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WFAA-TV
Laura Miller (top) and Mary Poss cast their ballots on Saturday.Posted on 05/03/2003 7:07:25 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Miller wins; bond props pass easily
05/04/2003
The first returns in Saturday's municipal election show Dallas Mayor Laura Miller leading in her re-election bid, while voters in the region's largest city also were deciding the fate of a wide-ranging, $555 million bond issue to upgrade city streets, improve parks and libraries and provide funding to the arts.
Dallas voters also picked a new City Council and filled two contested positions on the school board.
Ms. Miller had 61 percent of the vote, while her challenger, Councilwoman Mary Poss, trailed with 35 percent, based on the results of early voting released by Dallas County elections officials shortly after the polls closed at 7 p.m.
WFAA-TV Laura Miller (top) and Mary Poss cast their ballots on Saturday. |
"The turnout's been pretty good, as turnouts go," said Charles Hunter, an election judge at Precinct 3527 in South Oak Cliff. Two hours before the polls closed, he estimated about 15 percent of eligible voters had cast ballots.
Chief issues in the mayoral campaign included the sluggish economy and the city's budget shortfall.
Ms. Miller, a former councilwoman, won a special election last year to fill the unexpired term of Mayor Ron Kirk. Mr. Kirk resigned to run for U.S. Senate.
"I'm just so giddy that today is finally here and the campaign's over," Ms. Miller said as she arrived to vote Saturday. "Luckily, I have lots of fired-up supporters and they'll all be out to vote today."
Pre-election surveys gave Ms. Miller a lead in a bid for her first full term.
Ms. Poss has served on the City Council for eight years. She said the war in Iraq and the American Airlines saga have been stealing the headlines leading up to Election Day.
"The campaign has had a difficult time getting the focus of voters until about the last 10 days," she said after voting on Saturday. "People do express a lot of disillusionment and dissatisfaction after what they have seen this past year, and I am optimistic that people will be voting for a change."
Other mayoral candidates were Jurline Hollins, E. Edward Okpa and Eric Saenz.
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The bond package on the Dallas ballot consisted of a series of 17 propositions, all of which were passing comfortably in early returns Saturday evening.
The biggest chunk of the funding -- included in Propositions 1 and 10 -- would go to street and highway improvements, the top priority in voter surveys.
"This is what we really need," said South Oak Cliff resident Carolyn Hinson as she prepared to vote at John W. Carpenter Elementary School. "We need some help."
Lawrence Cook, who lives in the same neighborhood, agreed that street repairs are a concern.
"When we had the ice back a couple of months ago, it took them two days to get over here and do something,” Mr. Cook said. “I couldn't even get out of my driveway."
Proposition 3 would provide much needed capital improvements for the city's library system. "We are just really keeping our fingers crossed at this point," Marsha Fogarty, president of Friends of the Dallas Public Library, said before the votes were counted. "Everyone I've spoken to can give a story about their branch library and the problems they see there."
Proposition 5 would provide $11 million for a performing arts center in the downtown Arts District. Proposition 12 offers $18 million for Artist Square, Dallas Black Dance Theater, South Dallas Cultural Center and a new Oak Cliff facility.
Other bond issues that were winning in early returns included $100 million for development of large and small parks, $16 million for flood control projects and $17 million for city service and maintenance centers.
Voters also were approving propositions to upgrade police and fire facilities ($43 million), expand a landfill ($24 million), improve infrastructure for southern-sector business parks ($6 million), rebuild part of the Farmers Market ($3 million) and create a downtown facility for the homeless ($3 million).
Seven City Council incumbents ran for re-election Saturday, and one is certain to be on the losing side of the ledger. In Oak Cliff, District 3 representative Mark Housewright had 42 percent of the vote, trailing District 6 council member Ed Oakley, who had 55 percent. Mr. Oakley could not run for re-election in District 6 after district lines were redrawn. Clair Conly Woertendyke also is running.
