Dallas Blog

It’s almost impossible to overstate the importance of next year’s sheriff’s race, since its outcome will likely affect two other prominent Dallas County seats: county judge and district attorney. If the Democratic incumbent, the perpetually embattled Lupe Valdez, wins, then Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins, who has received nationwide kudos for tackling the county’s atrocious justice system, is flat-out untouchable. Even Jim Foster, our county judge who recently struggled to answer questions about his alleged drinking, can entertain ambitions of running for a second term. The same would hold if any of Valdez’s Democratic challengers took over her seat.

But if the Republicans win, Foster will probably get dumped by his own party, and Watkins may have to face a legitimate challenger.

Let’s run down the sheriff candidates, as the race is kicking off plenty early this year. Since I’ve been ignoring the Republicans for so long, let’s spend a little more time on them.

Well, I think I’m going to miss our Trinity River toll road campaign, though I can’t explain why. As in, why was it so contentious to decide whether to build a road we’re not entirely sure we can build through a park we’re not confident we can have? Somehow, this four-month campaign, hinged on issues that are years away from coming to fruition, polarized the city, with one faction passionate about a park and another passionate about sprawl.

Just in case it’s not perfectly obvious, I voted against the toll road, and it was the easiest vote of my entire life. I voted yes to Proposition 1 because one day in the distant future I’d like to be able to take a wife, a girlfriend or just Jack E. Jett to the new lakes during my lunch break and have a picnic. Or go for a run. Or walk my dog. I voted yes because I think that having a waterfront park downtown could make Dallas one of the best cities in the country -- or at least something other than a nondescript metropolitan area littered with strip malls, freeways and office buildings. I voted yes because, as someone who buys horizontal striped sweaters from the Gap, it’s so extraordinarily rare that I get to do the cool thing.

But the North Dallasites have spoken, and it’s time to move on, though not before we hand out our first and last Trinity River awards to the major and minor combatants of the campaign. Lifting a column prop from this guy, I’ve collected a series of Biblical quotes to hand out as prizes in a nod to our victorious mayor, the religious Tom Leppert, whose love for Christian rock speaks volumes about his sense of aesthetics.

Well, it’s time to admit the obvious. The Tom Leppert I thought I knew was a fake. Fake. Fake. Fake. Fake. Fake. As Elaine might say.

No matter how hard I picked on Leppert during the mayoral race, mocking the candidate for his packaged answers, trite stump speeches and odd facial twitches, he always took my calls and answered my questions. He refrained from personal attacks and ran an honest campaign that, while not chock full of ideas or details or vision or policy (you get the point), was still an open-minded, reasonably progressive enterprise that searched for votes in all corners of the city. I kinda figured that despite his being the Citizens Council candidate, he’d still be fair and curious and even unpredictable once elected mayor.

Turns out, I was right. For a few days at least. Because as we've chronicled countless times on Unfair Park -- like, just a few minutes ago -- the Trinity River toll road debate has brought out the worst in our new mayor, turning an otherwise smart, honest man into a calculating, disingenuous good old boy. How so? Let's recap after the jump, this being the last week before the vote on Proposition 1 and all.

On Thursday Dallas city council member Angela Hunt told The Dallas Morning News that her group’s message of stopping a high-speed toll way isn’t reserved for one neighborhood or another. That’s a smart, inclusive message. It’s also untrue.

At various southern sector precincts, the TrinityVote campaign is a distributing a handout that exploits black Dallas’ dislike of Laura Miller. Here’s what the hand out says:

“Laura Miller’s toll road has delayed flood protection and economic development in the Southern Sector for almost 10 years. Laura Miller says we have to have this toll road. We say she’s wrong.”

The letter, which features a photo of a stern-looking Laura Miller, goes on to say that voting for Proposition 1 on November 6 would stop "eminent domain" and spur economic development, among other things.

We can easily pick apart the handout, starting with the fact that the toll road is no more Laura Miller's than it is Tom Leppert's -- Ron Kirk's, maybe? And how, exactly, will there be eminent domain issues for a toll road built upon city-owned property? (Hunts says there are "about 12 homes" at risk where the toll road rises out of the levee.)

But I don’t want to quibble with the language. No one’s under oath when they make a campaign ad. Really, the handout’s premise is what’s the problem. Playing off southern Dallas’ dislike of Laura Miller is shamefully opportunistic. It has nothing to do with the many merits of TrinityVote’s position, and it’s exactly the type of slippery maneuvering that Mayor Leppert has done from the get-go by dismissing the diverse and far-flung TrinityVote movement as merely the selfish machinations of one trouble-making council member.

“On the one hand I see your point,” Hunt tells Unfair Park, when asked if this mailer is making the vote personal. “But Laura Miller is a supporter of this toll road, and I think it’s important for people in the southern sector to be aware of that.”

We always kind of knew Dallas County Judge Jim Foster didn’t do a whole lot, but now we have proof. Last week, the county belatedly released Foster’s 2007 schedule of public appointments and appearances, and, as it turns out, one of the top elected officials in North Texas puts in as many hours as a stunt man in a Merchant-Ivory movie.

Let’s take the week of April 23, when Foster had a total of seven events planned -- including the Tuesday Commissioners Court meeting, which he kind of has to go to -- and a Wednesday gig with the Oak Cliff Lions Club. On the week of March 7 Foster again had only seven events planned, including a trip to the dentist and an appearance yet again at the Oak Cliff Lions Club. Then there was the action-packed week of January 26, when Foster had only three events listed on his schedule, including the Tuesday Commissioners Court meeting and -- wait for it -- an appearance at the Oak Cliff Lions Club.

Looking at Foster’s schedule, I know what he did last summer, and it wasn’t a whole lot. For the first four weeks in July, for example, the judge had 25 scheduled appearances. Total. And, of course, that figure includes three meetings with the Oak Cliff Lions Club, where Foster should simply get it over with and relocate his office.

Foster told Unfair Park today that early in his term, he didn’t include all of his appearances on his schedule. Of course, the judge was thorough enough to list his trips to the dentist and to the mechanic on his schedule and also included a one-hour block of time in February to “go to showroom to look at furniture.” So what pressing matters of public business did the judge leave out?

“Give me some time to look back,” Foster said. “Off the top of my head … can we go off the record?”