A Democratic strategist attacked U.S. House can- didate Bill Flores this week, saying the Republican lied during a February debate when he said he voted for his GOP runoff opponent, Rob Curnock, in 2008.

Curnock asked Flores who he’d voted for in the past two congressional elections during the McLennan County Republican Club debate about a month before the March primary.

Flores said in 2008 he cast a ballot for Curnock, who was running against U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco.

Bill Flores said he was joking when he spoke at a debate about voting for Curnock.
Jerry Larson/Tribune-Herald, file

But Flores didn’t vote for Curnock in the Republican primary, according to Brazos County voting records presented on Democratic political strategist Matt Angle’s Lone Star Project Web site.

When Flores entered the race, he said he voted in the 2008 Democratic primary to cast a ballot against Barack Obama and prolong the Democratic primary.

It was only this week that Angle and the Austin-based Texas Tribune brought up the issue of Flores’ not voting in the general election.

Flores spokesman Matt Mackowiak told the Texas Tribune that Flores — a now-retired oil and gas industry executive — had been in meetings in Houston and couldn’t get back to the Bryan-College Station area in time to vote.

Mackowiak also said Flores had made Election Day phone calls on behalf of GOP presidential nominee John McCain. Federal Election Commission records indicated Flores donated $2,300 to McCain.

In a radio interview last week, Flores, responding to further prodding from Curnock, said he’d been joking when he spoke at the debate about voting for Curnock.

mshapiro@wacotrib.com

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