Dennis Stewart's Hat Is In, But Which Ring?

Dennis Stewart, former member of the Richardson City Council, is running for election again. The question is, which seat? His campaign website is up (h/t Destiny Herndon-DeLaRosa), but with the embarrassing notice "This site is currently UNDER CONSTRUCTION !!" (What is this? GeoCities circa 1998?) The website says to check back after March 14, 2011.

March 14 just happens to be last day for filing, which suggests that Stewart has not yet decided which seat to run for. In 2009, he was defeated in his re-election bid for the at-large Place 7 seat by Amir Omar. He said a few unfriendly things about Omar in that campaign. Stewart might be tempted to seek revenge for his loss, but if so, why wait until March 14 to file? So instead, he might be thinking of running against Mark Solomon in Place 2. In 2010, as a private citizen, Stewart joined a fairly vocal opposition to a rezoning request for a senior living center at Renner and North Star, which council member Solomon (and Omar) voted for. So, maybe Stewart will try to rally the NIMBY crowd to unseat Solomon. Or maybe Stewart might decide that it'll be easier to win one of the open at-large seats and doesn't want to tip his hand about which one until he knows who all he's up against.

Ian McCann, in The Dallas Morning News, reports that, as of today, only one of the seven seats on the council is contested. We know that many more potential candidates picked up packets from city hall. That suggests a lot of them are taking a wait and see attitude before deciding which seat to file for. It promises to be a busy day at city hall on March 14.