Political handicappers have been calling me continuously since Super Tuesday, complimenting me on my presidential picks in last month’s column.
The order in which the remaining six candidates finished in Texas was almost exactly as predicted, except Alan Keyes and Lamar Alexander swapped fourth and fifth places. And, unfortunately for Dick Lugar, he was beaten even by ex-candidate Phil Gramm and the ever popular “uncommitted.”
Although I also predicted Pat Buchanan and John Wiley Price as the Republican ticket, the speculated Bob Dole-Colin Powell ticket would at least be close in one respect to the same concept.
But, wait, politics is not over in Lake Highlands. Last month’s readers surely noted Donna Halstead’s farewell column, as she has resigned from the Dallas City Council to pursue retiring John Leedom’s seat in the state senate in a special election slated for May 4. Her yard signs are already popping up around our neighborhood.
But before her yard signs appeared, there were and are the ubiquitous yard signs of State Representative John Carona, who also is vying to succeed Leedom.
Carona has been in the state legislature for six years and has earned kudos twice as “legislative crime-fighter of the year” and has regularly stepped up to the plate, often all by himself among elected officials, to take on controversial issues in the name of fiscal conservatism and common sense.
When local “tax and spenders” wanted to raise the sales tax rate a half-cent for Fair Park, Carona almost single-handedly led the campaign to remove another government hand from our pockets.
When local corporate welfare enthusiasts wanted to build a new downtown sports arena on the backs of local taxpayers, Carona led the fight to ensure that we at least would first have the opportunity to vote before taking it on the chin and in the checkbook.
When everyone else seemed to be paralyzed by the daily crosswalk dance of John Wiley Price in front of the Northeast Station, Carona confronted Price’s idiotic protest to the point of becoming the subject of some of the attack signs carried by Price’s warriors (a sure sign of effectiveness).
Halstead’s resignation from the Council will also prompt a place on the May 4 ballot for those wishing to replace her. Lake Highlands businessman Alan Walne is one of the candidates kicking the tires. Walne is in the family business known as Herb’s Paint & Body Shop and indicated to me that he wants to take his no-nonsense business approach to the Council.
Although he is not opposed to new ideas or initiates, Walne believes that Dallas has a lot of basic maintenance work to catch up on before spending money in other directions. In other words, let’s fix the roof on the local public library and fill in the potholes in the streets before converting the Trinity River into the next great playground of America or building cultural centers for every self-proclaimed special interest.
City government has fundamental, and sometimes unexciting responsibilities, and we should prevail upon our Council members to keep that in mind, rather than wanting to be remembered as the sponsor of the latest pet project.
Should Carona win on May 4, Lake Highlanders and the rest of state legislative district 108 will have to go shopping for his replacement as state representative. I was approached about making the run, but much like Colin Powell, I decided that I wanted to finish my book, “My Lake Highlands Journey.” Although I am still waiting for my Barbara Walters interview, I am confident I made the right decision by staying on the political sidelines this time.
Plus the Advocate boss-man Rick Wamre said if I become a candidate, I would have to give up writing this column. And everyone knows it’s more fun to be the writer than the one written about.
In the meantime, the beat goes on.
