Bobby Abtahi, left, and Philip Kingston
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE ROBOCALL
Some District 14 residents received a robocall from anti-gay former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert last week in support of City Council candidate Bobby Abtahi, who faces Philip Kingston in a runoff June 15.
But the Abtahi campaign is denying that it played any role in recording the Leppert robocall or even knew about it.
“We did not record that,” Abtahi campaign manager Kurt Watkins said.
Watkins said the call was done on Leppert’s own initiative and Leppert has not endorsed Abtahi despite the robocall.
The call highlights Abtahi’s work as a community prosecutor for the city while Leppert was mayor.
“I personally worked with Bobby,” Leppert says in the robocall. “And I saw his role as a city prosecutor the work he did protecting our communities. He made a big difference.”
But the message isn’t the issue. When Leppert left City Hall to run as a Republican for U.S. senator, he threw the LGBT community under the bus with an anti-gay tweet.
“Another mistake from Obama on DOMA,” Leppert tweeted. “We need leaders in Washington to stand for the principle of marriage between one man and one woman.”
In another instance of gay-baiting, Leppert accused opponent Ted Cruz of accepting a $250,000 donation from gay Republican donor Peter Thiel.
Abtahi has attacked Kingston for signing an oath saying he’s a Democrat even though he’s voted in mostly Republican primaries. Now Abtahi is getting some high-profile Republican — and anti-gay — support.
“I find it ironic that the No. 1 issue people have with Philip’s campaign is that he may have had affiliation with the Republican Party,” Kingston supporter Pam Gerber said Monday. “The other campaign now has a persona non grata in the LGBT community making robocalls endorsing the other candidate.”
UPDATE:
Kingston said the Leppert robocall showed “bafflingly poor judgment” and added that Leppert deceived the LGBT community.
“He really hurt District 14,” he said. “He made it his point to hurt District 14 by keeping Angela [Hunt] off committees and out of important discussions.
Abtahi responded: “I’m not going to play politics with human rights issues. My sister, who’s openly gay, got engaged six weeks ago and I want her to have the same rights I have. Marriage equality impacts me personally and it’s something I will proudly fight for.”
He said he was also proud of his work as a community prosecutor and vowed to continue to do that as a city councilman.
“This is just an attempt by my opponent to deflect the fact that he gave money to Ted Cruz and Todd Staples,” Abtahi said.
