Dallas City Council redistricting is complete with new district lines. The new lines come after the census which takes into account population shifts.
The city council engages in this process every ten years after they receive census data. The process draws district lines that city council members get elected to represent.
Mayor Johnson said, “Redistricting is critical to a functioning representative democracy.”
He went on, “I am grateful for the work of our Redistricting Commission…led by Chairman Jesse Oliver.”
City Council Redistricting Commission And Upcoming Races
The Dallas city council adoped Plan ID 132918. Per the city charter, city council must approve redistricting forty-five days after redistricting.
It is unclear why a sitting city council member felt the need to run for Precinct Chair, but the results are disastrous per one local elections watcher.
“Baz just told everyone he can be beat in his own precinct. He just opened the floodgates of new candidates who are going to challenge him.”
One former supporter surmised Tracy Dotie Hill probably did something causing offense to Bazaldua so he decided to take her out of office only to find he couldn’t even win the most local of elections.
Note, final results are not in, but based on Early Voting there is no clear path for Bazaldua to win this seat.
Adam Bazaldua Problems Beginning?
Bazaldua may have a new ethics issue to follow on last year’s regarding his party filing.
The city charter expressly states “A member of the city council shall forfeit his or her place on the council if he or she becomes a candidate for nomination or election to any public office other than a place on the city council or if he or she becomes a candidate for election to any different place on the city council that requires taking office prior to the end of his or her elective term.”
Precinct Chairs are elected positions requiringin a place on a party primary ballot, an affidavit, and are elected by the public. It is unclear how Bazaldua’s filing for Precinct Chair does not violate the city charter.
Today is the day for a number of candidates as primary runoff voting 2022 happens today! Voting locations are open from 7:00AM to 7:00PM.
Dallas County Elections reminds voters that if they did not vote in the primary election in March the voter is eligible to vote in either runoff.
If a voter participated in a party primary election, they are only eligible to vote in that runoff.
Primary Runoff Voting 2022 Races Of Interest
The following are some of the races we will be following tonight after returns start coming into local election offices.
TX30
In TX30 – a reliably blue district – we will find out who will replace Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, likely for decades.
Jasmine Crockett nearly won the primary outright, but since then has faced a host of charges showing she took money from Trump supporters offshort and has had a number of ethical challenges.
Her opponent, Jane Hope Hamilton has meanwhile been lining up support from the traditional black community including endorsements from Sen. Royce West and a number of state house representatives.
TX32
The Democratic side of the ballot is handled as Rep. Colin Allred will represent Democrats on the November ballot, but the GOP side is still up in the air between Antonio Swad and Justin Webb.
Insiders are predicting an easy win for Swad, but a wild card exists in Brad Namdar.
Namdar who placed fifth out of six candidates in March was the subject of a Dallas Morning News expose stating he had visited an escort for purposes of sex. He denied these allegations until recently when Current Revolt published a piece outlining his admission and then recant of the admission.
Current Revolt was able to obtain video of Namdar with the escort in question.
Several people have come forward to say Brad Namdar is being investigated by law enforcement at this point which makes the post above from yesterday odd. We reached out to Justin Webb’s campaign to ask if Namdar was endorsing him and if so, why wasn’t he announcing it.
His opponent, Swad, has recently received the endorsement of two of his challengers, Darrel Day and Nathan Davis.
In recent weeks we have had several “persons” reach out to Other Side Dallas to defend Namdar all with different names, but with the same IP signature – indicating not only the same location, but same device.
Neither Swad nor Webb’s campaigns returned emails seeking comment on Namdar’s most recent post.
HD114
Democrats in the new HD114 will choose before former Congressman John Bryant and former Republican Alexandra Guio.
Bryant was known for getting things done and a progressive member of Congress whereas Guio is only known as a former Republican and the city redistricting commission appointee of Paula Blackmon before ghosting her and her staff after announcing her run for HD114.
Commissioners Court 2
The Dallas County Commissioner’s Court race for Democrats has gotten spicy also as charges exist that Andrew Sommerman essentially bought endorsements by donating to other candidates.
Sommerman claims he is a voting rights attorney, but there is no evidence of him taking voting rights issues to trial and at least two sources indicate Sommerman attempted to remove his female opponet from the ballot.
It appears Andrew Sommerman paid for endorsements in his campaign for County Commissioner 2.
According to Texas Ethics Commission reports Andrew Sommerman has given generously to a number of candidates who all seem to endorse him shortly thereafter.
