Dallas Municipal Elections Update

by: jvansickle

Thu Feb 10, 2011 at 00:29 AM CST

Hello Kunkle, Goodbye Moore and Hunt

While many progressives across Dallas have pined for City Councilor Angela Hunt (District 14) to run for mayor, Angela has decided that the time is not right for her and will be running for a fourth term as the City Councilor for District 14. Angela also had her first child barely 10 months ago. The story regarding Angela's announcement can be read in full at Council member Angela Hunt won't run for mayor.

Jim Moore was the first candidate to announce his run for mayor. On January 31, Mr. Moore announced in a letter to supporters that he was withdrawing his candidacy. Jim did not feel he would be able to raise the $1 million plus dollars required to run competitively across Dallas in 90 days before the election. Mr. Moore's lack of time serving on a local boards and negligible name ID would have made his candidacy even more difficult given the other potential contenders of city councilors and sitting board members. Jim's announcement is posted on the front page of his campaign website.

On the same day that Jim Moore withdrew, former Dallas Chief of Police, David Kunkle, jumped in. David Kunkle served as Chief of Police between 2004 to 2010, and has consistently voted in Democratic primaries during this period. David is married to Sarah Dodd, a former journalist and owner of Dodd Communications. David and Sarah live in north Dallas, and are represented by Angela Hunt on the Dallas City Council. The article discussing Kunkle's announcement can be read in full at Former Dallas police Chief Kunkle makes it official: he wants to be your next mayor.

Round Two for Billy MacLeod?

In 2009, William "Billy" MacLeod ran against Pauline Medrano for Dallas City Council District 2. Pauline received 74% of the vote, and spent a little over $8,000 during the race. Pauline is running for her fourth and final term as Dallas City Council. On January 15, Billy filed a campaign finance report indicating he was seeking election in District 2 on May 14, 2011. The report had only a single expense to GoDaddy.com for $80 and no campaign contributions. While Billy has not made any formal announcement, his Facebook postings have also indicated potential preparations to do something political in the very near future. Also, congratulations on your marital engagement, Billy.

Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

When Angela Hunt was considering a mayoral run, two candidates, James Nowlin and Jim Rogers, announced their intention to run for her open seat. Jim Rogers was explicit in his announcement that he would not run if Angela chose to run for a fourth term on city council rather than run for mayor. James Nowlin simply stated "We'll cross that bridge when we get there." James responded on Facebook to Angela's announcement to run for a fourth term in District 14 by stating he is "In it to win it" and will continue his campaign. Angela Hunt enjoys large amounts of popularity in District 14, and has already served 6 years as city councilor. Any opponent in District 14 will face an uphill battle in fighting that kind of name recognition and popularity.

Unrest brewing in District 10?

Stultz is a heavily African-American area near Hamilton Park in North Dallas, and contained in Dallas City Council District 10. Residents have been fighting a zoning change that would change their area to a "Planned Development District," and open it up for future commercial development. Earlier today, Councilman Jerry Allen pushed to delay the vote for a second-time when a large group in opposition to the change appeared at City Hall. Speaking with residents from Stultz who attended the Council meeting revealed anger and frustration that their councilman was listening to developers over residents, and discussed looking for a candidate from their area who would represent them better than the incumbent.

January 15 Campaign Finance Reports

The table below outlines the data from recent campaign finance reports filed by City Council incumbents on January 15, 2011. To help provide context, I have also included each incumbent's election expenses that they incurred in their previous elections. The election expenses are calculated by reviewing their 30-day and 8-day election reports only for the relevant years.

It should be noted that Carolyn Davis submitted a campaign finance report with $0 cash on hand. This is most likely a clerical error since Dwaine Caraway and Angela Hunt initially had the same problem when using the City of Dallas' electronic filing system. Unfortunately, Councilwoman Davis has not corrected the error, unlike Dwaine and Angela. Subtracting the current report's expenses from contributions shows a minimum of $2300 possible cash. Her previous report also showed no cash on hand, but had an income of nearly $13,000 in contributions with barely $100 in expenses. So Carolyn has somewhere between $2,300 to $15,000 (or more) cash on hand.

District 6 is will be an open seat since incumbent Steve Salazar has reached his term limit. This is why the Cash OnHand value is blank for this district. Similarly, 2007 election expenses are blank for both Delia Jasso and Ann Margolin since they were first elected in 2009.

Dallas	City Council	Cash OnHand	Election Expenses
District	Incumbent	2011	2009	2007
1	Delia Jasso	$11,873.72	$56,576.65
2	Pauline Medrano	$4,442.04	$8,070.09	$5,405.15
3	David Neumann	$80,113.94	$55,039.09	$181,450.09
4	Dwaine Caraway	$15,940.00	$38,940.00	$35,074.18
5	Vonciel Hill	$17,298.68	$54,336.04	$69,346.64
6	Open Seat		$27,057.90	$4,746.28
7	Carolyn Davis	Unknown?	$18,393.39	$4,372.01
8	Tennell Atkins	$4,274.00	$31,582.67	$97,861.15
9	Sheffie Kadane	$15,918.95	$42,686.04	$52,184.37
10	Jerry Allen	$6,277.74	$37,425.32	$6,989.07
11	Linda Koop	$66,733.97	$3,016.58	$5,593.06
12	Ron Natinsky	$116,547.23	$9,187.21	$8,408.45
13	Ann Margolin	$82,784.28	$257,736.66
14	Angela Hunt	$28,583.19	$14,713.20	$7,386.30

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