5/9/9 -- Dallas Managed News is out of touch with Dallas voters!

It's a given that an incumbent has pretty much got a lock on re-election.   We will have 2 runoffs, one involving District 7's incumbent.  We will have 2 new council members, Ann Margolin and the winner of the District 1 race.  With stupid Dallas voters approving a taxpayer owned hotel, this council is likely to go merrily along their past wrong road.

Once again, Hispanic majority districts (1, 2 & 6) voted very low, only 6,020 total votes.

African-American majority districts (4, 5, 6 & 7) voted only 15,855 votes.

District  3 voted 5,309 Neumann 3570 of 5309
District  9 voted 8,733 Kadane 5481; Yourse 3252
District 10 voted 8,304 Allen 4639; Sanders 3512
District 11 voted  4,381  Koop was unopposed
District 12 voted 5,077  Natinsky was unopposed
District 13 voted 14,518 Margolin 8309; Ryan 6209)
District 14 voted 6,555  Hunt ran unopposed.

Districts 9, 10, 13 & 14  voted more each than the 3 Hispanic districts together.

Here's a comparison of DallasArena.com endorsements to those by The Dallas Managed News:

	Dallas News Endorsements		DallasArena.com Endorsements		Result
1	Delia Jasso The 54-year-old Oak Cliff native is the clear pick. She's involved in city issues. She's steeped in the Oak Cliff district's needs. And she's articulate and persuasive. The owner of a school that teaches English as a second language, she particularly has good ideas about connecting the nodes of business and commerce in this district.		Mark Gonzales Born and raised in Oak Cliff.  MBA with his own insurance agency.  Served on Dallas Housing Committee.  Mentors students.		Runoff Jasso 42.51 1157 votes Epker 36.33  989 votes Total votes: 2724
2	Pauline Medrano Medrano has put her two terms to good use, building not only experience helping constituents but also expertise on many citywide issues. She brings a lot of enthusiasm to her job, which has helped her become a steady consensus-builder. These actions set Medrano, 55, apart from her opponents, both of whom demonstrate shallow knowledge of key issues and poor judgment.		Pauline Medrano Incumbent.  Deserves another term.  Cares about real people in her district.  Smart, but has been too much of a team player, supporting boondoggles like Trinity Toll Road.		Medrano 74.19 1164 votes MacLeod 20.86 468 votes Total votes: 2243
3	Dave Neumann Neumann, 49, enthusiastically pursued economic, neighborhood and crime challenges in his first term. He had some slipups, but the women's apparel manufacturing executive also is helping bring new life to Davis Street, Fort Worth Avenue and the Wynnewood Village shopping center. His kind of leadership will help close the gaps between Dallas' northern and southern halves.		Dave Neumann Incumbent.  Very high energy.  Smart, too much of a team player.  Hopefully, he will re-prioritize in his second term.		Neumann 67.32 3570 votes Total votes 5309
4	Dwaine Caraway The deputy mayor pro tem exemplifies the spirit and energy this newspaper would like to see throughout the council. The 56-year-old works nights and weekends, cruising the streets of southern Dallas in search of stray dogs and code violators. Caraway, owner of an advertising company, doesn't just talk about bridging Dallas' north-south gap, he has a strong record of action and an authoritative grasp of the issues confronting the city.		Dwaine Caraway Incumbent.  Dwaine has focused on solving real problems, one block at a time, one street at a time.  Deserves a second term.		Caraway 84.89 3466 votes Total votes 4061
5	Vonciel Jones Hill - incumbent She is an energetic, independent and aggressive leader who is passionate about the need for economic development in District 5. The 60-year-old lawyer is intent on attracting new businesses; she should build on that foundational work in a second term. She is also a realist on budget issues; she says she would not cut public safety and code enforcement but would consider politically unpopular actions.		Don Robinson Sales manager & Crime Watch leader who would bring energy and high integrity to council.		Hill 56.18 2594 votes Robinson 16.61 767 votes Total votes 4617
6	No recommendation Steve Salazar has held this seat for six years, yet his record of leadership is thin. Regrettably, the 43-year-old lawyer has under-represented his constituents, particularly those in West Dallas. His opponent, 22-year-old Fernando Rubio Jr., who has been a West Dallas community volunteer since his teens, lacks the political instincts and government knowledge to be effective at City Hall right now. But with hard work, the Austin College graduate could mature into a strong candidate for this seat in the future.		Steve Salazar - incumbent Incumbent.  Has focused on improving District 6 residential and business neighborhoods.  Deserves another term.		Salazar 75.21 792 votes Total votes 1053
7	Donald Parish Parish, pastor of the True Lee Missionary Baptist Church in South Dallas, is a community activist who leads with a thoughtful demeanor. He has been a major force in organizing District 7 residents to fix up dilapidated apartment complexes and clean up their neighborhoods. Other candidates in this race try to muster support with fiery rhetoric and bombast, but Parish, 61, takes a conciliatory approach that, we think, is a more effective way to get results.		Charles Redd & Tony Rios		Runoff Davis 34.12  1344 votes Price 24.8 977 votes Total votes 3939
8	LeVar Thomas Thomas would be a strong advocate for this sprawling district, which stretches across many of the city's southernmost neighborhoods. He is an energetic up-and-comer who is well versed in the ways of City Hall. The 27-year-old Realtor has taken on a steep challenge trying to unseat an incumbent, but he has lived in these neighborhoods all his life and understands their history and immediate needs.		Tennel Atkins - incumbent Incumbent.  Tennell has brought dignity to the District 8 council seat.  He deserves a second term.		Atkins 69.15 2239 votes Thomas 30.85 999 votes Total votes 3238
9	Sheffie Kadane - incumbent Kadane, 64, speaks with energy and passion about how critical it is to Dallas' future to bridge the gap between the city's northern and southern halves. In particular, he recognizes how it works to everyone's benefit to tap into the south's greater growth opportunity. Kadane, the president of an investment firm, also showed leadership in a nettlesome neighborhood overlay controversy ? in the face of some advocates' strong feelings ? by advocating a 65 percent majority before anyone could force changes.		John Yourse Former Army copter pilot and teacher.  Has great ideas for making city better, but probably too smart to represent District 9.		Kadane 62.76 5480 Yourse 37.24 3251 Total votes 8731
10	Jerry Allen - incumbent Allen assumed this seat uncontested two years ago and has shown he can combine affection for the Lake Highlands neighborhood with what's best for the city. We'd like to see him emerge as more of a council leader and believe he deserves a second term to take that step. He also can point to $150 million in new development in the pipeline for District 10 as evidence of his efforts, and he rightly sees transit-oriented development around DART stations as a key route forward.		Don Sanders Former Bank of America Sr. VP		Allen 57.56 4639 Sanders 42.44 3420 Total votes 8059
13	Brint Ryan Ryan would bring strong business sense to the council, and while he has limited civic experience, the 45-year-old CEO of a large tax advisory firm is an innovative thinker and a natural leader. His proposals to increase efficiency in city government and to spur economic development reveal sharp thinking. His opponent has amassed an impressive record, but Ryan has the potential to be a bold leader ? and the City Council would benefit from his fresh perspective.		Ann Margolin Smart, City Hall experience, community work.  About as good as it gets with her common sense, appreciation of taxpayers' dollars and fiscal responsibility.  Dallas needs her.		Margolin 57.22 8305 Ryan 42.78 6209 Total votes 14514