In April we reported on internal emails where Sommerman begged for endorsements from local figures and then he and his staff trashed those same individuals in private.
Clay Jenkins figures prominently in Sommerman’s campaign after trying to steer $250,000 in legal fees to Sommerman’s firm over a lawsuit against Governor Abbott and coronavirus response.
Locally, Jenkins has ordered a low warning order over COVID19 despite rapidly rising cases at both Parkland Hospital and Childrens Medical Center Dallas. Additionally, it appears county officials have suggested not testing all patients despite these rapidly rising cases as Jenkins tries to get his candidate across the finish line to November.
Sommerman Paid For Endorsements And Gave Generously To Republicans
Additionally, Sommerman and his firm donated more than $20,000 to GOP candidates including a judge in Abilene that has no impact on Dallas, unless your law firm is practicing in front of that judge. Judge Jeffrey Probst received $500 just two years ago.
Sommerman is also lining up with former Republican Alexandra Guio in HD114. Significant in that race is Guio’s appointment to the City Redistricting Commission she was appointed to shortly before ghosting her appointing authority Paula Blackmon.
The full TEC report for Sommerman can be viewed below.
One Democratic Precinct Chair in Commissioners Court 2 said, “Andrew Sommerman looks more and more like the used car salesman who sells you a defective car, but then turns into the ambulance chasing lawyer once that car causes an accident.”
That Precinct Chair continued, “Buyer beware. Do we really need another old white guy representing Dallas County? Sommerman is half a step away from Joe Manchin in his dealings with GOP.”
It is unclear if Sommerman is trying to knock on doors to win the race or simply buy the office.
As Early Voting in party primary runoff starts today, it looks like more bad news for Brad Namdar is just beginning.
Namdar lost his race to represent the Texas Republican Party in the 32nd Congressional District of Texas race after reports that Namdar has solicited sex from an escort in May 2021. Namdar denied the reports including on Mark Davis’ radio show.
Namdar seen with his wife Pia. One person said he is flaunting their relationship to avoid questions about his behavior in May 2021 and prior.
Based on recent reporting in Current Revolt, those reports appear to be true and leading to possible criminal investigations.
Moreover, his denial there is no video to see is now gone.
At the time, Namdar was running against five other opponents in TX32 had been defiant over the charges he was solicitiing sex from an escort last year in the time period he was also playing kingmaker in the Dallas City Council race of Barry Wernick.
Namdar responded to the Texas Secretary of State saying he “complied with all applicable Federal and State human trafficking laws and regulations.” He also said “I also have no personal involvement with illegal sexual conduct or participation in the commercial sex industry.”
That statement was filed accompanied by an affidavit to the Texas Secretary of State making the statement a lie under oath, i.e. perjury.
We have reached out to the Texas Secretary of State office for comment who states “PRSB, LLC remains suspended from the TBAT program indefinitely.”
In addition to the sworn statement issue are two issues surrounding the act itself.
Namdar has consistently said he did not pay anyone for sex, but this appears refuted by the video provided by the escort to local media. This constitutes prostitution.
One person noted that Namdar uses the name “Brad Namdar” almost as a stagename for his legal name, Bardia Namdarkhan. They went on to say “now we can just call him John” – the term used for those who frequent prostitutes.
As importantly, there is an additional question about the second encounter. Given “Belle” only consented to have sex with Namdar under the premise she would be paid, consent would theoretically be removed if he did not pay her, making the encounter a sexual assault, or rape.
While one retired, local police officer said this might be a stretch, they also allowed that he could be charged with theft by deception.
The Dallas District Attorney Press Office would not confirm or deny an investigation was going on into allegations of rape, prostitution, or perjury, but there are indiciations charges may be filed.
To date, the Dallas Police Department has not responded to requests for comments about a potential investigation into the crimes listed above, but one source with city police and another with city government both said Dallas authorities are considering how to proceed.
As a coach with North Dallas High School, a recently graduated student claimed Brad Namdar touched her inappropriately. The same student stated Namdar once tried to pressure them into going into a school’s locker room with him on a Sunday evening. At the time, the student was seventeen.
After our initial posts about Namdar, two families approached us asking we not name them about similar situations. One was for a student who was sixteen at the time. The other was seventeen, but we could not verify this was the same person as the initial allegation.
