Darryl Baker
Rene Matus
Gehrig Saldana
                             

05/15/07  Weird Dallas Politics.

Did you bother to vote last Saturday, or in early voting?  If so, you are one of us weirdo's who still believe in Democracy. 

I was the election judge in my little precinct.  We vote in the auditorium of our neighborhood school.  It is not easy to get to our voting place.  The school sits way back from the street.  The auditorium door from the street brings you in at stage level, and you have to walk down four dark steps without a railing.  No big deal for kids and most folks, but really tough for the infirm and elderly.  However, the only one who actually slipped or fell was a Deputy Constable -- a young guy with enough rear padding that he had no real damage. 

As usual, I made several endorsements.  Here's the election results compared to my picks:

I did as well as The Dallas Managed News.  They did endorse Tom Leppert, and I supported Darrell Jordan.  My guy didn't get there.  So, I'm now on the Tom Leppert team.

The votes garnered are interesting.  Mitch Rasansky was unopposed, but District 13 still voted the third most votes, and Mitch had the most votes of all candidates.  Angela Hunt was virtually unopposed in District 14, but she had the second most votes and the second highest voting district.  Dwaine Caraway won 3,178 votes in his 4-person race in District 4, very impressive.  The Dallas Managed News continued to refer to Dwaine as the "perennial candidate", even after he beat off 3 other candidates WITHOUT a runoff, by a 62.4% margin.

Here's another way to look at the numbers:

My poor little District 6 just does not vote.  When Steve Salazar beat me in 2003, less than 2500 voted in the entire district.  Looking at the two other "Hispanic" districts (1 and 2), it appears that Hispanics just don't vote.  Only 4,319 voted in all three districts.  Rasansky, Hunt and Natinsky all got more votes individually than voted in Districts 1, 2 and 6 combined.  So much for the job done by the high dollar "political consultants" hired to get out the Hispanic vote.

The top two council members who get the most people to vote for them (i.e., Rasansky and Hunt) should be the Mayor Pro Tem and Deputy Mayor Pro Tem, respectively.  In that way, the voters decide on the Executive Officers of the City Council, rather than council members picking a Tri-Ethnic combination. 

It would be fun to have Angela Hunt as Deputy Mayor Pro Tem and Mitch Rasansky as Mayor Pro Tem.   Whether Tom Leppert or Ed Oakley wins the mayor's runoff, neither one of them would dare leave town or even a council meeting  with Rasansky or Hunt waiting to run a meeting in their absence.

This is going to be a better council than we have had in a long time. 

I don't know much about Jerry Allen who replaces Bill Blaydes, but he has to be an improvement.  Allen Gwinn likes and admires Sheffie Kadane, so he must be a good guy. 

I am thrilled Dwaine Caraway is going to be on the council.  He believes in South Dallas, not in the abstract, but at the grass roots level.  He believes the trash motels can be closed down.  He believes South Dallas neighborhoods can be attractive and safe with high property values.  He will work for development, but he will focus on the immediate needs of his district -- not grand plans for the next decade.   If Betty Culbreath, Rev. Parish and Tennell Atkins win their runoffs, they and Dwaine can bring a new face to Black elected officials.  No more of the foolishness of the past several years.

Even though Dwaine and Tennell have had their past differences, both men are bridge builders.  They are capable of mending fences with former adversaries.

Hopefully, Dave Neumann wins District 3 to replace Ed Oakley.  Dave must have been hurt and surprised to learn Ed Oakley was trying to steer African-American community leaders away from Neumann to vote for one of the two African-Americans in the 9-candidate field.  Expecting Blacks or Hispanics to only vote for people "who look like them" is racist thinking, old school thinking -- like Max Wells sending out that flyer where he posed with Al Lipscomb and Diane Ragsdale.  Neumann's opponent does not have his experience or leadership ability.  If you know how effective and energetic Dave Neumann has been heading up the Stemmons Business Corridor Association, you know he will be great on the city council. 

