The Richardson Idol viewers made their choice (and by viewers I mean, of course, me) for Richardson's Place 7 City Council seat. They picked Amir Omar by a wide margin.
After the jump, has anything changed since the final show to question the judges' decision?
In a word, no. It's the only place with three candidates, but Omar is likely to win without a run-off. His two opponents never had it, never will.
Alan North filed to run, then didn't. No fundraising. No campaign expenditures. No forum appearances. Nothing. He didn't have the decency to withdraw or announce a suspension of his (non-)campaign. He just wasted everyone's time.
Diana Clawson filed to run, too, but couldn't decide for what. First she announced she was running for Place 1 against Bob Townsend. Then she filed to run for Place 7 against Amir Omar. She explained the switch by saying she "talked to some people." She didn't say whether "some people" included Ernest McDowell, co-founder of the Richardson Citizens Alliance PAC, her major financial backer ($3,000 out of the $3,000 she claimed to have raised in The Dallas Morning News Voter Guide). Her campaign consisted largely of telling voters what she was against -- against "waste," against city spending in general, against transit-oriented development at US 75/PGBT, against "Tree the Town" (boy is she against trees, except she did support "Tree the Town" when it came to her own HOA neighborhood earlier, before the election) and against the 2010 Bond Program for parks, rec center, swimming pool, fire station, streets and neighborhood revitalization (technically, she was for neighborhood revitalization, as long as her own priorities are addressed). Her election would set Richardson back 30 years, which, ironically, might be just what she wants.
Amir Omar has a list of civic involvement the length of your arm, and not just honorary committee memberships, but chairman and co-founder of several programs. He has successfully promoted Richardson throughout North Texas through programs like "Tree the Town", "WildRide! WildRun! Against Cancer," and "Spirit Run 5k." He recognizes that Richardson's top priorities are revitalization, economic development and recruiting young professionals to live and work in Richardson.
Place 7 was the only race with three candidates, but it turned out to be easy for the judges to make a decision. And nothing has happened since then to make the judges doubt their choice.
I neglected to mention one of Amir Omar's proposals that I happen to disagree with. That's his proposal to replace the senior property tax exemption with a tax freeze. I explained my opposition to this idea here. I don't know Diana Clawson's position on this. The RCA PAC criticized Omar, not for supporting a tax freeze, but for not getting it passed. That suggests the RCA PAC supports a freeze, too. The RCA PAC is Clawson's primary financial support. Because I know of no issue where Clawson bucks the RCA, my guess is that Clawson, too, supports a senior property tax freeze. If so, there's nothing to differentiate her from Omar on this issue.
ReplyDelete