Block Voting

Don’t rush to the polls to vote on that new stadium for the Dallas Cowboys, unless you like waiting in line for 10 months. No matter how long it takes the team to decide on a location for Jerryworld–on the Trinity River, in Las Colinas or in Fair Park–Dallas County voters won’t get their say till February, at the earliest.

There are two reasons–one you know about, if you read yer morning paper, and the other you don’t, if you read yer morning paper. Last week it was reported that state law makes it illegal to spend county tax revenue on city-owned park land, which means Jerry Jones can’t get his hands on all those hotel and car-rental tax dollars he wants to go toward construction of his new dome in Sunny South Dallas. The county’s trying to get that fixed by getting legislation passed during the special session, and it’s doubtful that’s going to happen, since legislators are a little tied up at the moment arguing over school finance reform. So, Jerry and Laura and Margaret, take a seat and wait your turn.

But the other reason for the delay is a bit more troubling. Turns out a lot of Republican candidates have been hassling county commissioners about keeping this election off the November ballot because they’re worried it might bring out too many black voters who think the idea of putting the Cowboys in South Dallas is the right–or left, as the case may be–thing to do. Republicans worry that once those folks show up at the polls to say yes to Jerry, they might just realize there’s this other election going on and say no to George and all his buddies running for office in the county.

“I don’t think it will be on the ballot in November,” says county Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is the regional director of the National Conference of Republican County Officials. “I’ve gotten words from different candidates countywide that don’t think it helps them in their re-election bids to have that stadium on the ballot. They think the stadium issue will bring out a lot of Democrat voters, because the Cowboys would want to maximize the votes for the stadium, and those are inner-city Dallas voters, and those votes would be for a Democrat. So that’s something to consider.”

The commissioners ultimately decide whether the stadium goes on the ballot in November–and of the five, three are Republican. And Democrat John Wiley Price is against the stadium in Fair Park. So, see ya next year. Have a kick-ass summer.