All of this has occurred as Namdar claimed to be against human traficking and the sexual exploitation of children. We will also note that in the video above the escort Namdar sought out appears to be wearing a short school girl outfit contribnuting to the theory this is a fetish he enjoys.
Additionally, Namdar has also had issues with a previous law firm he employed. In 2016, he was accused of not paying $70,000 in legal fees. The case then went to court and after multiple appeals, Namdar’s former firm was awarded $1.3M.
Future Politics For Brad Namdar?
According to Current Revolt, Namdar responded in a phone conversation to them asking if staying out of politics was the price for keeping their story silent.
However, according to his Twitter profile he is still very active with party races and his “candidate.” He has also doubled down in social media in showing himself being supportive of his wife. It is unclear whether or not he has admitted to his behavior with her or not.
Brad Namdar Editor’s Note
On multiple occasions we have received emails from “person(s)” claiming to be independent saying Namdar was innocent and asking why Other Side Dallas was engaged in “wall to wall coverage” of these accusations.
The most recent page comment was last Monday, May 9, 2022. Prior to today we haven’t published anything about Mr. Namdar since February 2022.
It is unclear if Namdar allies were preemptively trying to avoid this disclosure, but there comments necessitated further investigation. Namdar did not respond to texts sent to him about the allegations during his run in TX32.
An explosive new website launched sometime this weekend and it airs all the dirty laundry about Jasmine Crockett we knew and thought we knew and then a lot more. This happens as voters go to the polls today for the start of early voting in the primary runoff.
Crockett was not a supporter of President Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris. Crockett also attacked Eddie Bernice Johnson prior to winning her endorsement and insinuated she had somehow received inappropriate benefits of office.
There are a number of topics, but chief among them seem to be her support for disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo, offshore fundraising, not voting against the Republican “Jim Crow” voting law passed in special session last summer, and abandoning legal clients while only working for “the dollar signs.”
Jasmine Crokett: Offshore Fundraising
Crockett has received millions in shadowy contributions from offshore accounts – some funneled through supporters of Donald Trump.
Per the website, Crockett welcomed the “investment” of more than $2M into her campaign and later said “that’s how campaigns go.”
Jasmine Crockett: No Show On Voter Suppression Bill
Crockett who made multiple national airwaves during state Democrats visit to Washington DC to deny the Texas legislature a quorum did not bother to show up to vote no against Republican voter suppression bills as we reported earlier this year.
Jasmine Crockett: No District 100 Office
Crockett also never opened a Disrict 100 office leaving constituents without local service on matters of importance including dropping the ball on legislation she was asked to carry to the floor for local businesses and nonprofits.
There are numerous other issues brought up by the website whose owner is unclear, but it is fair to say that Jasmine Crockett is not beloved in her own district.
While Jasmine Crockett nearly won the TX30 primary outright, her opponent, Jane Hope Hamilton has been quietly receiveing multiple endorsements from city council members like Chad West, members of the Texas legislature including Senator Royce West, Representative Rafael Anchia, and Representative Chris Turner, and local Congressman Marc Veasey.
Hamilton has also been noted to have an aggressive ground game knocking on doors and earning votes through retail campaigning that it appears Crockett has so far avoided.
Dallas County will run the party primary runoff elections. When these elections are complete, voters will still return to the polls once more in June for the Dallas County Community College District trustee election in District 1.
Primary Runoff Early Voting
Democratic runoff elections many are watching include TX30 where Jasmine Crockett is facing Jane Hope Hamilton and House District 114 where former Republican Alexandra Guio faces off against John Bryant.
Other races include TX24 where Derrik Gay faces off against three time candidate Jan McDowell for the right to face Beth Van Duyne in November. Additionally, state representative Michelle Beckley will face off against Mike Collier for Lieutenant Governor, Rochelle Merces Garza will face off against Leon Jaworski’s grandson, Joe Jaworski.
Several local races are also being watched including Michelle Ocker’s race for County Commissioner 2 and John Warren for County Clerk as well as two judicial races.
On the Republican side, the TX32 race and the statewide Attorney General race seem to have received most of the attention.
The Republican Attorney General race pits Ken Paxton against George P Bush for the GOP nomination and in TX32 where Antonio Swad will face off against Justin Webb.
The city redistricting commission is getting heated as commissioners attempt to finish their Dallas city redistricting plan and present it to city council.
