In
response to your comments regarding the low voter turnout during the
city council elections, as a precinct chairman, I suggest many of folks
who are registered in Dallas are no longer here and therefore don't care
who is the mayor or serves on the city council.
Here are some reasons why voter turnout is so low:
#1 Dallas has a very high % of the population living in apartments.
Apartment residents move a lot. As a generality, they are either
poor or young. Both are big groups who don't get involved.
This is one reason that campaigns in Dallas focus on frequent voters and
do not always mail to the infrequent voter. There are at least 20%
in this category.
#2 When folks move, they frequently do not change their voter
registration. It is the last thing on their mind. Last July,
I received my copy of voters in the neighborhood. I found
several registered voters just on my block who had moved years ago and
never changed their voter registration. With the motor voter law,
it takes forever to purge them from the voter rolls. As much as
20% of the voters on the rolls in the city of Dallas may make up this
group.
#3 Turnout is always lower in minority neighborhoods. In Hispanic
neighborhoods, many may have been registered but don't have a clue about
the election. They many only read or watch Spanish language media.
If your campaign does not advertise in this media, you are an unknown to
them. In African-American neighborhoods, turnout is pathetic.
They just don't vote, and I don't know why. Considering some
of their elected representatives, it might be disgust with the whole
process.
#4 Gerrymandering has also hurt turnout a little in Dallas.
#5 A better judge of turnout is to compare homeownership to voter
turnout. Homeowners and neighborhood associations are the
building blocks of an involved community. That explains the
higher turnout in District 13, 11, 12, etc.
These are my ideas based on years of working in campaigns and elections
in Dallas. |
Why
should our mayor and my good friend Laura Miller should make a special
effort to reach out to the African- American community.
They don't support her, they don't vote and they don't have money.
This is the attitude of the Republican Party, and they now control Texas
and the Nation. Laura Miller's base is the base of
George Bush. People who work, pay taxes and who participate in the
process.
What could she do differently to appeal to African Americans?
She has tried to clean up city government, which is a mismanaged mess.
(If you don't believe it, just read the City Auditor reports).
Our Mayor does not care for the police chief. I don't either.
Under his tenure, crime is up, police morale is down, incompetence is
rewarded and then there is the big "fake" drug scandal.
He is a liability to Dallas taxpayers and not an asset.
Our Mayor was an honest reporter who disclosed that Al Lipscomb was no
better than a paid prostitute who sold his vote to the highest bidder.
She also reported that John Wiley Price has been taking money from folks
seeking contracts from Dallas County. Stories that later
appeared in the Dallas Morning News.
Then there was Mayor Ron Kirk, "money is no object", who lined
his pockets while looting the city treasury. He should be in
prison instead of pretending to be a lawyer.
If something is corrupt or dishonest, Laura Miller deals with it.
She does not cover it up or payoff the criminals. If African-Americans
don't like for crooks to go to jail, I suggest they stop electing them.
There have to be honest elected black officials in Dallas County.
I just have not read about or met any so far.
At some point, African Americans have to stop blaming the world for their
woes and take responsibility for their actions. Politicians
go where the money and the votes are. You have to vote or give
money to get noticed today.
African Americans have not yet learned that lesson, and they are paying
the price. Their situation in Dallas will get worse as
Hispanic numbers continue to increase and the laws that got African-Americans
jobs in the 1960s, 1970's and 1980's are used to replace them with
Hispanics. |
