The campaign became heated in some instances with a last minute attack mailer against opponent Candace Quarles. The mailer did not state who paid for or authorized the attack – a possible violation of state election law.
Kristy Noble Background
Ms. Noble’s background includes three decades as a small business owner in the Information Technology sector.
She was also a co-founder and leader of the Funky East Dallas Democrats, which grew from 35 to 4,500 people in just four years.
Noble won her race after four rounds of voting between the five candidates.
Michael Flynn Calls For a Myanmar style coup in Dallas at the Omni Hotel this weekend in the latest provocation by far right QAnon supporters.
The Omni Dallas Hotel is hosting guests for the four-day QAnon inspired conference called For God and Country Patriot Roundup. The event featured prominent QAnon supportes including former national security advisor Michael Flynn.
The conference began on Friday with a VIP meet-and-greet reception and lasted through yesterday, Memorial Day.
Flynn responded to a crowd question about why a Myanmar style insurrection could not happen here and he respodned he thought it should.
It is unclear what the cost is to taxpayers for police overtime to provide a space to organizers who openly support insurrection against the United States government.
Dallas County overwhelmingly voted for Joe Biden in November 2020 with 598,576 votes to Donald Trump’s 307,076 votes. This was approximately 65% to 33% with third party candidates taking in the remainder.
Coup In Dallas – Not The First Issue At Omni Hotel
The Omni Dallas has had numerous issues in recent history.
Last year the Omni Hotel refused to put the Black Lives Matter slogan on its hotel wall. The Omni is one of the hotels supported by Visit Dallas which has had numerous audit issues over the years costing taxpayers millions of dollars.
This conference also comes on the heels of Barry Wernick’s campaign for Dallas City Council, District 11, being accused of Trumpian campaign tactics. Wernick’s team admitted in a secret recording to doctoring a Facebook post of his opponent for the Dallas City Council seat earlier in the campaign season.
The wacky Barry Wernick campaign continues emulating Donald Trump and his dirty tricks in a recently released video where his campaign team admits doctoring a Facebook photo to make runoff opponent Jaynie Schultz more liberal.
The video below makes clear the campaign knew it was doctoring a Facebook photo because they could not run on public safety effectively against Jaynie Schultz.
Schultz who has campaigned for increased accountability of Dallas Police also has said she supports increased interaction between Dallas Police, Richardson Police, and other first responders. She also tackles the growing issue of panhandling on the major thoroughfares through D11. Her website says she wants to “build trust and transparent communication to fight crime.”
Wernick Endorsements
Wernick was rumored to be an Eric Johnson/Keep Dallas Safe supported candidate, but one source says KDS is exasperated by the neophytes running the campaign and its general direction.
One person outside Keep Dallas Safe stated “the GQP has taken over Barry’s campaign with Brad Namdar preparing his Congressional run against Colin Allred and GOP State Chairman Allen West offering a low key endorsement to have a single Dallas City Council member viewed as “conservative.”
The source close to campaign discussions said, “Namdar thinks he is kingmaker despite him increasing the likelihood of Barry losing.”
He continued,” Their strategy is bewildering. In 2020, Biden won the district by almost twenty points, but here is Barry rushing to line up with the alt right instead of focusing on getting things done for the district.”
Wednesday Diane Ragsdale, a former Dallas City Council member, announced her endorsement of Adam Bazaldua in the District 7 runoff. The question is why is this necessary and is the endorsement of an insider who profited off her career on Dallas City Council a net positive.
Ragsdale’s endorsement mentions Bazaldua shutting down drug and gambling houses, but Bazaldua is neither a police officer, nor friendly with the Dallas Police Department after leading the Defund DPD effort in summer 2020. At one point it was possible that $77M might be pulled from the Dallas Police Department budget.
Diane Ragsdale: Personal Economic Development?
Ragsdale is also known as one of the architects of the South Dallas-Fair Park Opportunity Fund which has had numerous trust issues since its inception decades ago. As a member of city council she helped create the fund itself, but more recently her Innercity Community Development Corporation was the only entity to receive loan dollars from the economic opportunity fund.
In the meantime, crime in D7 continues to be a problem and Baz is now caught between seeking the Dallas Police Association endorsment and openly working to cut their overtime.
Candice Quarles is campaigning for Dallas County Democratic Chair just a year past allegations surfaced she took a Disney World vacation – mostly on the taxpayers dime.
Dallas Business Journals recently honored Quarles as a Leader in Diversity, skipping over her ties to a forensic audit showing her family profited over $140,000 from her family’s connection to Desoto city leadership. Her husband, Jeremiah, served as economic development chief previously.
During that time, Quarles had thousands of dollars in local memberships and sponsorships paid for by a city credit card. These include the Urban League of Greater Dallas Young Professionals, a group Candice Quarles led.
Desoto Independent School District has also had recent issues with credit card spending by leadership leading to takeover talk early last school year.
One Dallas Democratic Party Precinct Chair exasperated said, “this is more of the same.”