John Yourse and Don Sanders are to be commended for doing so well against incumbents.  They both garnered more votes in their races than several candidates who won in their district.  Councilman Kadane must take note that 3251 people voted against him.  Councilman Allen had 3420 vote against him.

Ann Margolin got 8350 votes against a candidate who spent over $1 million for a $36,000 job.  The DMN Editorial Board endorsed Brint Ryan over Ann Margolin, although he had never served on a city board or commission or even bothered to vote in a city election.  They are not happy that Ann had a decisive win among 14,514 total District 13 votes cast. 

Editorial: Experience carries the day  5/10/9

Ann did run on her record, but she wanted to make sure District 13 voters were aware of Ryan's attitude toward rules.  The DMN tried to explain away the IRS tax lien on Ryan's home as a tax protest.  Granted, he only wound up paying/owing $100K+, instead of $300K, but he did owe the $100K for over a year and had to pay it.  When you have a tax dispute with the IRS, you can't just not pay what you owe while you fight the total claim.  Ryan never stopped misrepresenting Ann's votes while serving on the Parkland Board.

The DMN says "the CEO showed himself to be the more natural leader and innovative thinker in this contest".   What are they talking about?  The guy has never been involved in his District 13 community as a follower or a leader.  Maybe they think that his disregard for Dallas speeding laws puts him ahead of the average citizen who follows the rules.  Ryan put his tax expertise on the table by responding to most debate questions with "I'm a tax expert".  So what?  He was running for a seat on the City Council.  Ann Margolin is a community expert.

The DMN also blasted my Councilman Steve Salazar with unfair assumptions based on misinformation and their lack of knowledge about District 6.  As I said in DMN Not Responsive to Dallas Community, there is good new.  Nobody listens to them anymore.  Their little hippy Editor is from Phoenix, Arizona.  She knows nothing about this city that wasn't told to her by Belo robots and ODB representatives. 

Councilman Steve Salazar is always looking out for his constituents.  He called me last week with an idea about resolving a problem that the community has been trying to resolve for several years.  He had already put the wheels in motion to determine the legality of his proposal before he called me.  It's not a problem that the high dollar districts worry about much, but many modest income communities want it away from their neighborhoods. 

Steve Salazar deserves a better turnout from his constituents than the 1053 total votes cast in District 6.  All of the candidates in Districts 1, 2 and 6 deserved better responses from the voters.  You can blame the citywide voter apathy on the shape of the districts as much as anything.  District 6 runs north and south from LBJ to Ft. Worth Avenue.  District 2 wraps around District 14, with both slicing through Oak Lawn and East Dallas.  Districts 5, 7 and 8 ribbon across the southern part of the city from east to west with ridiculous boundaries that cut through neighborhoods and ignore natural and man made boundaries like freeways.

Look how much better people vote in the compact districts in North Dallas.  It wasn't just because there was a contested race that 14,518 citizens turned out to vote.  Even when Mitch Rasansky ran unopposed, he usually was the biggest vote getter of anyone on the city council.

When the city redistricts, the districts must be redrawn to make them more compact with natural boundaries that don't slice through neighborhoods.  That will increase voter turnout.

I am not one who thinks we should make voting easy because it is a privilege and a duty.  However, it is easy to vote.  There is no excuse for not participating in your governance.

The dismal voting turnout in several council districts seems to justify the School Board Thugees' action to cancel their election and just reappoint themselves.  Since there are no term limits on DISD Thugees, they can reappoint themselves in perpetuity.

We must make elections matter again.

sb