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Tall, reserved and impeccably dressed, Dewhurst was raised by a single mother after his father was killed by a drunken driver. He served in the Air Force and as a CIA officer in Bolivia before returning to Houston, where he started a natural gas business and made his fortune. Cruz's father fought against Cuba's Batista regime in the late 1950s before getting a student visa to attend the University of Texas. Cruz was born in Alberta, Canada, where his dad worked in the oil fields before moving back to Houston. A champion debater, Cruz attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School and has spent most of his career in politically appointed positions in the Bush administration or working for the Texas attorney general. Leppert, 57, has been CEO of several companies, including the Turner Corp., the nation's largest construction company. He ran for Dallas mayor as a reformer and balanced the city's budget. The competition between Dewhurst and Cruz turned ugly early. Each has spent more than $4 million on TV and radio attack ads. Dewhurst has derided Cruz as a trial lawyer even though Cruz has specialized in handling appeals. His campaign also pilloried Cruz for representing a Chinese tire company appealing a $26 million judgment that it had stolen intellectual property from a U.S. company. Cruz replied he was only doing his job as an attorney for an international law firm. Cruz, meanwhile, attacks Dewhurst as a "timid, moderate politician" who too often has compromised with Democrats. "Enough of these little kitty cats we keep sending to Washington," Cruz said. "David Dewhurst will compromise every day in the U.S. Senate. ... It's what he's done every day in state government." Boasting about his experience as a top business executive, Leppert calls Dewhurst a career politician and Cruz a government staffer. Dewhurst says Leppert's record as Dallas mayor is too liberal for Texas Republicans. Whoever wins the GOP nomination will face one of two Democrats, former state Rep. Paul Sadler and party activist Sean Hubbard. No Democrat has won a statewide office in Texas since 1994.
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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