But what is she raising money for?
Yes, the two-term councilwoman, who is about the only legitimate neighborhood voice left downtown, is up for re-election next spring. But does Hunt, whose seat seems reasonably safe, need to raise money now for her re-election? Or does she have other things on her mind?
Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper wrote Hunt off after the Trinity defeat last fall, but what does it know? This was the same newspaper that ran a serious editorial about pro wrestling.
Let me offer a thought or two, with the caveat I didn’t ask Hunt about the fund-raiser or her future. Which means these are my thoughts, and not some carefully phrased leaks to a friendly journalist:
• Hunt wants to run for the Legislature in 2010. The state representative for District 108, which includes the M Streets, is Dan Branch. He’s an influential Republican and Tom Craddick ally who is on the appropriations committee and writes things in his newsletter like "It’s a privilege to serve in the Texas House because Texas Matters. With one of the world’s Top 10 economies, how Texas is governed has broad implications. We have a mantra in my legislative office, ‘So goes Texas, so goes the nation, so goes the world.’ " Branch looks safe, especially since the district includes the Park Cities. Where, as we have learned, they like that sort of thing.
• Hunt still wants to run for the Legislature. As noted, Kay Bailey Hutchison will cause a 43-person scrum if she decides to run against Gov. Minority in 2010. One candidate for Hutchison’s U.S. senate seat could well be six-term U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions. If Sessions runs for the Senate and Branch runs for Sessions’ House seat, Hunt may have a shot at Branch’s state House seat.
• Hunt wants to run for Congress. See above. Unless she lives in Republican incumbent Jeb Hensarling’s fifth district, whose seat is even safer than Sessions’.
• Hunt does want to run for mayor. This subject comes up frequently, always followed by the question, "Can she win?" I’m in the minority on this, because I think she can. I think an intelligent, well-run, neighborhood-oriented campaign can beat Mayor Park Cities (who also almost certainly wants to run for Hutchinson’s Senate seat).
The first step would be to find neighborhood-oriented council candidates to run next spring against some of Leppert’s most vulnerable allies (Dave Neumann, Jerry Allen, Carolyn Davis and Sheffi Kadane come to mind). Plus, Mitch Rasansky has been term limited, so his seat is open. Then, with more support in the council, Hunt will have a chance to make the mayor and city staff answer some hard questions: How did the budget get screwed up? Why aren’t my pot holes being fixed? Where are the extra cops?
Then, armed with all the hems and haws those questions will bring, Hunt runs a campaign in 2011 highlighting just what the mayor and his cronies on the council haven’t done. She’d have to raise enough money to do it, which wouldn’t be easy, and she’d have to withstand an incredibly nasty campaign from the city’s elite and The Morning News, where she would probably be called a carpetbagger, a Bolshevik and who knows what else? But I think she could win.