The South Dallas representative continued, “While the party should be winning races across the board, we give too many away with pie in the sky candidates or we elect grifters.”
United States Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson and State Senator Royce West endorsements came down yesterday in the City Council race for D7 and they didn’t go as expected. Rev. Donald Parish Jr. – the Sports Preacher – received their support for his D7 campaign leaving incumbent Adam Bazaldua wondering what happened.
In addition, Mel Renfro and his wife Liz, have agreed to be co-chairs of Parish’s campaign for City Council.
Royce West Endorsements For Parish Jr.
Parish Jr. is also known as the sports preacher is a regular contributor to Dallas ISD programming for African American youth across the city, but particularly in South Dallas and has worked alongside other notable Dallas Cowboys including Greg Ellis.
It is suspected Bazaldua will also lose the support of local police unions after being out front on defunding police programs this summer and standing by Chief Reneé Hall during the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge debacle.
Bazaldua has often been an aggressive voice at city council meetings speaking over colleagues and in open warfare with Mayor Johnson over a host of issues.
It was attacked by County Judge Clay Jenkins as potentially illegal and now Texas has agreed.
In a strongly worded email to Commissioners, Texas health officials said, “While we ask hub providers to ensure the vaccine reaches the hardest-hit areas and populations, solely vaccinating people who live in those areas is not in line with the agreement to be a hub provider,” wrote Imelda Garcia, an associate commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services.
She continues, “If Dallas County is unable to meet these expectations, we will be forced to reduce the weekly vaccine allocation … and no longer consider it a hub provider.”
In addition to the state action at least two attorneys were preparing motions to stop the new vaccine rollout.
COVID19 Politics At 1500 Marilla
Meanwhile, Mayor Eric Johnson sent a terse memo to City Manager TC Broadnax regarding city vaccination rollout and individual council members seeking vaccine registration hubs.
The Mayor’s memo was immediately attacked as another COVID19 politics power grab by Adam Bazaldua in both personal posts and posts to the Other Side DallasFacebook group.
The two City Council colleagues have been described by another City Council member as “the two boys in the sandbox who can’t get along because neither gets enough attention” from their mother.
“They both just complain about the other and neither does his homework,” the source said.
Can the City of Dallas expect more Economic Development bait and switch from the department led by Dr. Eric Anthony Johnson? It appears so when it comes to offering grants and then making the checks impossible to obtain.
In November, the city launched the BUILD grants program offering $3000 microgrants to small businesses and nonprofits hit hard by COVID19. The notice said checks would be out by December 28, 2020. Until we inquired last week through a Public Information Request no one had received notice.
One education based nonprofit noted they received notification Friday and were then given one businesses day to agree to additional terms and conditions not originally outlined in the program. Their reaction to this bait and switch was outrage.
In an email to Carolyn King Arnold the group noted they are already doing the city and county’s job by providing for homeless students who are not receiving services through City of Dallas.
Bait and Switch – Again
The bait and switch grant issue is particularly hard because the City of Dallas provided $3M to a South Dallas grocer with almost no strings attached. It reeked of the economic devlopment problems of the old South Dallas/Fair Park Trust Fund.
The issue is particularly relevant as six different entities contacted Other Side Dallas to complain about process and response.
One person noted this is another example of the City of Dallas giving away dollars to politically connected friends of city council members. In October, city staff tried to sneak through a proposal to give the Lorenzo Hotel nearly $2M. It was only stopped when Council Member Cara Mendolsohn (D12) asked questions.
To date there has been no response to emails from several city council members including Tennell Atkins who spearheaded the $3M to the now closed Save U More grocer, and has been a major recipient of campaign cash from Save U More’s representatives.
Ditty Mayor Eric Johnson who also received sizeable contributions on the repeated failings of Economic Development.
Ditto Casey Thomas (D3) who also has been silent on the matter.
Ditto Adam Bazaldua (D7) who has ignored several requests to discuss this issue and the South Dallas/Fair Park Opportunity Fund Board from current and former board members.
The issue has not escaped notice though.
Calvin Johnson, a candidate for the D7 city council seat in May said,”When it comes to city programs that help small business we have to be better organized on announcing all the requirements upfront.”
“We must set achievable timetables and follow through effectively on the back end when the assistance is approved and granted,” he continued.
It is unclear why his opponent Bazaldua has not taken this opportunity given his progressive public profile for slashing the police budget in favor of social programs.
Ditto North Dallas. Council Member Lee Kleinman (D11) who has been arguing against the Dallas Police Department’s mounted unit for years – which costs the city roughly $125000 annually – had no comment about either the Save U More issue or bait and switch grant programs. Kleinman is term limited and
Garcia beat out nearly forty other candidates, including current Dallas commanders. He will be tasked with leading a department that has seen a visible rise in violent crime and a lack of trust from members of the black community.
Tramonica Brown is the founder of Not My Son, a nonprofit group aimed at addressing racial injustice.
She said she wants open communication and says, “I want somebody that’s not afraid to have a dialogue with the community. We’ve lost trust.” Brown said.
