Democrat Wendy Davis is accusing Republican opponent Attorney General Greg Abbott of a "cover up" involving economic incentive dollars on the eve of their final debate in the Texas governor's race.
Abbott's office on Monday called her criticism political posturing.
On Monday morning, Davis claimed at an event in Fort Worth that Abbott failed to properly monitor Gov. Rick Perry’s Texas Enterprise Fund.
A state audit last week revealed the fund awarded roughly $172 million in taxpayer dollars to companies that never submitted applications.
Abbott's office previously denied open records requests for copies of fund documents that auditors say never existed.
Abbott spokesman Jerry Strickland said Monday the audit found no wrongdoing by Abbott's office, and released copy of a 2004 letter described as an "application" from one company cited by auditors last week.
The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday that Abbott received more than $1 million in campaign contributions from recipients of the Texas Enterprise Fund.
The News reported that Abbott spokeswoman Amelia Chasse denied that contributions played a role in how Abbott approached his oversight of the fund.
“As attorney general, Greg Abbott enforces the law without fear or favor, and to suggest anything to the contrary is pure conjecture and irresponsible,” Chasse said.
The Texas Tribune reports: "Davis accuses Abbott of declaring the records to be secret in order to hide what the audit turned up years later — a lack of oversight over millions of dollars in grant money."
“We need an independent investigation by appropriate state or federal authorities regarding the actions by the attorney general and the attempts to use the power of his office to cover up the transfer of millions of taxpayer dollars to companies whose applications he knew didn’t exist,” Davis said Monday at a news conference in Fort Worth."
Davis and Abbott debate Tuesday night in Dallas at the KERA studios.
The hour-long debate starts at 8 p.m. The debate will air live on KERA 90.1 FM and streamed online here at KERANews.org – it’ll also air on KERA-TV (Channel 13).
Debate information is available at TexasDebates.org.
