WASHINGTON _ For anyone doubting the flurry of polls showing a neck-and-neck Senate race in Texas, there's fresh proof this week that Rep. Beto O'Rourke has the full attention of Sen. Ted Cruz and other Republicans.
On Monday, Cruz stepped up attacks on the El Paso Democrat by asserting that O'Rourke's defense of NFL football players who kneel during the national anthem is no better than support for flag burning.
Then, he added campaign events to his schedule at the last minute, keeping him in Texas through Wednesday night _ even though that meant skipping days of votes in the Senate, where before the summer he'd prodded leaders to cancel the traditional August recess. Which they did.
"We must not waste one minute of one day while we work to fulfill the promises we made to the American people," Cruz said in early June. "By working through August, we will continue to fight for more policy achievements and to deliver for the American people who elected us."
Then, late Tuesday, the state GOP tweeted out an arrest photo of O'Rourke from two decades ago, ramping up efforts to reshape the challenger's image from fresh-faced "Kennedy-esque" optimist to dangerous radical.
"There's always the chance that Robert 'Beto' O'Rourke won't debate Senator Cruz because he got into a hazy situation ... " the tweet reads. Over the mug shot, the GOP superimposed the words, "Sorry. Can't Debate. Had a little too much to drink."
The quickening pace of attacks comes in the aftermath of polls showing O'Rourke neck-and-neck with Cruz, or close to it, and with major Cruz allies expressing increasing concern about his ability to hang onto the seat. The Club for Growth plans a "seven-figure ad blitz" on his behalf.
O'Rourke's campaign didn't respond to a request for comment on the mug shot attack.
Cruz aides declined to speak on the record about the senator skipping votes.
In May, Cruz co-signed a letter with a dozen other GOP senators urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to consider keeping the Senate in session "nights and weekends" and to cancel the August recess.
Two weeks ago, a frustrated McConnell privately lectured GOP senators about absenteeism.
On Tuesday, Cruz missed a half-dozen roll calls to confirm a federal judge, a governor for the Federal Reserve and other posts. None was controversial or close. He missed votes last week, too, including a vote on a topic close to his heart, to defund Planned Parenthood.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the majority whip in the Senate, defended Cruz for skipping work in Washington.
"We've gotten a lot done that we would not have gotten done" if the Senate hadn't been in session during August. He noted that the GOP and Democratic leaders had cut a deal to get about 15 noncontroversial judges and other nominees confirmed this week.
"We really haven't had any close votes that have turned on an individual senator's presence or absence," Cornyn said. "I trust Sen. Cruz to make decisions in the best interest of his campaign and his service. I don't think the fact he may not have been here for a vote or two has affected the outcome of those matters at all."
O'Rourke, 45, was arrested twice in El Paso during his 20s: in 1995 for attempted burglary and in 1998 for driving while intoxicated.
He has said the arrest happened after he tripped an alarm while jumping a fence at the University of Texas at El Paso. Prosecutors declined to pursue that case. He received deferred adjudication on the drunken-driving arrest, and was not convicted.
"There is no excuse and there's nothing I can say, other than that was very stupid of me and I showed really poor judgment, bad judgment," he told The Dallas Morning News earlier this year. "It was something that I did, and I hope in those 20 years I have been able to contribute to this community. But there is just no excusing for that."
The Republicans aren't the first to use the arrests against him. Winning a congressional seat in 2012 meant overcoming a longtime Democratic incumbent in the primary. Silvestre Reyes, a former sector chief for the Border Patrol, featured his challenger's arrests in ads and on the stump, warning that _ along with O'Rourke's desire to legalize marijuana _ he couldn't be trusted.
The Texas GOP used the same mug shot Reyes used in a 2012 ad. The "hazy situation" verbiage seemed to allude to his penchant for legalized pot, though drug charges were not part of either arrest.
The assertion that O'Rourke is dodging a debate with Cruz is arguable.
O'Rourke proposed a half-dozen debates several months ago. After rejecting his entreaties to negotiate a schedule, the Cruz side then pre-emptively proposed five debates on specific dates and topics, insisting the terms were non-negotiable. O'Rourke refused to accept the terms and if Cruz has budged, his aides haven't acknowledged that.
The first debate Cruz proposed would have been on Friday, in Dallas, with the candidates standing at podiums discussing jobs, taxes, regulations and the economy.
The Texas GOP's jab at O'Rourke provoked a tart comeback on Twitter, with one user digging up mug shots of prominent Texas Republicans who had faced criminal charges of varying degrees of severity:
_ Ken Paxton, the state's attorney general, who has been under indictment for more than three years on securities fraud charges.
_ Tom DeLay, the former Sugar Land congressman known in Congress as "The Hammer," who was forced to step down as House majority leader after being indicted in 2005 for illegally funneling corporate money to state legislative candidates. Sentenced to three years in prison, his conviction was later overturned.
_ Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who successfully fended off charges that he abused his authority as Texas governor. He had threatened to cut funding to the Travis County district attorney's office unless the DA _ the same one who had prosecuted DeLay _ resigned after an arrest for drunken driving.
_ Steve Stockman, the disgraced Houston-area congressman convicted in April of a massive fraud scheme.
Cornyn, former head of the party's Senate campaign arm, said Republicans aren't overly worried about Cruz.
"There's no doubt that Beto O'Rourke has raised a ton of money," he said. " ... It's an impressive amount of money and certainly, who would have expected a challenger to out-raise the incumbent senator, Sen. Cruz?"
But he said, Cruz will have enough money to be competitive, and "at this point Beto O'Rourke is a largely unknown quantity other than the image that he's been able to portray. I congratulate him. He's been able to portray an image of somebody who's sort of a fresh new face in American politics and given some hope to the Democratic Party in Texas."
But he said, echoing a Cruz line of attack, the challenger's view "are out of step" with those of most Texans, and voters will reject him "once those positions and differences are exposed."
An Emerson College poll released Monday showed Cruz ahead by just one percentage point. While the methodology may be flawed, the Cruz campaign quickly incorporated it into a fundraising appeal designed to help him close the fundraising gap.
Earlier this month, the campaign jumped on other polls showing anything from a statistical dead heat to a six point lead for Cruz.
"Obviously the race appears to be tightening," said Cornyn. "I think when you look at the likely voter turnout models that Sen. Cruz will win by a significant margin."
O'Rourke has been collecting donations at a torrid rate, outraising the incumbent by more than $10 million from March to June and pulling almost even in 15 months with Cruz's six-year haul.
Cruz has said he would welcome help from President Donald Trump. Cornyn predicted the president will stump in Texas for his colleague.
"I would expect that to happen and I hope it does happen. I think they're considering it but they haven't picked a date or a location yet," he said on a call with Texas news outlets.
