Dallas Municipal Elections Round Up

by: jvansickle

Wed Jan 19, 2011 at 02:35 AM CST

Mayor Leppert and Ron Natinsky make it official

Tom Leppert made it official by publicly declaring that he will not run for re-election as Mayor of the City of Dallas.  The Dallas Morning News covered the announcement in their article, Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert says he won't run again, but hints at Senate.  As many suspected, Mayor Leppert also hinted in a possible run for higher office when discussing finding ways to help his community other than being Mayor of Dallas.  This does not mean helping out at the local soup kitchen, but is more likely the beginnings of his run for Senate or a statewide office, such as Lt. Gov if Dewhurst ran for Senate.  Since Mayor Leppert's announcement Ron Natinsky has been making it as clear as possible that he is running for mayor.  Ron is very likely to run his campaign as a "Stay the course" style race in support of continuing policies that Leppert favored.  Beyond Jim Moore, no other candidate has made any formal announcements that they are running for Mayor yet.  However, the filing period does not begin until February 14 and will run until March 14.

More City Council challengers

Now that the holidays and campaign finance reporting deadlines are past us, City Council candidates have begun announcing their runs for office.  Here is a quick rundown of recently announced candidates:

Scott Griggs (District 3) - Scott Griggs announced in December.  Scott is running against David Neumann, and has a history of voting in Democratic primaries.  Scott is a patent lawyer by trade, and works for his family's firm Griggs Bergen LLP.

http://griggsfordallas.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/...

Monica Alonzo (District 6) - Monica Alonzo is the sister of current City Council incumbent, Steve Salazar, who just completed his fourth and final term in office.  Monica is also State Representative Roberto Alonzo's sister-in-law.  Monica announced her campaign through a letter sent to key individuals within District 6.  Unfortunately, her campaign appears to have neither a website nor Facebook page at this time.

James Nowlin (District 14) - James Nowlin was appointed to the Police Review Board by Angela Hunt.  The day after Angela indicated she was considering a run for mayor, James announced his own candidacy to replace Angela when she vacates the District 14 seat.  James is a Democratic activist with a history of working with the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas club.

http://jamesnowlin.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/...

Jim Rogers (District 14) - Earlier today, Jim Rogers announced his candidacy for District 14.  Jim is one of the founders of Bryan Place in District 14.  Unfortunately, due to Jim's announcement earlier this afternoon, I still have sparse information on his full background and partisan leanings.  I look forward to posting more about that in the near future.

http://jimrogersdallas.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/...

A Brief Review of Dallas City Councilors

The following table outlines the winners of Dallas City Council elections over the past 10 years.  Winners who also had a runoff election during a particular year are shaded in yellow; winners who ran unopposed during an election cycle are highlighted in blue.  An interesting tidbit is that Elba Garcia and Mitch Rasansky are the only city councilmembers in the past 10 years to be completely unopposed after winning their first elections.  It is not uncommon for open seat races to have nearly a half dozen candidates running, which invariably results in a subsequent runoff election.  Most city council districts only require 25 to 45 signatures for someone to appear on the ballot.

Dallas	Incumbent	Past Election Winners
District	2011	2009	2007	2005	2003	2001
1	Delia Jasso	Delia Jasso	Elba Garcia	Elba Garcia	Elba Garcia	Elba Garcia
2	Pauline Medrano	Pauline Medrano	Pauline Medrano	Pauline Medrano	John Loza	John Loza
3	David Neumann	David Neumann	David Neumann	Ed Oakley	Ed Oakley	Laura Miller
4	Dwaine Caraway	Dwaine Caraway	Dwaine Caraway	Maxine Reese	Maxine Reese	Maxine Reese
5	Vonciel Hill	Vonciel Hill	Vonciel Hill	Don Hill	Don Hill	Don Hill
6	*Open Seat*	Steve Salazar	Steve Salazar	Steve Salazar	Steve Salazar	Ed Oakley
7	Carolyn Davis	Carolyn Davis	Carolyn Davis	Leo Chaney	Leo Chaney	Leo Chaney
8	Tennell Atkins	Tennell Atkins	Tennell Atkins	James Fantroy	James Fantroy	James Fantroy
9	Sheffie Kadane	Sheffie Kadane	Sheffie Kadane	Gary Griffith	Gary Griffith	Mary Poss
10	Jerry Allen	Jerry Allen	Jerry Allen	Bill Blaydes	Bill Blaydes	Alan Walne
11	Linda Koop	Linda Koop	Linda Koop	Linda Koop	Lois Finkelman	Lois Finkelman
12	Ron Natinsky	Ron Natinsky	Ron Natinsky	Ron Natinsky	Sandy Greyson	Sandy Greyson
13	Ann Margolin	Ann Margolin	Mitch Rasansky	Mitch Rasansky	Mitch Rasansky	Mitch Rasansky
14	Angela Hunt	Angela Hunt	Angela Hunt	Angela Hunt	Veletta Lill	Veletta Lill

James Van Sickle
http://www.darwood.us
http://www.facebook.com/Darwoo...