Lemberg Ally Smears Montford and Keel

Wow, did DA candidate Lemberg and her consultant Fero step in it. A website run by Lemberg consultant Fero accuses Montford of being supported by Keel, but Keel denies backing DA hopeful, accuses opponent's ally of libel:

AustinPoliticalReport.com is registered to Kelly Fero, an Austin political consultant retained by Lehmberg to work on her campaign. Keel is threatening a libel lawsuit against Fero.

Odds of truth on this are somewhere between slim and none. This is classic Old School LBJ-style last-minute smear "If you lie close enough to the election, you can get away with it". You gotta love that quick response libel threat from Keel going after Fero.

UPDATE 4/4: Keel files criminal complaint ... and with the DA's office, no less!

Keel's lawyer, Jason Nassour, said he is filing a criminal complaint with Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle but would seek a special prosecutor because Earle has endorsed Lehmberg.

Nassour cited election law prohibiting the "misrepresentation of identity."

The law says "a person commits an offense if, with intent to injure a candidate or influence the result of an election, the person misrepresents the person's identity ... in political advertising or a campaign communication."

Statesman then points to Rick Reed's experience on the matter; Rick Reed ran for the DA office, and met with Fero in November. Fero said that "“whatever ground that Gary had managed to cover they could make that up in an afternoon by putting something out on a blog,“:

After Reed got home he received an e-mail from Fero with a link to an item on AustinPoliticalReport.com declaring Reed would be the “frontrunner” in the race if District Attorney Ronnie Earle were to retire.

“It’s incomprehensible to me … that Rosemary was unaware that Austin Political Report was their Web site or they controlled it,” Reed said. “This was evident to me after the one conversation I had with them and she hired them.”

This make suspect the denials of Lemberg that she didn't know AustinPoliticalReport.com was connected to Fero. Suspect is putting it gently - "What did she know and when did she know it?" is the question to ask. So Fero breaks campaign law and engages in libel, Lemberg spreads the libel and engages in Nixonian dodges when it surfaces ... and this person is running to be in charge of the Public Integrity Unit?!? Only in Ronnie Earle-land could thigns be so upside down.