Sure, you've probably already heard by now that Mitchell Rasansky might run for Dallas County judge. However, the benefit of not speaking with the former North Dallas council member until today yielded a much more definitive answer about his intentions.
Rasansky tells Unfair Park that while he hasn't made up his mind and he still needs to discuss the decision with his wife Rita, he's "thinking extremely, extremely seriously about it" after fielding numerous phone calls from politicians and citizens urging him to challenge Cedar Hill council member Wade Emmert in the Republican primary.
"My phone has been ringing off the wall this morning," he says. "I'm probably leaning toward the race."
Emmert called him yesterday, Rasansky says, but he has no comment on the details of the conversation. Emmert tells us, "I just wanted to find out if the rumors were true, and at the time, he said he hadn't made his decision yet."
Emmert adds that he's "not worried" about Rasansky's potential run, and he sent along his latest campaign brochure, which you can see below, to remind us of the endorsements he's already secured. He stresses that he's not an establishment or hand-picked candidate, noting that he built his support from the ground up.
"Truthfully, I'm not surprised," Emmert says of hearing about Rasansky's interest in challenging him in the primary. "I think there might be others that get in the race too. I don't know of anybody, but it wouldn't surprise me if there are folks right before the filing starts that are coming out of the woodwork, but none of them have the breadth of support that I have across the county."
Rasansky has already spoken with political consultant C.P. Henry and another one that he doesn't want to name right now. Additionally, Rasansky has plans to speak with Dallas County GOP chair Jonathan Neerman, who is in Washington, D.C. "I have his phone number in front of me," he says.
So does Rasansky regret giving back the $175,000 in contributions left over from his council campaign?
"That's not my cup of tea," he says. "Those individuals gave me money to run for city council for District 13, not for county judge."
Rasansky says he's received approximately 60 letters of support regarding his decision to give his contributors 40 percent of their money back, which resulted in 1,013 checks. Only three people have yet to be located, he says, with the largest check at $2,800 and the lowest at 40 cents.
If he does run for county judge and survives the March 2 GOP primary against Emmert, in November he'd face the winner of the Democratic primary, which includes incumbent Jim Foster, Dallas County Schools President Larry Duncan and Dallas lawyer Clay Jenkins.Wade Emmert - brochure