In a Facebook post Tuesday morning prior to a 9:30AM Redistricting Commission Meeting, District 8 Commissioner seemed to be openly attacking the idea of Hispanics on City Council arguing his map (17) gave four opportunities for Blacks or Hispanics to be represented, but another map under consideration (41) provided no opportunity for Black representation.
Dallas City Redistricting Members Openly Attack Citizen Input
In the same post Bryant attacked Bill Betzen, a self professed data geek, over his amendment to Map 17.
It is unclear what history, Bryant and Betzen may have from the past, but some say the behavior attacking a citizen trying to contribute to the redistricting plan has a chilling effect on citizen participation -which is supposed to be a goal of the group.
Bryant is listed as President of a group, Politics United Marketing, and two sources have told Other Side Dallas that Bryant is angling for future political work for his firm.
A new wrinkle in the Texas 30 runoff election: Jasmine Crockett supporter Donald Trump. The wrinkle happens as the runoff election is now less than a month away.
Yesterday, Crockett received another $250,000 Super PAC donation from the Washington, DC based Web3 group per FEC records.
This group was formed in February 2022 and has offices at the same location as a PR firm that took in hundreds of thousands of dollars to rehabilitate the image of former Trump Centers for Medicare Services Director Seema Verma.
Published reports in Politico and The Washington Post detail how Trump and his defenders directed payments of more than $3M dollars away from programs for the elderly and poor towards image rehabilitation for his CMS administrator. Those same dollars are now flowing to the TX30 candidate Jasmine Crockett.
This despite the fact she accused Mayor Eric Johnson and former State Representative Terri Hodge of not passing any legislation either – lies that were easly proven untrue.
Crockett nearly won the TX30 Democratic primary outright. It is unclear if runoff voters will continue to vote for her after voting against Donald Trump four to one, but it is clear supporters of Donald Trump are now lining up quietly to support Crockett.
Additionally, some of the same financial supporters of the current State Representative for District 100 appear to have been providing financial assistance to QAnon leader and former Trump cabinet pick General Mike Flynn. In June 2021, Flynn called for a coup while here in Dallas at the For God and Country Patriot Roundup.
Crockett’s office would not return a call on this topic and she has yet to accept an invitation to a debate with her opponent Hamilton.
Andrew Sommerman sinks supporters in a number of emails released to Facebook by community activist Avi Adelman.
After the March 1 Democratic primary vote, Philip Kingston announced his endorsement of Andrew Sommerman.
Sommerman seeks the endorsement of individuals in public and then trashes them in private.
The move was a surprise to many, but for some activists, a bridge too far and it appears the benefactor of Kingston’s decision thinks it is bad too.
In an email to Avi Adelman, the Sommerman campaign called Kingston “offensive and a bad actor…” in the public sphere.
The campaign which appears to be seeking Adelman’s endorsement then goes on to send a message to its team about Adelman calling him a “loud person.” Unfortunately for the campaign, the private message made its way to Adelma who published it.
If Andrew Sommerman will attack his own supporters, do you think he cares about individual voters?
Sommerman, a local personal injury lawyer, said he chose to run for the County Commission 2 seat because “he doesn’t want political theater to drive public health policymaking.”
But he later won the Dallas Morning News primary endorsement on a platform of arguing for criminals to be released into the community to lower jail costs despite a long recent history of Dallas criminal judges lowering bail to allow dangerous defendants to be out on bond and Dallas police unable or unwilling to respond to local crime.
It is unclear based on Sommerman’s private conversations what he believes.
Adelman’s emails show Sommerman seeks the endorsement of individuals in public and then trashes them in private.
This endorsement controversy makes some Democrats nervous about the newly gerrymandered seat.
One local community person said, “I’ve talked to a dozen people like Avi – people who work the polls, precinct chairs, donors – and they all say the same thing. They will vote for JJ Koch in November if Andrew Sommerman beats Michelle Ocker in May.”
“Sommerman is the worst kind of insider. He sells out his supporters without thinking about it as long as it advances Andrew Sommerman,” she continued. “He is also playing a good old boy club with he and Kingston and Tom Ervin lining up against Michelle [Ocker] who has held elective office and served constituents.”
Another unaffiliated campaign volunteer noted this shows how bad Democratic Party politics is right now.
“If Andrew Sommerman will attack his own supporters, do you think he cares about individual voters?”
In the other major Dallas race, endorsements continue to come in for Jane Hope Hamilton who is hoping to beat Jasmine Crockett in their runoff.
