Dallas Mayor - In it for (some of) the money

Since Mayor Laura Miller announced in July of last year that she wouldn't be seeking re-election this May, candidates to replace her have been plentiful. The usual campaign tactic for the crop of around 20 candidates has been to criticize the current mayor while explaining their own business successes as credentials for city leadership. If you thought the Democratic field of Presidential contenders was large and complex, wait until you see this.

Tom Leppert is the current CEO of the Turner Corporation, which is a huge construction firm. He's got serious ties to Dallas business and will get help from them down the road. He already raised half a million dollars during the July 1 - December 31 reporting period. Max Wells has more money than that on hand, about $531,000, although the former Mayor Pro-Tem loaned himself more than half of that. Those figures come from this Morning News article, which also lists some other candidate reports.

The fact that the race is wide open means that candidates have to be able to raise more money competitively this time around, because like the race, the money is largely uncommitted and open for competition. Candidates will need that money for media buys, including billboards, newspaper ads, and TV. Leppert has already stated he intends to raise a million dollars, which will probably drive a lot of the competition out of the race. He'll do it, too - his current totals come from one month of work.

Sam Coats, Darrell Jorden, and Don Hill are some other strong competitors, although all three are behind Leppert and Wells in money. Current Council member Gary Griffith is getting there, with around $250,000, and as a current member he may fare better in name ID, which is a gap Leppert will have to overcome. Don Hill acquired some fame in 2005 when he put together the effort to stop Mayor Miller's strong-mayor proposal, but that may have been too wonky for anyone in the general voting public to really get attached to. Roger Herrera is also in the six-figure club with right over $100,000, but that's how much he loaned himself for the race.

Name ID and prior community activism will allow some of the candidates to make their campaign dollars go farther. As with any race, the less you have to introduce yourself to people, the more you can undertake the crucial steps of defining yourself and defining your opponent. The fact that many of contenders are going the route of Miller criticism, as Gromer Jeffers points out here, isn't surprising - the current mayor is something of an easy target and gives prospective candidates for her job something to talk about. The strong-mayor episode was divisive and those divisions remain between Mayor Miller, the council, and the neighborhoods they represent.

The reliance on business credentials will probably end up hurting some of the more corporate candidates in South Dallas - the disparity between North and South in Dallas is as wide as ever, and the issue sets for each area are obviously very different, as will be the most desirable qualities in a candidate. The difficulty inherent to serving both masters implies that a pro-business candidate with South Dallas or general community cred will do better than a strictly business candidate. That sort of pre-requisite would play into the favor of candidates who are coming from the City Council.