Angela Hunt is holding a fundraiser

But what is she raising money for?

Yes, the two-term councilwoman, who is about the only legitimate neighborhood voice left downtown, is up for re-election next spring. But does Hunt, whose seat seems reasonably safe, need to raise money now for her re-election? Or does she have other things on her mind?

Dallas' Only Daily Newspaper wrote Hunt off after the Trinity defeat last fall, but what does it know? This was the same newspaper that ran a serious editorial about pro wrestling.

Let me offer a thought or two, with the caveat I didn't ask Hunt about the fund-raiser or her future. Which means these are my thoughts, and not some carefully phrased leaks to a friendly journalist:

 

• Hunt wants to run for the Legislature in 2010. The state representative for District 108, which includes the M Streets, is Dan Branch. He's an influential Republican and Tom Craddick ally who is on the appropriations committee and writes things in his newsletter like "It's a privilege to serve in the Texas House because Texas Matters. With one of the world’s Top 10 economies, how Texas is governed has broad implications. We have a mantra in my legislative office, 'So goes Texas, so goes the nation, so goes the world.' " Branch looks safe, especially since the district includes the Park Cities. Where, as we have learned, they like that sort of thing.

• Hunt still wants to run for the Legislature. As noted, Kay Bailey Hutchison will cause a 43-person scrum if she decides to run against Gov. Minority in 2010. One candidate for Hutchison's U.S. senate seat could well be six-term U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions. If Sessions runs for the Senate and Branch runs for Sessions' House seat, Hunt may have a shot at Branch's state House seat.

• Hunt wants to run for Congress. See above. Unless she lives in Republican incumbent Jeb Hensarling's fifth district, whose seat is even safer than Sessions'.

• Hunt does want to run for mayor. This subject comes up frequently, always followed by the question, "Can she win?" I'm in the minority on this, because I think she can. I think an intelligent, well-run, neighborhood-oriented campaign can beat Mayor Park Cities (who also almost certainly wants to run for Hutchinson's Senate seat).

The first step would be to find neighborhood-oriented council candidates to run next spring against some of Leppert's most vulnerable allies (Dave Neumann, Jerry Allen, Carolyn Davis and Sheffi Kadane come to mind). Plus, Mitch Rasansky has been term limited, so his seat is open. Then, with more support in the council, Hunt will have a chance to make the mayor and city staff answer some hard questions: How did the budget get screwed up? Why aren't my pot holes being fixed? Where are the extra cops?

Then, armed with all the hems and haws those questions will bring, Hunt runs a campaign in 2011 highlighting just what the mayor and his cronies on the council haven't done. She'd have to raise enough money to do it, which wouldn't be easy, and she'd have to withstand an incredibly nasty campaign from the city's elite and The Morning News, where she would probably be called a carpetbagger, a Bolshevik and who knows what else? But I think she could win.

Technorati Tags: Angela Hunt,Dallas politics,Tom Leppert,Dallas City Council

Comments

[Alex]

Hunt lives in TX-32. Also, Dallas will be getting a new Congressional seat in 2012. Who knows where it'll be, but it will be an open seat.

[confused]

perhaps you mean Kay Bailey Hutchison?

[Jeff Siegel]

Whoops. One would think I would know better than that. Fixed. Thanks for catching the misspelling.

[Norman Alston]

Apparently, it is not actually required that you live within the Congressional District you seek. I do recall a few years back there were candidates from Houston on the ballot for TX-5, which got only as close as College Station at that time. That was odd, but living within a city and running for a seat in an immediately adjacent district is not so far fetched.

[Mike]

Mike Armour, who ran in the last Congressional race, was the only candidate who actually lived in the district. Mike explained that the non-resident issue was perfectly legal. The practice started many years ago with rural people in Kansas being able to elect a person of wealth and power to get better representation and funding for projects in their districts.

Mike still lives in the Bob O Links addition and would most likely be glad to fill in the specifics. He would have made a great representative for our area.

[Jeremy Gregg]

Angela is the most competent and capable local leader that we have; it would be a boon for Dallas if she were our Mayor, though I would never hope such a fate on her because of the nasty campaign that would be waged against her.

She would be excellent on the State level, that's for sure. I think the competition would be too fierce and well financed at a larger level, at least for now.

Another option to consider:

Raising funds is one of the most effective ways to get a reality check on the public support that you have, particularly among decision makers on the key issues in her district. This could be a way of courting those people for some big issues that she has in mind over the coming years.