How often do you agree with someone 88.9 percent of the time?
That’s how often neighborhood councilman Jerry Allen voted with Mayor Tom Leppert on roll-call votes at City Hall during the past two years, according to an interesting story by the DMN (click here for the story and the voting chart for the entire council). Allen, who was lambasted by opponents during his recent council race for sticking close to Leppert, showed a streak of independence, though, compared with three other council members. Dave Neumann, Ron Natinsky and Dwaine Caraway voted with the more more than 92 percent of the time — and that’s about the same percentage of the time Leppert voted on the winning side of council initiatives. Bringing up the rear, not surprisingly, is District 14 councilman Angela Hunt, who voted with Leppert 38.5 percent of the time.
What does it mean?
First, Leppert’s a persuasive guy who seems to be adept at targeting certain people to help him keep the ball rolling. Second, most of us must be pretty satisfied with the way things are going in Dallas, because no incumbents lost their re-election campaigns this political season. Or perhaps, as Jeff Siegel points out in this commentary, maybe most of us just don’t care.
