Now that I’ve had some time to reflect on Saturday night’s narrow loss at the polls by Harlan Crow and the 41,287 Dallas voters opposed to a taxpayer-owned hotel, I realize the most important vote on this issue took place almost 15 months ago. Dallas will get its convention center…
Late last night council member Angela Hunt posted to her blog a note concerning the vote in favor of the convention center hotel. Therein, she extends the olive branch and vows to make ‘er work, because, well, that’s what 43,382 people demanded:The voters of Dallas have spoken and settled the…
“The message tonight is Dallas is moving forward,” said Mayor Tom Leppert as the crowd here at Gilley’s roared in approval. The votes still aren’t all in, but, said the mayor, “I can tell you tonight the winner is the Dallas taxpayer.”The mayor looked exhausted and seems to have aged…
With 510 of 534 precincts reporting, and the convention center hotel now looking more like a sure thing — it’s 42,433 for, 40,484 against — Pulle reports that it’s all hugs and fist bumps at The Loft at Gilley’s. Says Matt, Mayor Tom Leppert was just spotted giving Mayor Pro…
Waiting for the boys to call in, as no doubt the mood’s shifted at both The Loft at Gilley’s and Tucker on Ross Avenue just a bit. Because, with 427 of 534 precincts reporting, the margin’s grown wider in the pro-hotel faction’s favor: 39,506 (51.28 percent) who voted for the…
Caught up with the mayor after he gave the obligatory interview to a television reporter, and he looked (and sounded) a little more optimistic. Asked why this election wound up being about him, he said that he disagreed. “They played that game, but it wasn’t about me,” he said forcefully…
With 252 of 534 precincts reporting, Mayor Tom Leppert’s got to be breathing a little easier — at least, for the moment. Dallas County Elections is reporting that the Vote No side has 30,056 votes, for 50.44 percent of the vote. CATOH can count thus far 29,535 votes. Which means…
Perhaps Carol Reed was right about closing strong: With 79 of 534 precincts reporting, the Proposition 1 race is only getting tighter — separated by a mere 207 votes now. At the moment, the pro-hotel faction has taken the teensy-weensy lead with 22,481 votes, or 50.23 percent of the vote…
Contrary to what’s been reported elsewhere, the Citizens Against the Taxpayer-Owned Hotel party at Tucker on Ross Avenue is, in fact, open to the press and public. Matter of fact, not only is Merten on hand for the gathering, but so too are KXAS-Channel 5’s Ken Kalthoff and Trey Garrison…
Just minutes after the Mavs lost to the Nuggets on a last-minute three-pointer, a campaign staffer for the Vote No folks reported the early-vote tallies on a chalkboard in the middle of The Loft dining room. It was hard to discern any type of reaction from a crowd still stung…
Merten and Pulle are out; Schutze is about. They’ll offer their reports from hotel shindigs pro and con — and, just maybe, some council member throwdowns — later in the night, as Dallas County Elections begins kicking out returns from the day’s vote. But till then, the early-voting results are…
As he’s done throughout the convention center hotel campaign, Mayor Tom Leppert’s op-ed in The Dallas Morning News Thursday focused more on kicking Harlan Crow in the crotch than providing tangible reasons why voters should approve public ownership of a $500 million hotel. He wasted valuable words ripping Crow for…
After pestering would-be voters in the West End last week for their opinions on Proposition 1, Megan and Patrick headed over to Fair Park yesterday to see how folks were feeling about the city getting into the convention center hotel business. Patrick’s video’s here; Megan’s wrap-up follows. If nothing else,…
After several requests, the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau finally in March gave us a breakdown of the room nights that DCVB president and CEO Phillip Jones and other pro-hotel’ers claimed were contingent on building a convention center hotel. However, the names of the conventions were not disclosed because “some…
Longtime friend of the show Scott Henson sends word: We need to be on the lookout for news out of the state Senate Nominating Committee confab today, as Burleson vibrator-hater Shanda Perkins has her Board of Pardons and Paroles confirmation hearing scheduled for 1 p.m.-ish. Surely you remember Perkins –…
After the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released its report on the city’s levees, we were baffled to learn that construction on the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge would continue, especially since drilling a concrete pier for the bridge into the floodway resulted in the troubling discovery of sand and the…
As mentioned in this week’s cover story, one of the reasons former council member Ed Oakley says he lost to Tom Leppert in the ’07 mayoral runoff was his decision to run a negative campaign in the final weeks. Oakley’s negativity climaxed with taking a cheap shot at Leppert by…
To be clear, council member Jerry Allen didn’t tell Sam, “When the hotel fails, I’ll be off council, so I can’t be held accountable.” Rather, Sam had asked him: What happens if the city drops $500 million on the hotel and it doesn’t post the promised profit? To which District…
This week’s cover story in the paper version of Unfair Park outlines the events leading to the upcoming election May 9. Here’s a look at the milestones that led Mayor Tom to this point. …
George W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation Mark Langdale won’t tell Time how much the ex-president’s raised for his SMU library — or who’s given to the cause of reshaping his legacy. But the magazine this morning notes that sources close to Bush are reporting he’s done pocketed $100 million since…
In my inbox this morning, I received an e-mail from the Vote No! group, who are packaging Proposition 1 and 2 together. For those needing clarification, Proposition 1 will approve a charter amendment prohibiting the city from “owning, financing, constructing, or operating a hotel or other lodging facility,” and Proposition…
Best. House Energy and Commerce Committee Meeting. Ever. From this morning in D.C.: “The Bowl Championship Series: Money and Other Issues of Fairness for Publicly Financed Universities.” Smokey Joe Barton of Arlington wants to ditch the BCS and go to a college-football playoff system, and he’s got the legislation to…
