While he’s been dodging us and other local media outlets, Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins apparently had no qualms about granting an interview to former DMN’er Emily Ramshaw, who profiled his November race against Republican candidate Danny Clancy for the Texas Tribune. Strangely, Watkins comes across as decidedly Republican…
For those who didn’t read our cover story last week, the Office of the Attorney General made a second attempt on February 23 to lend a helping hand to District Attorney Craig Watkins in a criminal investigation of the Dallas County constables. In August 2009, Watkins said, um, no thanks…
A few odds and sods on this Census Day:The fine folks at Bike Friendly Oak Cliff have posted a video follow-up to our post about plans to build The Better Block at the intersection of N. Tyler and W. 7th Streets on April 10 and 11. That’s it up top,…
Much like Richard Allen’s interview, our conversation with Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson didn’t make it into the cover story on Dallas County Judge Jim Foster appearing in last week’s paper version of Unfair Park. But that’s not to say Jillson’s opinions about Foster, runoff candidate Clay Jenkins…
So says the Friend of Unfair Park who sent us the link to the most astonishingly named Web site in the history of ever: Palin4Life.com. What you see above is the only thing on the Web site, which was created on March 8. And, ooof, tickets ain’t cheap — unless…
Word is Kay Bailey Hutchison will announce this morning down in San Antonio that she’s staying in the Senate — so say NBC News and The Washington Post, anyhow. Which would explain Mayor Tom Leppert’s acknowledgment yesterday that, sure ’nuff, he’s mulling a second term.And it would explain State Sen…
As we told you at the end of Monday’s item about Mayor Tom Leppert’s new Web site, consultant Laura Reed Martin was supposed to get back with us about the decision to hire Washington, D.C.-based Stan Olshefski to handle the site’s upcoming redesign. Stuff like this normally wouldn’t be that…
As you may have read in this morning’s Dallas Morning News, Vice President Joe Biden has plans to drop by the home of lawyer Russell Budd tomorrow night to headline a fund-raiser for the Democrats’ U.S. Senate campaign committee. Dallas County Republican Party chair Jonathan Neerman seized on the visit…
Today, in the foyer of the Kroger at 5665 E. Mockingbird Lane, Progress Dallas officially launched its effort to collect the 68,846 signatures needed to call a local option election giving residents the chance to vote for the elimination the dry areas of Dallas, as well as ending all the…
Space restraints prevented us from including our interview with Richard Allen, CEO of The Allen Group, in this week’s look at departing Dallas County Judge Jim Foster — available wherever paper versions of Unfair Park are given away tomorrow. Of course, TAG is developing the Dallas Logistics Hub, which Schutze…
First we didn’t know who shouted “Baby Killer!” at Rep. Bart Stupak last night, during the health care debate. Joe Barton knew, but he wasn’t talking. Then, we found out: It was Lubbock’s own Rep. Randy Neugebauer, which, according to Jim anyway, sounded familiar.Neugebauer. Neugebauer. Neugebauer. (Also: It’s fun to…
On Tuesday, we opined that Mayor Tom Leppert’s U.S. Senate campaign was moving full steam ahead regardless of whether Kay Bailey Hutchison resigns before her term expires at the end of 2012. Why? The donations to his mayoral campaign completely dried up in the last half of 2009; his annual…
[Updated: Below, you’ll find an update, from Taking Points Memo, in which Rep. Randy Neugebauer of Lubbock fesses up to being the shouter last night. As TPM also points out, he was also the co-sponsor of the so-called Birther Bill.] Last night, Gawker wondered, “Who Is the American Hero Who…
For the past two years, Mayor Tom Leppert’s annual “Giraffes, Monkeys and Lepperts” event at the Dallas Zoo has served as a birthday bash for the mayor and fund-raiser for Friends of Tom Leppert, a committee formed to pay Leppert’s consultants and expenses. Last year, we revealed one of the…
Hands up, waiting for their turn to talk and asking the woman across the table to speak up a little louder, please, about 20 people gathered at The Generator in Garland on Saturday afternoon to mull over political questions at one of about a dozen local Coffee Party USA kick-off events.Billed as a…
One hundred and fourteen votes. That’s all that kept Clay Jenkins from securing the Democratic nomination for county judge on March 2. Instead, he’ll take on former Dallas City Council member Larry Duncan in the April 13 runoff election to determine Republican Wade Emmert’s opponent in November. Echoing much of…
Just a few things I’ve collected during the course of a day that would have been better spent in bed …I see here that Bruegger’s Bakery and Café is expanding this year into the Dallas-Fort Worth market. Never had a Bruegger’s, but says here it’s nothing more than “an average…
To the delight of State Representative Rafael Anchía and others in the Dallas County Democratic Party, chair Darlene Ewing couldn’t have been more wrong when she told us that “rampant fear and mistrust” would leave Terri Hodge’s successor in the hands of precinct chairs in House District 100. Anchía, whose…
After early voting numbers showed Clay Jenkins with a commanding lead in the three-way Democratic primary race for county judge, talk last night among the small group gathered at the Belmont Hotel supporting Judge Jim Foster focused on how the race appeared to have been won by dough (Jenkins raised…
In the online discussion related to this afternoon’s Unfair Park post regarding Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins’s campaign finance reports, several comments about Dallas County Republican Party chair Jonathan Neerman appeared, pointing to a fine he received from the Federal Election Commission and alleging that Neerman is the target…
Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins has paid family members or businesses they own more than $85,000 from his campaign funds, according to Unfair Park’s review of his campaign finance reports. In addition, after his election in November 2006, Watkins begin paying utilities for his campaign office, which include a…
If you thought the efforts of former Dallas City Council members Diane Ragsdale and Sandra Crenshaw to get Terri Hodge reelected were futile, think again. While lawyer Eric Johnson “would make a fine representative,” says Dallas County Democratic Party chair Darlene Ewing, she predicts that he’ll fall short when votes…
