Texas Democrats want to know who helped the Green Party get on the fall ballot.
As long as they're solving mysteries, Anthony Garcia of Houston still wants to know who paid for his radio ads for lieutenant governor back in 1998.
Just like today, a mysterious bundle of money helped a third-party candidate siphon votes away from the Democrat in a close political campaign.
Just like today, the beneficiary was the Republican candidate.
Just like today, the Republican was Rick Perry.
In 1998, Garcia was a Libertarian running against Perry and Victoria Democrat John Sharp for lieutenant governor, with the winner to succeed Gov. George W. Bush if Bush won the presidency.
Perry and Sharp went into the final days neck-and-neck in the polls, with Garcia a distant third.
Then came a barrage of Spanish-language radio ads for Garcia, all attacking Sharp and the Democrats and all broadcast from stations across the border in Nuevo Laredo.
"John Sharp says our children are not intelligent and have criminal tendencies!" one ad said, according to the Austin American-Statesman and San Antonio Express-News.
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