Texas fact checks to take to the polls

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Paul Sadler is mostly right that federal debt doubled under George W. Bush. He’s absolutely correct that his runoff opponent, Grady Yarbrough, ran twice statewide before — as a Republican.

Our Sadler checks are among about a dozen Truth-O-Meter articles researched between the May 29, 2012, party primaries and the July 31 runoffs. They’re piled to the right.

Many of our checks reflect the marquee Republican Senate match-up between Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Ted Cruz, a former state solicitor general.

But we’ve also got checks of Republican U.S. House foes Roger Williams and Wes Riddle. Closer to at least part of Austin, we offer our reviews of tough claims about Democratic foes for a Travis County constable slot.

Our latest Pants on Fire rating went to Republican state Sen. Jeff Wentworth’s statement that his runoff opponent, Donna Campbell, has been calling for a 35 percent expanded local-state-federal sales tax. She hasn’t.

Soon, of course, we’ll move on from the runoffs.

Just today, we trolled Sarah Palin’s July 27, 2012, remarks urging support for Cruz. We’re probably not getting into her friendly boast about Alaskans flocking to Texas. She had other, meatier claims.

Footnote: We’re especially pleased when readers ask us to dig into a curious statement. Keep those emails and calls coming, you hear?

Happy runoffs to all.