Citizen Files Ethics Complaint Against Wendy Davis

Watchdog Wire reports that a citizen of Texas has filed an ethics complaint against Democrat governor candidate Wendy Davis. The complaint alleges that Davis has knowingly and consistently failed to report assets on her Personal Financial Statements.

All state officeholders in the Lone Star State have to disclose their financial gains and losses every year. Violating that mandate can carry stiff penalties, including $10,000 in fines and 180 days in jail. She could face both civil and criminal prosecution.

The complaint against Davis alleges that Davis reported capital gains on stocks and mutual funds during the years 2010 through 2012 to the IRS but failed to disclose that information on her state forms.  The Texas Ethics Commission has the decision whether to investigate the allegation or not.

The complaint comes at a difficult time for the Davis campaign. The Dallas Morning News recently reported that Davis’ origins story, in which she depicted herself as a single mother who worked herself up from a trailer park to obtain a Harvard education, is not accurate. Rather than deal with the report head-on, Davis chose to attack her Republican rival in the governor’s race, Attorney General Greg Abbott. That attack not only was irrelevant to the story of Davis’ credibility, it backfired badly when she asserted that Abbott “has not walked a mile in my shoes.” Abbott has been partially paralyzed since an accident broke his spine at age 26, in 1984. He has been confined to a wheelchair ever since.