The Russell campaign sent out this e-mail today: After a solid week of lie-riddled negative mail, my opponent has now launched an autodial endorsement call by Bill Ratliff, the father of the failed “Robin Hood” school finance system, who has recently made headlines by running his liberal son against the incumbent conservative champion of the State Board of Education, Don McLeroy. Liberals like Paul Burka of Texas Monthly are excited because they believe “Farney’s presence on the board … would empower the Democratic members.” The full quote that Russell refers to appeared in yesterday’s post (see “Farney assails Russell in key SBOE race.”) This is the paragraph in which the quoted material appears: “A Farney victory would completely change the political balance on the board–assuming that she would align with the pro-public school Republicans. (Some are concerned that she might align with the far-right instead.) From the standpoint of advocates of public education, she can’t be worse than Brian Russell. Farney’s presence on the board would probably make the dividing lines between the factions more fluid and would empower the Democratic members to be swing votes.” Now you’ll have to excuse me so I can go vote.