THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN: There is good news for local Democrats in the election held yesterday in Dallas County. I was working at the polls myself, instead of actively campaigning in these non-partisan races. The results are up on the Dallas County Elections Department site HERE. What does it all mean?
The best news was actually three defeats. Best of all was the defeat of Dwaine Caraway in Dallas Council District 4. The impression I have formed of his previous involvement in city politics is that a victory by him could only have been compared to some very serious medical problem. That's only my own personal opinion, of course. I hope the voters never give him a chance to prove me correct.
The next best news was the huge defeat of the proposed "strong Mayor" proposition, by over 61%. This was a centralized power-grab whose ultimate suppport came from the same kind of advocates of elected tyranny that back the Bush regime. They were frustrated by the actual democracy of Council members who dared to represent their own constituents instead of taking orders, and wanted to put all the reins in the hands of one person. They figured Dallas is so big, and city-wide campaigning so expensive, that these fat cats would always have control over whoever won that one race. The people, overwhelmingly so in the minority parts of town, told them "Hell, no."
Voters remember when all the council was chosen at large, by an elite group of developers and special interests, who paid no attention to all the little people until time came to collect their property taxes to finance pork barrel projects for the absentee landlords. We're not going back there again, and it's just fine with us if the door hits you in the rear on the way back to your vanilla surburbs. This proposal did bring out some reactionary true believers in the fuhrer-principle of leadership to vote for it, which hurt some good candidates in other races.
Third best, though it hardly qualifies as news, because it was totally predictable, was the overwhelming defeat of a Democrat in Dallas Council district 10. This clueless loser has lately been telling people how Sheriff Valdez won by following his advice last year, and Congressman Frost lost because he wouldn't listen to him. He's also said our last County Chair resigned because this guy personally got Howard Dean to order her out. He assured me he would have Howard call and tell me that was so. I'm still waiting.
A hopeful sign for the future came in two races for the Dallas County School Board, whose districts include lots of usually-Republican suburban territory. A Democrat, Ann Hubener (mother of Katy Hubener, one of our candidates for State Representative last year), won one of the two races, and another Democrat, Pauline K. Dixon (a longtime Precinct Chair), almost tied for the other seat; there could be a runoff there in a month. There will be other runoffs in some Dallas Council races.
In heavily African-American District 8, five inconsequential minor candidates wasted the voters' time by denying a majority to either incumbent James Fantroy, or former Council member Al Lipscomb. The leaders wound up within twenty votes of each other overall, and actually got exactly the same total of 1,792 votes cast at the polls. Lipscomb was attempting a comeback after the white Dallas establishment had failed in a trumped-up effort to destroy this long-time activist thorn in their side. They maneuvered a ridiculous felony indictment of him over a trivial misdemeanor issue about financial reporting laws, based on grand jury testimony from a source so questionable that they did not even dare expose that witness to cross-examination in court, then arbitrarily moved the trial to overwhelmingly white and very conservative far west Texas.
Rabble-rousing accusations of bribery, fanned by Al's longtime enemies in the local reactionary media, let to an absurd conviction. This was later overturned on appeal, repudiating the ex-Dallas cop turned judge, whose former colleagues probably considered his improper transfer of the trial as payback for the times Al had denounced Dallas police for excessive force and other abuses. The voters have two experienced Council members to choose from, and won't go far wrong with either. (Personally, I'd vote for Al, but I have nothing against Fantroy himself.)
In Dallas Council District 14 there's a runoff between Democrat Angela Hunt, supported by the term-limited incumbent, and Republican Kathy Ingle, who spent a lot of money at the end provoking calls from voters to the party office wondering if she was a Democrat, which tells you what her literature was carefully not saying. Finishing third was Democrat Candy Marcum, heavily supported by the GLBT voters of Oak Lawn in that district. Eccentric Republican P.D. Sterling went nowhere, as did the angry effort by former Democratic candidate Jack Borden, who failed to file in time even as a write-in candidate, then complained loudly to all about not being able to vote for himself. Angela, friendly to the Stonewall Democrats and a serious contender for their endorsement herself, deserves to and should be able to win this easily.
District 2 is not so certain, though it should be. I wrote about this race April 18, in "The Fight For Dignity". Here is where the monarchial mob that came out to hand over their unwanted freedoms to a strong Mayor had the most impact. They've been drinking the kool-aid from the Dallas News for years, including its ceaseless tirades against those awful Medranos and their obstreperous pro-labor and minority activism. They are sort of like the viewers of Fox News, who polls showed really believed we had found WMDs in Iraq and that Saddam was behind 9-11. They don't have the reading comprehension to remember the details of articles and editorials carefully worded not to fall over the edge into actionable libels about election "improprieties". They just remembered "Medrano, bad; powerful city boss, good", and voted for the proposition and against that apprentice demon, Pauline Medrano.
She still got the most votes, of course, and would have won outright if that amendment had not been on the ballot. The grudge-bearing haters who put out tons of anonymous and illegal garbage against her will have a hard time getting their dupes back for the runoff. (Meanwhile, the irony of these theocratic-driven locksteppers voting instead for a person whose entire personal life would get her banned from those people's antediluvian churches will go totally over their head. That irrelevant background has not, should not, and will not, be made an issue, but it's hilarious to observe their infinite capacity for hypocrisy.) Pauline should pull this out next month, if the voters don't let down their guard.
