokeswoman for the DSCC, said in a statement.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) paid for ads featuring Republican candidates in other states that spent half the airtime on issues. In Arizona, an ad from NRSC and Republican candidate Kari Lake spends half its time discussing drugs at the border and the other half attacking Democrat Ruben Gallego. Ads in Nevada and Maryland spend half their time going after “politicians.”

According to tracking firm AdImpact, the NRSC spent about $2.8 million on ads featuring the Cruz campaign.