What's in a Name?

Rose Renfro is not Hispanic, but she plays one on on election day. Yesterday The Dallas Morning News' Jim O'Neill reported how Renfro, a candidate for Dallas county commissioner, exploited a little-known Texas election code that allows you to include your nickname on the ballot. Running in a district that...

By Robert Wilonsky

March 10, 2006

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Rose Renfro is not Hispanic, but she plays one on on election day. Yesterday The Dallas Morning News' Jim O'Neill reported how Renfro, a candidate for Dallas county commissioner, exploited a little-known Texas election code that allows you to include your nickname on the ballot. Running in a district that includes the predominantly Hispanic Oak Cliff, the blond Renfro went with "Rosita." She beat opponent Scott Chase by 30 votes

Unfair Park caught up with Rosita this morning, and she tried to explain that she went with the Hispanic-sounding nickname not out of any crude political calculation, but because it was a term of affection from her late husband. "I miss him terribly, even though he's been gone 16 years, and when I ran for county commissioner I thought what he would tell me and that he'd say 'Rosita, you should run, you could win,'" she says.

Turns out he was right. —Matt Pulle

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