By AP
HOCKLEY, Texas (AP)
- Republican George W . Bush hammered Gov . Ann Richards on crime Thursday, then inadvertently broke the law by illegally shooting a killdee on the first day of dove hunting season .
"I thought it was a dove . I made a mistake and I'm going to pay for it," said the GOP gubernatorial candidate and son of former President Bush . A Bush spokesman said Bush would be fined $130 for shooting the bird with a 20-gauge shotgun during an hourlong dove hunt in a field northwest of Houston .
Hours later, he found out that one of the seven shots he fired off had hit a killdee, which resembles a dove .
Before the trip, Bush took aim at the Democratic governor, contending a new penal code she signed that went into effect Thursday actually reduces prison time .
Richards, who marked the start of the season by firing off three shots in a field in north Texas, disagreed, saying the code doubles the minimum sentence for violent offenders . "We've worked hard to close the revolving doors in our prisons," she said . "If George Bush has his way, the doors will be spinning again . " Richards, who neither bagged a bird nor was fined, has made a tradition of going hunting on the first day of dove hunting season . Bush denied he was copying the governor, saying he has hunted all his life.
