Ire at Cruz camp for ‘summons’

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is drawing criticism for seeking campaign contributions with mailers suspiciously resembling official state summonses.

The formal-looking manila envelopes sent by Cruz's campaign reads “Summons Enclosed — Open Immediately” front and center. The return address reads “Official Travis County Summons” from the “Voter Enrollment Campaign Division,” with “Ted Cruz for Senate 2018” written at the bottom. Once recipients open it, they find a letter soliciting campaign donations.

A Texas resident named Sean Owen tweeted a photo of an envelope and asked if such a thing was legal.

“Received this for my 88year-old grandma. Says it's a summons from Travis County, but is actually asking for money for @tedcruz. Did your campaign authorize this? Is this even legal? Shame on you. That's one more @BetoORourke voter,” Owen wrote.

Beto O'Rourke is the Democratic candidate trying to boot Cruz (inset) from the Senate seat he's held since 2013. Cruz has a nine-point lead in a Quinnipiac poll published Tuesday. He is expecting an October campaign visit from President Trump, who dubbed him “Lyin' Ted” when the two competed for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016.

Cruz's camp defended the mailer; it said its tactics are “effective and critical to identifying and engaging our supporters.”

Texas State Rep Gene Wu suggested on Twitter that falsely sending an actual summons inducing voters to take action is illegal and punishable by up to one year in jail.

A Federal Elections Commission told the New York Times the mailings don't violate its rules as the commission doesn't address how candidates can word solicitations.

Newsweek reported “hundreds of thousands” of the potentially misleading mailers are making the rounds.