The group of mayoral hopefuls—the police chief, the politician, the CEO and the long shot—agree on just about everything.
Mark Graham
Mike Rawlings' pedigree is corporate America. But the mayoral hopeful was instrumental in making Dallas' homeless center, The Bridge, a success.
Mark Graham
Former Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle has positioned himself as the outsider. He is widely credited with restoring public confidence in the DPD.
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Former Pizza Hut CEO Mike Rawlings, the well-financed presumed frontrunner, estimates that he and his fellow candidates find common ground between 90 and 95 percent of the time, which makes for some seriously dull campaign forums. But maybe that's because all four candidates deftly sidestep the city's biggest issue: how to trim a budget that's sucking gobs of air, with a $60 million to $100 million expected shortfall, according to City Manager Mary Suhm.
Outside of the forums, the Dallas Observer pressed each candidate to identify specific cuts they'd make. Rawlings, city council member Ron Natinsky and real estate consultant Edward Okpa gave non-answers. Only ex-police Chief David Kunkle came up with something concrete: requiring DART to contract with the Dallas Police Department for its officers, which would eliminate the duplications of command staffs, communication centers and overhead.
But that was it. One measly cut among four candidates.
Whoever wins the May 14 election will have to make tough calls on the budget deficit as the economy continues to flounder. About half of the city's $2 billion operating budget is its general fund, and more than 60 percent of that is dedicated to public safety. Voters will decide who's most qualified to get the best out of the remaining $400 million, but can any of the candidates identify waste without having to skimp on filling potholes, mowing the grass at parks and staffing libraries?
The candidates think they can. Each puts forth his own brand of optimism, affirming that the city's budget woes are no match for a strong commitment to economic development and improved efficiency at City Hall.
Since these men agree on that and just about everything else, the race comes down to four guys and four personalities—and a handful of pricey campaign consultants working their tricks to extract votes from places where voters seem challenged to care.
Of course, stirring up voter interest might come a little easier if any of the hopefuls were willing to say exactly what they might cut to balance the books, but what's true of politics at the national level is also true at City Hall: Candidates who get too interesting or too specific when it comes to wielding an axe seldom fare well on election day.
Mike Rawlings is the Establishment candidate, the man who belongs to the Dallas Citizens Council and has a long history in corporate America, just like his predecessor, Tom Leppert, who resigned in February to launch a bid to replace retiring U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. But Rawlings has the most unlikely bloc of supporters in Dallas: the homeless.
Take Ricky Hernandez. He knows what Rawlings has done, even though he doesn't know Rawlings. "Whoever built this did the right thing," he says about The Bridge—a homeless assistance center at the edge of downtown Dallas. It's the brainchild of ex-Dallas Observer columnist and former Mayor Laura Miller, but Rawlings' handprints are all over it.
Hernandez, a 41-year-old ex-con, visits The Bridge daily for free meals, healthcare, job assistance, laundry services and showers. "It's good for people who don't really have nothing, people who are homeless, people who really, really need a place to stay and a place to eat," Hernandez says.
Released from state prison in January after serving an 18-year sentence for cocaine possession, Hernandez is energized about an interview for a dish-washing job at a local nursing home, arranged with help from his care manager at The Bridge. "If everything goes good for me tomorrow, I probably won't be here any longer than three more weeks," he says.
For Hernandez and the nearly 1,000 homeless served there daily, The Bridge represents a last chance to pull themselves out of homelessness and extreme poverty. "If I was a rich guy—a multimillionaire—I'd open another one right next door," he says.
Despite spending five years as the city's homeless czar, Rawlings makes little mention on the campaign trail of his time dedicated to The Bridge and raising millions of dollars in private donations to maintain it, even contributing money from his own pocket. Since it opened in May 2008, The Bridge has reduced the number of chronically homeless by 56 percent and provides shelter for around 350 homeless men and women every night.
"I'm still a little bit uncomfortable about helping out poor people and trying to get credit for it," Rawlings says. "It seems a little disingenuous."
Instead, Rawlings has relied on his corporate experience as the chief executive of three companies to become a candidate in the mold of ex-Turner Construction CEO and former Mayor Leppert. Leppert was one of the best salesmen this city's seen in a long time, and Rawlings says the city needs "a dealmaker" to lure economic development.
Like Leppert, who hasn't endorsed any of the candidates, Rawlings is a member of the influential Citizens Council. Former mayors Erik Jonsson and Jack Evans—ex-CEOs of Texas Instruments and Tom Thumb, respectively—once led the Citizens Council. The group of wealthy business leaders includes Ross Perot Jr. and Dallas Cowboys CEO Stephen Jones.
