End of Ike nice: Huffman attacks Bell consultant for ‘class warfare' comment

Hurricane Ike may have cut off power to millions of Gulf-area residents, but sparks are already flying in the contest for State Senate District 17. Joan Huffman, a Republican running to succeed state Sen. Kyle Janek (R-Houston), chastised a consultant working for her opponent, former U.S. Rep. Chris Bell (D-Houston) for engaging in "class warfare."

The Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday that Dan McClung, an advisor for many Gulf-area candidates including Bell, said he didn't know whether flooding forced more Democrats or Republicans to leave the region.

"But I just always presume that the Republicans have the higher ground because it's the most expensive," McClung told the Chronicle. 

Now Huffman's campaign is characterizing those comments as "class-warfare rhetoric."

"Now is not the time to engage in partisan, class-warfare rhetoric.  It is time to help our community recover and aid those in need," Huffman, a former criminal district court judge, said in a statement Wednesday.  

Bell's spokesperson Jason Stanford said, "Chris Bell is too tired from handing out bags of ice to respond to a negative personal political attack today." In an interview with PolitickerTX.com Tuesday, McClung said the tone of campaigns after Ike might change. "I would think charity would be in order," McClung said.

Huffman's campaign is contributing $5,000 to Fort Bend's Second Mile Mission Center of Stafford "to cover a specific need they had today for infant supplies."

The Center's purpose is to provide "an opportunity for people in and around Fort Bend County to hear and respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ by, first, building a relationship through unconditional love that meets their physical needs," its website said.  

The campaign also "called upon" Secretary of State Hope Andrade to make sure displaced voters have "ample opportunity" to vote in the election.