Candid moments enliven mayoral campaign
11:38 AM CDT on Monday, May 7, 2007
By DAVE LEVINTHAL and GROMER JEFFERS JR. / The Dallas Morning NewsThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
It's a joke repeated over and again among candidates on the Dallas mayoral campaign trail: "I've been to so many events that I could give my opponents' speeches as well as my own."
But unscripted moments - some touching, some uncomfortable, others downright hilarious - pop up regularly, painting the race with color and personality that's not quite as evident during a candidate forum on economic development or a news conference on crime reduction.With the May 12 election only days away, The Dallas Morning News spent last weekend with most of the race's 11 candidates to see how they're connecting with prospective voters.
Behind the easy banter and the canned political speeches, an intense struggle is being waged by candidates desperate to leap out of the crowded pack. Whether in an elbow-to-elbow chat with residents at a sparsely attended talk or in a stroll through an East Dallas neighborhood, they are employing a combination of personal charm, established campaign techniques and risky political moves to do so.
In the likely event no one gathers a majority of votes, the top two finishers will advance to a runoff June 16 to decide who will lead the nation's ninth largest city.
(... Abridged. To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.)
Sunday, 4:30 p.m.
About 400 very energetic people, the majority of whom are Hispanic, are packed into Santa Clara Catholic Church anteroom. It's one of the largest crowds of the mayoral campaign season for a forum, which six candidates - Sam Coats, Gary Griffith, Don Hill, Tom Leppert, Ed Oakley and Max Wells - are attending.
It's also one of the most unique: Members of Dallas Area Interfaith spent nearly an hour effectively lecturing the candidates on the need to "invest in us" - a slogan regularly repeated and chanted throughout the event, and plastered on hand-held signs. Attendees implored the candidates to back comprehensive immigration reforms, fight for clean air and improve public safety, even if it means raising taxes.
Typically the stars of their forums, the candidates found themselves the audience, sitting quietly, listening, until asked to respond to a series of pointed questions. When several candidates answered the questions with less-than-specific responses, the organizers immediately interrupted, asking them for precision.
When the candidates are asked, "Will you initiate a resolution in support of comprehensive immigration reform at the national level?" five of the six candidates agreed to do so. Mr. Wells was the lone holdout, saying that while he supports comprehensive immigration reform at the national level, addressing it locally in the form of a nonbinding resolution "is a counterproductive way to do it. Dallas is not Farmers Branch."
Then something particularly curious happens.
"Will you expand the Dallas Police Department by 200 new officer positions per year to reach a goal of three officers per thousand population?" event leaders asked the six candidates in attendance.
Every candidate proceeded to answer, "yes."
It's surprising because only one candidate, Mr. Coats, has called for increasing the police force by 200 officers per year - in his case, over four years. Mr. Wells wants to hire 600 to 700 new police officers and create an "anti-crime" district funded by $50 million to $100 million in new tax revenue. But such a district would require voter approval and probably couldn't be implemented for at least another two years.
No matter, he makes his case, saying, "If you want to do something about crime, you have to be behind this proposal."
The audience cheers.
Organizers expressed pride in the quality of the event.
"The approach we take is that democracy is best done with action. We don't do a focus group. We don't do a forum. We call them 'accountability sessions,' " event co-chairman Alfonso Mirabal says.
(copyright 2007, The Dallas Morning News. Reprinted with permission.)