The best news was actually three defeats. Best of all was the defeat of Dwaine Caraway in Dallas Council District 4. The impression I have formed of his previous involvement in city politics is that a victory by him could only have been compared to some very serious medical problem. That's only my own personal opinion, of course. I hope the voters never give him a chance to prove me correct.
The next best news was the huge defeat of the proposed "strong Mayor" proposition, by over 61%. This was a centralized power-grab whose ultimate suppport came from the same kind of advocates of elected tyranny that back the Bush regime. They were frustrated by the actual democracy of Council members who dared to represent their own constituents instead of taking orders, and wanted to put all the reins in the hands of one person. They figured Dallas is so big, and city-wide campaigning so expensive, that these fat cats would always have control over whoever won that one race. The people, overwhelmingly so in the minority parts of town, told them "Hell, no."
Voters remember when all the council was chosen at large, by an elite group of developers and special interests, who paid no attention to all the little people until time came to collect their property taxes to finance pork barrel projects for the absentee landlords. We're not going back there again, and it's just fine with us if the door hits you in the rear on the way back to your vanilla surburbs. This proposal did bring out some reactionary true believers in the fuhrer-principle of leadership to vote for it, which hurt some good candidates in other races.
Third best, though it hardly qualifies as news, because it was totally predictable, was the overwhelming defeat of a Democrat in Dallas Council district 10. This clueless loser has lately been telling people how Sheriff Valdez won by following his advice last year, and Congressman Frost lost because he wouldn't listen to him. He's also said our last County Chair resigned because this guy personally got Howard Dean to order her out. He assured me he would have Howard call and tell me that was so. I'm still waiting.
A hopeful sign for the future came in two races for the Dallas County School Board, whose districts include lots of usually-Republican suburban territory. A Democrat, Ann Hubener (mother of Katy Hubener, one of our candidates for State Representative last year), won one of the two races, and another Democrat, Pauline K. Dixon (a longtime Precinct Chair), almost tied for the other seat; there could be a runoff there in a month. There will be other runoffs in some Dallas Council races.
In heavily African-American District 8, five inconsequential minor candidates wasted the voters' time by denying a majority to either incumbent James Fantroy, or former Council member Al Lipscomb. The leaders wound up within twenty votes of each other overall, and actually got exactly the same total of 1,792 votes cast at the polls. Lipscomb was attempting a comeback after the white Dallas establishment had failed in a trumped-up effort to destroy this long-time activist thorn in their side. They maneuvered a ridiculous felony indictment of him over a trivial misdemeanor issue about financial reporting laws, based on grand jury testimony from a source so questionable that they did not even dare expose that witness to cross-examination in court, then arbitrarily moved the trial to overwhelmingly white and very conservative far west Texas.
Rabble-rousing accusations of bribery, fanned by Al's longtime enemies in the local reactionary media, let to an absurd conviction. This was later overturned on appeal, repudiating the ex-Dallas cop turned judge, whose former colleagues probably considered his improper transfer of the trial as payback for the times Al had denounced Dallas police for excessive force and other abuses. The voters have two experienced Council members to choose from, and won't go far wrong with either. (Personally, I'd vote for Al, but I have nothing against Fantroy himself.)
In Dallas Council District 14 there's a runoff between Democrat Angela Hunt, supported by the term-limited incumbent, and Republican Kathy Ingle, who spent a lot of money at the end provoking calls from voters to the party office wondering if she was a Democrat, which tells you what her literature was carefully not saying. Finishing third was Democrat Candy Marcum, heavily supported by the GLBT voters of Oak Lawn in that district. Eccentric Republican P.D. Sterling went nowhere, as did the angry effort by former Democratic candidate Jack Borden, who failed to file in time even as a write-in candidate, then complained loudly to all about not being able to vote for himself. Angela, friendly to the Stonewall Democrats and a serious contender for their endorsement herself, deserves to and should be able to win this easily.
District 2 is not so certain, though it should be. I wrote about this race April 18, in "The Fight For Dignity". Here is where the monarchial mob that came out to hand over their unwanted freedoms to a strong Mayor had the most impact. They've been drinking the kool-aid from the Dallas News for years, including its ceaseless tirades against those awful Medranos and their obstreperous pro-labor and minority activism. They are sort of like the viewers of Fox News, who polls showed really believed we had found WMDs in Iraq and that Saddam was behind 9-11. They don't have the reading comprehension to remember the details of articles and editorials carefully worded not to fall over the edge into actionable libels about election "improprieties". They just remembered "Medrano, bad; powerful city boss, good", and voted for the proposition and against that apprentice demon, Pauline Medrano.
She still got the most votes, of course, and would have won outright if that amendment had not been on the ballot. The grudge-bearing haters who put out tons of anonymous and illegal garbage against her will have a hard time getting their dupes back for the runoff. (Meanwhile, the irony of these theocratic-driven locksteppers voting instead for a person whose entire personal life would get her banned from those people's antediluvian churches will go totally over their head. That irrelevant background has not, should not, and will not, be made an issue, but it's hilarious to observe their infinite capacity for hypocrisy.) Pauline should pull this out next month, if the voters don't let down their guard.
2 Comments:
At 9:48 PM,
Anonymous said…
242 mail-in votes?
At 5:33 PM,
Anonymous said…
I don't really know if you can call University Park and Highland Park "suburbs" Bill. But they are pretty darned vanilla.
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