As you can imagine, I am very disappointed that Darrell Jordan did not do better Saturday.  There were so many strikes against his campaign after such a positive start.  The first and probably fatal blow was when Goffer Jeffers printed that lie about Pat Cotton threatening Mitch Rasansky.  From that point on, Jeffers froze Darrell out of his political commentaries and Belo effectively ignored him in most of the campaign stories, unless they found some cooked up nothing like that hit piece claiming he plagiarized some other political piece.  Then, his wife's health took a dramatic turn for the worse right in the middle of the campaign.  She's now doing wonderfully and looking healthier than I've seen her in years, but it was really a serious situation for several weeks. 

Almost every reporter I know told me Darrell was the best at all the debates.  Problem is, no one went to the debates.  Remember how it was between Laura Miller and Tom Dunning?  Those debates were packed.  Best show in town. 

It's not just that this season's slate of candidates lack the firepower of Laura Miller.  It's more that Laura Miller sucked the fire out of our enthusiasm.   We thought we had elected a team leader who would take the city back to the basics.  Instead, Laura cast us off like a butterfly leaves its cocoon.  We were a hindrance to her new mayoral image.  Regardless of how sophisticated you may think you are about politicians, Laura Miller's rejection of the folks who took her to the dance was stunning and devastating.

I don't believe Darrell Jordan would have been so swayed by the thrill of being mayor, but I never would have expected Laura Miller to morph into Ron Kirk either. 

Tom Leppert seems to be a man who knows himself.  He does not appear to suffer fools gladly, and that's a good thing in my book.  He may have no more time for the little people than has Laura, but he has never pretended otherwise.  We need to have a Mayor with experience as a Chief Executive Officer in big business.  We need fresh blood at City Hall.

Ed Oakley touts his knowledge of the workings at City Hall and his ability to form coalitions.  His inside political shenanigans may have worked well for his acquisition of holdings in the Trinity River Project area, but what's he done for your neighborhood?  He's been very helpful to Ray Hunt, but what's he done for the rest of us?

This business of Oakley sending out a flyer advising voters:

Partisan politics has no place in Dallas city elections.  Ed claims to be a long time Dallasite, by way of Oklahoma, but he clearly has no respect for our charter or traditions.   Where's he going to get the rest of the votes he needs to beat Tom Leppert after writing off North Dallas and Republicans?  African-American voters are not going back to the polls for the runoff, except in Districts 5, 7 and 8.  If you look at the DMN interactive map of how the precincts voted, (Interactive Map: Mayor, council results), you can see Leppert did just as well in the "Southern Sector" as did Oakley. 

Don't expect Don Hill's voters to vote for Ed Oakley.  It's not going to happen. 

Don't expect North Dallas voters who supported Max Wells to switch to Oakley.  Gary Griffith's voters will not support Oakley either.  They are predominantly those "Republicans" that Ed warns South Dallas about.  Even if Wells or Griffith endorse Ed Oakley, they cannot deliver their voters to him.  There is no way Sandra Dee is going to endorse a Democrat.

Oakley can't expect any help from Hispanic voters either.  He can count on his old District 3 base, but he's already got those votes.   There will not be any new votes from Oak Lawn or East Dallas because Oakley already has those votes. 

I can't remember, but I'm told more people voted in the runoff between Miller and Dunning than voted in the general when it was Miller, Dunning and Garcia.  That may be true, but neither Tom Leppert nor Ed Oakley have the star power of Laura Miller.  Tom Leppert may very well make a better mayor than Miller because he has executive experience, but he doesn't have her fan base.  Ed Oakley may have his own core group, but he has effectively thumbed his nose at North Dallas in the general election. 

All the Leppert campaign has to do is keep circulating Ed's divisive and partisan flyer north of Northwest Highway.  Even if you are a Democrat living in North Dallas, that flyer has to tick you off.   It forces any North Dallas dwellers to ask of Ed "What will he do for North Dallas?".

I'm going to print off TrinityVote petitions this week and go door to door in my neighborhood this weekend, weather permitting.   I'm also going to be available for whatever grunt work the Leppert campaign needs for me to do.  That's right, I am going to make myself available to Carol Reed. 

Don't worry, I'm not going ODB.  I'm just going to do whatever is necessary to get us a Mayor who hasn't been consumed with political ambition for the last 20 years. 

Let's roll.

sb