“My hope is that this chief is going to come in and really do some things that I know he probably said in those interviews,” she continued. Brown is a candidate for Dallas City Council D7 against incumbent Adam Bazaldua.
Bazaldua meanwhile has had defunding DPD as his chief campaign issue since late May. He was part of the group that promised sweeping reform and a plan to defund DPD, but never attempted to get accountability from Chief Hall for her lack of leadership during the June George Floyd protests or specifically for the use of tear gas during the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge incident where Hall stated no tear gas was used.
In September, Bazaldua and others only defund action was to re-allocate $7M from overtime into other projects like bike lanes and solar panels.
Additionally, Bazaldua’s appointee to the Community Police Oversight Board posted in a social media post, “I’m confident he will serve and protect the residents of Dallas, while remaining open to reasonable and responsible police reforms that benefit the residents of Dallas and our police officers. I am supportive of those balanced goals. Doing > Talking.” He did not reference who was doing versus who was just talking, but this could be a hint of where things will go if public safety is the chief campaign issue across the city and not just D7.
Chief Campaign For New Police Chief: BLM and Race Relations
National headlines regularly highlight the strained relationships between big-city police forces and persons of color, but the San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP branch has recognized Chief Eddie Garcia with its annual Cesar Chavez Award for his visibility and accessibility in the city’s neighborhoods.
Jesuorobo Enobakhare is chairman of the Dallas Police Oversight Board. Some critics suggest Enobakhare worked too closely with Chief Hall – interfering in his ability to provide proper oversight. Similar internal allegations came from officers within the department about Chief Hall and Dominique Alexander. It is unclear where Chief Garcia will draw the line.
Enobakhare said, “We can’t just think that a new police chief is going to come in and magically wave a wand and fix things that are wrong in the city,” he said. “It’s going to take leadership from the city council. It’s going to take the leadership of a lot of other entities in order to work together to solve some of these problems.”
Meanwhile D Magazine played grammar police to Chief Garcia’s statement noting he was “humbled by the thought of wearing the DPD uniform.” They described his statement as false modesty and suggested different emotions he should have used, but had no suggestions on lowering the crime rate.
Chief Campaign Issue for Mayor Johnson?
Mayor Eric Johnson’s office issued the statement below. While public safety was not a chief campaign issue prior to his election, he has re-focused attention after winning office.
“I spoke this afternoon with our new police chief, Eddie Garcia, and congratulated him on his selection by the city manager. I hope the people of Dallas will join me in giving him and his family a warm welcome. He will join us after spending four years as the police chief in the 10th-largest city in the country, and he was highly regarded by my counterpart in San Jose, Mayor Sam Liccardo.
“We should celebrate the fact that Chief Garcia will become our first Hispanic police chief. This truly is an historic moment for Dallas.
“But we both understand that what truly matters now is the work ahead of us: making our communities safer and stronger. I expect that he will immediately begin developing plans to fight the unacceptable violent crime increases we have seen in Dallas. We will need our communities’ help in those efforts. Too many lives have been taken in our city. Too many families have been devastated by violence. And too many people in our neighborhoods feel unsafe.
“Law enforcement alone cannot solve the challenges we face, but the hardworking men and women of the Dallas Police Department are integral to combating violence, which disproportionately affects people of color in our city. As policymakers, we must give Chief Garcia the tools that his officers need to keep people safe and continue to push for solutions — such as the programs recommended by the Mayor’s Task Force on Safe Communities — that can prevent crime without placing additional burdens on the police department. The people of Dallas deserve a city government that puts public safety first.
“I want to thank all the candidates who embraced the challenge of working for the City of Dallas. I look forward to seeing Chief Garcia’s new strategies in action in the months ahead. Working together, we will strive to make Dallas the safest major city in the United States.”
Minutes into Monday night’s CEC Meeting, Dallas Democrats Audit showed major problems and no mention of the recent DWI arrest of Judge Audrey Moorehead.
A recent audit showed a quarter million dollars had not been accounted for when transferred to the Coordinated Campaign committee. Those funds were unaccounted for block walkers, literature, and other campaign expenses.
One Precinct Chair who provided us with information about the audit report noted the block walkers expense was particularly interesting since the committee had gotten away from block walking due to COVID19.
Additionally, Philip Courtney Hogan who oversaw the audit process noted a major risk for embezzelment which he desribed as “room for people to steal” that the Dallas Democrats allowed the Director of Finance to both write checks and reconcile monthly bank statements.
Reportedly, additional problems were listed including no Director and Officer insurance, problems with payroll taxes not matching – i.e. W-2 and 941 payment mismatches, and IRS 1099 Forms not being submitted to the IRS for paid block walking employees.
Dallas Democrats Audit Report
Other Side Dallas is working to get a copy of the audit report. If we are able to get a copy of these issues we will publish immediately.
Joanna Cattanach To Lead Development
Another interesting development is the appointment of Joanna Cattanach to be the Dallas County Democratic Party’s Development Director. In October, Cattanach returned a contribution to the staffer of a primary opponent in her own race she lost against Morgan Meyer.
