Three lessons from the mayoral election

What did we learn from Tom Leppert's victory on Saturday?

1. This is still a Republican city. All of this analysis about some huge wave of liberal, Manhattan-style voters washing over Dallas is nothing more than pundits looking at statistics and seeing what they want to see and not what's actually there. Yes, many voters are unhappy about the war in Iraq, but what we want from the mayor is the garbage picked up. Note to pundits: The three mayors before Leppert were all Democrats in their other lives, and no one said this was a Democratic city then, did they?

2. Ed Oakley ran perhaps the worst city campaign in the 23 years I have been paying attention to these things. It was worse than Kathryn Cain's mayoral effort in 1991, and that was pretty bad. (Does anyone remember: "Raise Cain to fight Crime?") Oakley somehow managed to alienate voters who figured Leppert was the spawn of the devil. Way to go, Ed.

3. Carol Reed, who ran Leppert's campaign, is pretty darn good at what she does. She might even have been able to get Oakley elected.

Comments

[Alex]

4. Dallas won't elect people born and raised in Dallas:

Leppert: Phoenix
Laura Miller: Baltimore
Ron Kirk: Austin
Steve Bartlett: LA
Annette Strauss Houston

[Norman Alston]

Dallas is a lazy Republican city. Complacent, even in light of last November. We'll see if the complacency remains as November 08 nears.

[Rick Casner]

The result does not suprise me at all. Going negative usually works but only if you can back up the attacks with truth or half truths. His attack ads were so full of lies/misrepresentations that voters were turned off. Couple that with the fact Oakley claimed endorsements he did not have and a pattern developed that people just could not trust this guy. The way he ran the campaign in the final week showed his desparation. Taking a party endorsement in a non-partisan race was bad...real bad. He acted like he had to take the endorsement when it was given, but then he publicized the endorsement in flyers. Big mistake.

Very poorly ran campaign and he rightfully got spanked in the results.

[ScurvyOaks]

"Dallas is a lazy Republican city." No. Dallasites are just lazy about politics because they're busy making money; that's what good Republicans do. :)

[brandi]

I voted for Leppert because he is more of a businessman than a politician and I hope that ends up being worth something.