May elections typically draw little interest from Dallas residents, if history is any indicator. That means city council and school board seats can be decided by razor-thin margins, as we saw in last June’s Dallas ISD race. Often, winners are decided by who comes out to vote, shifting the power balance to a sometimes-unusual segment, like grandmas.
City Council District 14. (City of Dallas)
District 14 is one of the more diverse council districts in Dallas, spanning the single-family neighborhoods of East Dallas to the apartment-heavy streets of Uptown to the business centers of Downtown Dallas. Unlike East Dallas’ 9th council district, which includes largely residential neighborhoods from Lakewood to Casa View, the needs and demands of constituents in District 14 are more varied.
East Dallas has often held the voting power in District 14, a common reality in our neighborhood, which seems to be one of the more politically active in the city.
Just look at the numbers. Of the 56,797 people registered in the district during the last contested council race in 2013, East Dallas* made up 56 percent of the population. But we were almost twice as likely to vote, with 9.6 percent of neighbors casting a ballot versus 5.3 percent of non-East Dallas voters in the district. That’s when current councilman Philip Kingston, an East Dallas neighbor himself, earned his seat, which he easily retained in the unchallenged 2015 race when a mere 2,871 people voted (60 percent of whom were from East Dallas).
This year, he faces two political newbies in fellow East Dallas attorney Matt Wood, and downtown magazine publisher Kim Welch. In recent history, the seat has been held by an East Dallasite, including Angela Hunt (2005-13) and Veletta Lill (1997-2005). Before that, the seat was held for five years by Oak Lawn resident Paul Fielding, who was indicted on federal fraud and extortion charges (CORRECTION: Fielding was District 11, the District 14 seat was previously held by Craig McDaniel).
A geographical upset is not unheard of, just look at the last District 9 council race. After 50 years of representatives from the west side of the lake, Mark Clayton rallied enough troops, largely on the east side, to come out victorious in a crowded field of challengers.
In an election that historically draws fewer than 10 percent of registered voters, it will all come down to which candidate can inspire people to hit the polls.
* For the purpose of this article, we are defining East Dallas by our distribution area.
