Richardson's Next Mayor: Alan North???

Thursday, Richardson Mayor Paul Voelker announced he wouldn't seek re-election. That started a cascade of decisions by other candidates. Council member Bob Dubey (Place 1) announced he would run for Mayor. That will open his Place 1 seat. No one has yet announced interest in running for that seat.

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Three other potential candidates picked up information packets from City Hall. One seems unrelated to Mayor Voelker's retirement. Richard Strecker announced interest in running for Place 2, a seat currently held by Jennifer Justice. Strecker is a semi-regular speaker at the open mic visitors section of the City Council meetings, discussing topics like "high density development."

Andrew Laska announced interest in running for Place 3, a seat currently held by Mayor Pro Tem Janet DePuy. His action suggests he's anticipating DePuy will announce her own run for Mayor soon, thus opening up the Place 3 seat. Laska is a former neighborhood association president and is well known in urban design circles.

Alan North (Artist's rendering)

Perhaps the most interesting development was by Alan North, who picked up a candidate packet on Wednesday (that is, *before* the mayor's announcement), expressing an interest in running for mayor. Longtime readers of The Wheel will remember Alan North as the mystery man behind the petition in 2012 to change the City of Richardson's charter to make the mayor's position directly elected by the voters. You can read all about that in The Wheel's archives. Or just read "Election Wrap: Petition".

Alan North also filed to run for City Council in 2011, but then was a no show. No campaign. He lost, naturally. The Wheel explored that mystery election campaign in a postscript to the 2011 election.

The Wheel also explored (tongue firmly in cheek) the possibility of Alan North becoming mayor way back then. Will this time be any different? Stay tuned.