The Ken Paxton campaign released a new television ad Tuesday morning that will be broadcast across the state. It rehashes former Land Commissioner George P. Bush’s “woke plan to reimagine the Alamo.”
Paxton and Bush are squaring off in a runoff election for the Republican nomination for attorney general.
Paxton said Texas voters cannot trust Bush to protect the state from the destruction of its principles and the threat of leftism on social media when sharing the ad.
We can't trust RINO George P. Bush to protect our state, our freedoms, & our values from Biden & the radical Left after he's spent his career trying to destroy our heritage.
Protect Our Texas Heritage. Defeat George P. Bush.
Watch my new ad now: pic.twitter.com/6OP3vdanyE
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) May 10, 2022
The Alamo is one of the most recognizable Texas landmarks. It was the site of a pivotal 1836 battle for Texas’ independence from Mexico.
The Land Commissioner’s Office, headed by Bush, oversaw how to use the $400 million allocated for renovating and preserving the landmark. Politicians and officials disagreed over how to use the funds and how far-reaching the renovations should be.
Bush’s decisions regarding the renovations were criticized by many, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. The most disputed decision was a plan to move the Cenotaph, a monument on Alamo grounds that commemorates those who died in the battle, built in the 1930s.
The monument, also known as The Spirit of Sacrifice, was going to be taken apart, restored, and moved some 500 feet south to the nearby historic Menger Hotel. Planners said the new location would be closer to the original site of the final resting place of the Texans who died in the battle.
Patrick blasted Bush’s management of the Alamo and his proposal to move the Cenotaph on Twitter, calling it “outrageous.”
Nobody has put the @OfficialAlamo at more risk than @georgepbush with the outrageous “reimagining” plan, lousy management, lack of transparency and moving the cenotaph. #txlege #remembertheAlamohttps://t.co/JiAF0niZKe
— Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) June 15, 2020
Bush defended his decision to attempt to move the Cenotaph, stating it would help better preserve the monument.
“I don’t claim to be an engineer or a scientist, I’m just your basic politician,” Bush said. “But the Cenotaph, the experts tell me, is basically falling apart from within … and that essentially the only way to fix it is to relocate it.”
Eventually, the Texas Historical Commission, a state board whose members were appointed by Governor Greg Abbott, ordered that the Cenotaph must stay in its place, bringing an end to that saga.
Bush’s campaign remained proud of his work with the Alamo as land commissioner.
“Prior to Commissioner Bush taking office, the Alamo was split under ownership of the City of San Antonio and the State of Texas,” Bush’s campaign Spokesperson Karina Erickson told The Texas Tribune last November.
“Under Commissioner Bush’s leadership, we have successfully reunited the Alamo battlefield and returned it to state control, restored the sole remaining structures (Church and Long Barrack) from the Battle of the Alamo, closed down the streets to vehicle traffic, and restored reverence and dignity to the sacred ground of the battlefield,” she said.
Nonetheless, the controversy over Bush’s management of the Alamo was always going to arise during the attorney general campaign, according to Jon Taylor, a professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio chairing the political science and geography departments.
“It’s going to resonate at least with a certain percentage of Republican primary voters,” Taylor said. “Someone is going to bring it up.”
Primary challengers, such as Eva Guzman, attacked Bush on the issue during the primary, but it did not have enough effect to prevent him from earning a spot in the runoff.
Paxton is rehashing the issue with his latest ad, which states that voters can “Protect our Texas Heritage” by defeating Bush in the runoff. The ad says Bush demanded the Cenotaph be moved and compared him to the “radical left” that wants to “remove our monuments.”
The attorney general is not alone in criticizing his opponent. Bush recently blasted Paxton in an interview on May 8, stating:
“He (Paxton) is a career politician, a swamp creature, that has been around the Capitol for over twenty-two years. I am implementing my own self-imposed term limits. I believe that we have too many career politicians, and that’s why after two terms of serving [as] Texas land commissioner, we need new leadership in this role.”
Bush touched on some controversy surrounding Paxton.
“It’s not conservative to cheat on your wife. It’s not conservative to throw the Constitution out the window. And it is not conservative to take bribes from financial donors, which is what this attorney general has done,” Bush alleged.
Still, if polls are correct, Paxton may not need to persuade many voters to defeat Bush.
An April poll from the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation found that Paxton had a commanding 42-percentage point lead (65% to 23%) over Bush among likely voters.
The runoff election will be held on May 24, with early voting from May 16-20. May 13 is the last day to apply to vote by mail.