| Leppert Coasts to Victory |
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| by Sam Merten | Sun, Jun 17, 2007, 02:21 PM |
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Here is what Oakley told the DMN in the same story after the county elections: "It shows there's a great deal of frustration with current leadership, and it shows the strength of the Southern sector," Oakley said. "What happened Tuesday in the election shows that the City of Clearly this statement foreshadowed Oakley’s decision to make this a partisan race. Labeling himself as a Democrat and his opponent as a Republican in campaign mailers was supposed to make things easy for voters. Treat the public as mindless fools. Me Democrat. Him Republican. You like Democrat. You vote for me. Getting an endorsement from the Dallas County Democratic Party also helped label him in what was supposedly a nonpartisan race. Of course, Oakley was able to distance from it, saying he never asked for it. Well, he didn’t denounce it either. While other people in the media were selling this race as too close to call, I was calling it over. Why? Oakley had done too much to ruin his chances, culminating with his TV ad showing Leppert’s facial tic. What happened here was Ed Oakley didn’t give Leppert, backed by campaign manager Carol Reed, benefited by 1) not playing dirty in response to Oakley’s negative ads (keep in mind the anti-gay Heritage Alliance robo calls were not done with Leppert’s approval) 2) spending a lot of his time all over the city, collecting important black votes in the process 3) keeping his message vague because making it specific only would subject it to scrutiny 4) securing a big-name Dallas personality (Roger Staubach) to support his campaign and 5) getting a late endorsement from third-place finisher and Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill. There’s no question the better candidate won last night, but that’s because Oakley couldn’t stop from shooting himself in the foot. Leppert’s vague campaign message helped him become mayor, but now he needs specific ideas on how he plans to improve With the election over, I’m looking forward to hearing less about how Leppert was raised by a single mom, how he went to Harvard and ran big, bad Turner Construction. It’s time to dig in and start kicking ass, Tom. 
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Comments (10)
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written by asmith , June 17, 2007 And Sam if Leppert ends up like the last Mayor, we will vote him out.
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written by Val Kramer , June 17, 2007 Oakley's biggest mistake was the endorsement by the Democratic Party. If he had nothing to do with that then the Democrats should hang their heads and cry. They were stupid, stupid, stupid.
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written by jack jett , June 17, 2007 Thank you GOD for giving us yet another rich white male christian hetersexual to control our local government. We can only hope and pray that he works out as well as that other rich white heterosexual that you sent our way in the form of George W. Bush. He has truley turned out to be a uniter not a divider and a great decider. Jack Jett
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written by Mark Alexander , June 17, 2007 Leppert won because he had lots of money and the gay thing.
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written by Dave Thomas , June 18, 2007 Let's be honest here.. if this election had really been a partisan race and held on the same day as the Governor's race, Leppert would have lost. The 2006 electoral victory of Democrats in Dallas County was all about straight party voting. Very few votes were cast for individual candidates. The mayoral election was all about individual candidates and very few people cared enough about it to actually bother to vote.
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written by Michael Davis , June 18, 2007 I hope maybe this campaign will put to rest the fallacy of Oakley being this "great grassroots campaigner." His money came from the establishment just like everybody else's, and all of his moves backfired. I see some of Ed's supporters still have sour grapes and won't let it go. I think some people are new to elections and the bitterness shows...Maybe they're new to politics, but we still have a city that needs work.Give the guy some time and see what he can do.
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written by Not a fan of Laura Miller , June 18, 2007 I don't care who is mayor, as long as it's not Laura Miller.
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written by asmith , June 18, 2007 I'm not new to politics Michael, and I respect your opinions. Leppert was a fresh face, and the people who voted wanted to go with change instead of city insiders. Carole Reed was right. Oakley had no traction in North Dallas. She's right, I live there. He had no traction in East Dallas. While Ed won the southern sector, the turnout was low and he had to fight for every vote he received there. Don Hill's endorsement was way more effective than Bill Blaydes. I will give Leppert a chance like I gave Bartlett, Kirk, and Miller a chance. I was too young to be involved when Strauss was Mayor.
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written by Michael Davis , June 19, 2007 Speaking of Steve Bartlett he had and interesting quote on frontburner: Steve Bartlett: "My biggest challenge was convincing various City Stakeholders (City Mgmt and employees, business leaders, general public) that we could change and obtain better results. Dallas had been "down" so long that many people believed the way things were were the way they had to be. Example, Dallas had suffered an increase in every category of violent crime in every single month for 20 years. So the first job was to convince all stakeholders that reductions could be obtained by different actions." Bartlett very much believes in Big D and its potential. Put succinctly he said, "Dallas does believe in itself if inspired to do so." Write comment
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Just more than seven months ago, 
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