The irrational rantings from Angela Hunt’s choir of true believers, who have almost taken over the comment section of the blogosphere, continues.  Pro Hunt followers’ comments are reduced to name calling and shrill declarations of her sainthood while refusing to acknowledge the ugly facts about Ms. Hunt and the campaign she ran.   As for my alleged involvement in the election, I was insulted that anybody would associate me with the pro toll road effort in the southern sector.  I thought they were far too nice and non-aggressive for my taste.  I have always approached politics as a blood sport.  What the “Vote Yes” people were allowed to get away with in the Black community would never have happened had I been intimately involved with the ”Vote No” effort.  It would be hypocritical of me to take any credit for the pro toll road forces’ victory especially when you consider my consistent, less then flattering portrayal of the ”powers that be” that backed the toll road. I may not be a nice guy but in this case I am brutally honest. 

Angela Hunt’s cult of personality won’t allow her true believers to look at the facts. First off, I consistently raised a populist theme by criticizing the broken promises from the white business elite that were supporting the toll road. But since my columns never attempted to deify Ms. Hunt but instead chose to analyze her objectively, I was accused of being a pro toll road supporter.  Secondly, Angela Hunt ran a negative, misleading, and dishonest campaign in the Black community that left many in the Black community angry.  For instance, it was Ms. Hunt’s campaign that sabotaged “Vote No” campaign signs to read “Pave The Trinity” instead of “Save The Trinity”. It was Ms. Hunt’s campaign that lied to Black voters when her campaign workers told Black voters that they would have to pay a toll just to get out of Oak Cliff if the toll road issue passed. It was Ms. Hunt’s operation that sent out a campaign flier claiming that the toll road was the reason southern sector Black economic development had not happened. It was City Councilwoman Angela Hunt who smugly sat back and allowed political theater producer, Roy Williams, to disrupt a City Council meeting while praising Ms. Hunt and her anti-toll road cause. Never did Angela Hunt denounce any of these activities.  Yet, she still has starry-eyed followers who have pronounced her a populist politician with integrity. Ironically, many of Angela Hunt’s followers are the same who have religiously denounced similar antics by Mr. Williams over the years and once called Laura Miller a populist politician of the people.  In my 30 plus years of covering politics, I have never seen a politicians with integrity allow the kinds of activities that Ms. Hunt allowed in her campaign.

From the very beginning of this election, I have written that the Black electorate should be leery of supporting the toll road and less then enthusiastic about a park.  One major player in the Black political establishment accurately characterized the dilemma this way, “The white folks with the toll road have promised us a lot and never done enough.  But the white folks against the toll road have never done anything for us.” This might account for the fact that Angela Hunt never dealt with this issue until the very end of the campaign. I felt so strongly about this dilemma I coined the phrase “no development, no vote”.  I believe the Black electorate and the Black political establishment took the message to heart thus accounting for the low voter turn-out in the Black community.  Here are some interesting examples.

Much was made about the entire Black political establishment being involved in the pro toll road effort.  But upon closer inspection, it is clear that the entire group really did not show up and there was little or no political enforcement of their commitment.  City Councilman Tennell Atkins told voters in his town hall meetings to vote their conscience while never strongly endorsing the measure. City Councilwoman Carolyn Davis was invisible doing the election which might account for her district being the only district in the Black electorate that the anti-toll road forces carried. City Councilwoman Vonciel Hill’s involvement in the election was the most mysterious.  Ms. Hill was supposedly a supporter of the toll road.  However, her campaign manager, Dorothy Dean, was a consultant with the anti-toll road group.  And her closest political ally, Joyce Foreman, was a consultant and spokesperson for the anti-toll road folks in the southern sector.  Some have questioned whether or not Ms. Hill was secretly working for Angela Hunt’s group. No matter, the pro toll road forces carried Ms. Hill’s district.  The pro toll road forces even carried the very precincts that Ms. Dean, Ms. Hill, and Ms. Foreman claimed to control!

Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway put 100% of his political effort into the “Vote No” cause.  Commissioner John Wiley Price cut radio commercials but he was a non-factor in the race.  After former City Councilman James Fantroy “outed” Price ally, Kathy Neely, as a federal snitch in the City Hall corruption probe, Mr. Price’s political group has been in tatters.  Dallas’ most powerful political preacher, Rev. Freddie Haynes III, had token involvement in the election.  Dr. Haynes privately expressed reservations about the lack of southern sector economic development from the people asking for his support.  Dr. Haynes, like many other Black political players, reluctantly supported the toll road because they believe in Mayor Tom Leppert’s promise to right past wrongs done to southern sector economic development efforts.

Over 20 years ago, I was the only journalist in town to take on the John Price political machine when he was one of the most powerful Black politicians in the country.  Legendary Black newspaper publisher Bill Blair and I watched as Price followers burned our papers in front of the office.  We listened as we were being vilified on black radio stations because we dared to tell the truth about Mr. Price.  Several years later I was the first journalist to question the cult of personality that surrounded Mayor Laura Miller. At the time, nobody in the white media would utter a negative word about Ms. Miller. I was also vilified by Miller followers.  Now I am watching with amused interest at the cult of personality surrounding Angela Hunt.  Interestingly, many of the same folks that got burned for blindly following Laura Miler have now taken up the crusade for Angela Hunt. Ms. Hunt, now considered by some as Dallas’ queen of populism, has announced that she will make sure southern sector economic development happens with the Trinity River Project.  I remember when Mayor Laura Miller, our former queen of populism, won her last election.  She declared she would now look after the interests of the southern sector. I have been here before.  At least that is how I see it from South of the Trinity.

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