John Loza, the incumbent in District 2, was leading with 60 percent of the vote. His closest challenger, Bill Dickerson, had 20 percent. Billy MacLeod and David Morris also were running in District 2.
Maxine Thornton-Reese, the incumbent in District 4, had 60 percent of the early vote, while former Park Board member Dwaine Caraway had 40 percent. Mr. Caraway lost a Council race in District 6 two years ago.
Three candidates -- Sharon Boyd, Steve Salazar and Linus Spiller -- competed for the District 6 seat vacated by Mr. Oakley. Mr. Salazar was leading in early returns with 56 percent. Ms. Boyd’s 36 percent was his closest competitor.
In District 9, which had been represented by Ms. Poss until she decided to run for mayor, four names are on the ballot: Roxan Staff, Gary Griffith, Albert "Dyke" Turner and H. Cannon Flowers. Ms. Staff, a former Dallas school board president who was endorsed by Mayor Miller, was ahead with 49 percent.
Bill Blaydes and Greg Holliday were dead even in the race for the District 10 seat being vacated by Alan Walne.
District 14 Council member Veletta Forsythe Lill was challenged by Paul Woodfield. Ms. Lill was running ahead of Mr. Woodfield with 73 percent.
Council members Elba Garcia, Donald Hill, James Fantroy, Lois Finkelman and Mitchell Rasansky will return to their seats; all ran unopposed.
There are two contested races for seats on the Dallas school board. Incumbent Lois Parrott was trouncing Nancy A. Pappas in District 3 with 77 percent of the vote. Ron Price, the incumbent in District 9, faced a challenge from Rossi Walter Sr. Mr. Price was in front of his opponent with 59 percent.
Board President Ken Zornes was unopposed.
Fort Worth voters faced a ballot with seven candidates for mayor seeking the seat being vacated by four-term Mayor Kenneth Barr. In early returns, former state senator and Tarrant County judge Mike Moncrief led with 63 percent of the vote. The only significant challenger among the other candidates was former City Council member Cathy Hirt, with 34 percent.
There will also be a new mayor in Arlington, where Elzie Odom is leaving office after serving since 1997. City Council members Bob Cluck and Sheri Capehart were the leading candidates in the five-person race to replace Mr. Odom. Mr. Cluck was leading the early returns with 56 percent. Ms. Capehart had 39 percent.
E-mail: wzwirko@dallasnews.com
I went to the Pro-America/Pro-Military Rally in Dallas last month and bumped into Mary Poss there. She spoke to me, and I didn't realize who she was at first. But I did recognize her after a couple of seconds. Laura Miller did NOT attend the rally. If I were a Dallas City resident, I would have voted for Mary.
Dallas politics is strange bedfellows, then. Whether 'RAT or GOP you get a 'RAT, huh?
So which is Poss and which is Miller in this case ? Poss sounded like the better candidate to me. Not living in Dallas City Limits, I couldn't vote in that election, though.
I thought the Smoking Ban was a bad idea and just KNEW that Miller would get booted. What can we expect next, now that she has won re-election?
To be correct - "15 percent of eligible voters [that] had cast ballots" voted for the debt ...
This is to be expected of a Northeast educated liberal, former writer on the staff of the Dallas Observer. The Dallas Observer, when I first moved to Dallas, was a freebie alternative 'rag' that also ran a plethora of 'private ads' such as 'SWM seeking SWM or SBM for love relationship' ..
Yep. It looks like . . .
It's even a little worse than that - how about a degree from the [People's] University of Wisconsin!
A hell-raiser since the days when her incendiary columns provoked her high school principal to suspend publication of the school paper, Miller always wanted to be a journalist and after earning a degree from the University of Wisconsin ...From: http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1&pid=18
Laura was born in Baltimore, Maryland and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is married to a Dallas lawyer, State Representative Steven Wolens.From:
http://www.dallascityhall.com/dallas/eng/pdf/mcc/LauraMillerBiography.pdf
Is that why we let a Democrat win? Did conservatives help to elect a Democrat?
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