SAN ANTONIO – An analysis of campaign advertisements being used in the Texas governor's race shows typical behaviors by the frontrunner and the underdog.
Democrat Wendy Davis is on the attack in television ads against her opponent, Republican Greg Abbott.
In one TV ad, she accuses Abbott of allowing his wealthiest donors to take tens of millions of taxpayer dollars meant for finding a cancer cure.
"I pray that Greg Abbott never becomes our governor," said the man featured in the commercial.
Another ad accuses Abbott of siding with a company against a rape victim when he was on the Texas Supreme Court. "But Greg Abbott sided with the company against the victim," the announcer in the commercial intones.
Dr. Henry Flores, political science professor at St. Mary's University, said this is typical behavior of a candidate who is behind.
"She's the underdog, she's behind in the polls and traditionally underdogs have to attack," Flores said. "And attack, and attack and attack. She's trying to really put him in a position where he's got to come out and address some of those issues."
Flores said this strategy is tried and true for those behind in races.
"She's looking for a weakness in his armor," Flores said. "She's trying really to close the gap on him numbers-wise so that's why she's attacking right now."
Abbott, meanwhile, is taking the softer, gentler approach, the approach frontrunners take.
Two recent ads show him working out in a parking garage and being praised by his mother-in-law.
"He has a deep commitment to public service and our values," said Abbott's mother-in-law in one ad.
Abbott's ads portray him as a family man who has dealt with his rehab after an accident left him unable to walk.
"Just one more, I'd tell myself, just one more," Abbott said in the parking garage ad.
"He's trying to play above the fray," Flores said. "And bringing his mother-in-law in and doing that, it was a good ad, workout in the parking garage."
But Flores said voters will also see a change in the ads as election day draws nearer.
"At a certain point her ads are going to turn into issue ads," Flores said. "You can push too far and at a certain point those types of ads will backfire on you."
He said the way the current poll numbers look, it would take a lot for Davis to overtake Abbott in November.