Former Mayor of Irving Admits He’s Behind a Terrible Anonymous Mailer

Irving's former mayor admitted in an interview this week that he is the creator of what The Watchdog believes to be one of the most dishonest political hit pieces ever circulated."Yes, I'm fully responsible for it," Herbert Gears says about his dirty trick. Gears served as Irving's mayor from 2005-2011. Before that, he was a councilman for six years.The mailing gives the distinct impression that former mayoral candidate Kristi Pena is a drug addict, a thief who was arrested, someone who had been evicted and foreclosed upon.None of that is true.State election law requires political flyers to include who paid for the advertisement.Gears' piece doesn't do that.Gears tells The Watchdog: "I'm not ashamed one bit of that political mailing. I have been on the receiving end of worse for years from Kristi Pena supporters. And I'm not ashamed of it because it's all public records."Yes, it's all public records, just not Pena's public records.Pena came in second in a four-person race in the May election. It was her first try for public office.Pena told me her reaction when she first saw Gears' mailer: "What the heck? Who would do something like this? This is horrible."  Continue reading...