Perhaps Carol Reed was right about closing strong: With 79 of 534 precincts reporting, the Proposition 1 race is only getting tighter — separated by a mere 207 votes now. At the moment, the pro-hotel faction has taken the teensy-weensy lead with 22,481 votes, or 50.23 percent of the vote…
Contrary to what’s been reported elsewhere, the Citizens Against the Taxpayer-Owned Hotel party at Tucker on Ross Avenue is, in fact, open to the press and public. Matter of fact, not only is Merten on hand for the gathering, but so too are KXAS-Channel 5’s Ken Kalthoff and Trey Garrison…
Just minutes after the Mavs lost to the Nuggets on a last-minute three-pointer, a campaign staffer for the Vote No folks reported the early-vote tallies on a chalkboard in the middle of The Loft dining room. It was hard to discern any type of reaction from a crowd still stung…
Merten and Pulle are out; Schutze is about. They’ll offer their reports from hotel shindigs pro and con — and, just maybe, some council member throwdowns — later in the night, as Dallas County Elections begins kicking out returns from the day’s vote. But till then, the early-voting results are…
As he’s done throughout the convention center hotel campaign, Mayor Tom Leppert’s op-ed in The Dallas Morning News Thursday focused more on kicking Harlan Crow in the crotch than providing tangible reasons why voters should approve public ownership of a $500 million hotel. He wasted valuable words ripping Crow for…
After pestering would-be voters in the West End last week for their opinions on Proposition 1, Megan and Patrick headed over to Fair Park yesterday to see how folks were feeling about the city getting into the convention center hotel business. Patrick’s video’s here; Megan’s wrap-up follows. If nothing else,…
After several requests, the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau finally in March gave us a breakdown of the room nights that DCVB president and CEO Phillip Jones and other pro-hotel’ers claimed were contingent on building a convention center hotel. However, the names of the conventions were not disclosed because “some…
Longtime friend of the show Scott Henson sends word: We need to be on the lookout for news out of the state Senate Nominating Committee confab today, as Burleson vibrator-hater Shanda Perkins has her Board of Pardons and Paroles confirmation hearing scheduled for 1 p.m.-ish. Surely you remember Perkins –…
After the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released its report on the city’s levees, we were baffled to learn that construction on the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge would continue, especially since drilling a concrete pier for the bridge into the floodway resulted in the troubling discovery of sand and the…
As mentioned in this week’s cover story, one of the reasons former council member Ed Oakley says he lost to Tom Leppert in the ’07 mayoral runoff was his decision to run a negative campaign in the final weeks. Oakley’s negativity climaxed with taking a cheap shot at Leppert by…
To be clear, council member Jerry Allen didn’t tell Sam, “When the hotel fails, I’ll be off council, so I can’t be held accountable.” Rather, Sam had asked him: What happens if the city drops $500 million on the hotel and it doesn’t post the promised profit? To which District…
This week’s cover story in the paper version of Unfair Park outlines the events leading to the upcoming election May 9. Here’s a look at the milestones that led Mayor Tom to this point. …
George W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation Mark Langdale won’t tell Time how much the ex-president’s raised for his SMU library — or who’s given to the cause of reshaping his legacy. But the magazine this morning notes that sources close to Bush are reporting he’s done pocketed $100 million since…
In my inbox this morning, I received an e-mail from the Vote No! group, who are packaging Proposition 1 and 2 together. For those needing clarification, Proposition 1 will approve a charter amendment prohibiting the city from “owning, financing, constructing, or operating a hotel or other lodging facility,” and Proposition…
Best. House Energy and Commerce Committee Meeting. Ever. From this morning in D.C.: “The Bowl Championship Series: Money and Other Issues of Fairness for Publicly Financed Universities.” Smokey Joe Barton of Arlington wants to ditch the BCS and go to a college-football playoff system, and he’s got the legislation to…
So, this morning we heard Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway’s reasons for supporting the convention center hotel. Today, on her Web site, Angela Hunt offers several reasons why she’s against it. She also has some words for those who insist that Dallas will become a “ghost town” without the…
Last week, when District 13 city council candidate Ann Margolin started circulating to the media a copy of a $482,337.09 federal tax lien filed by the Internal Revenue Service against Brint Ryan, who’s also running for Mitchell Rasansky’s soon-to-be-vacated seat, I contacted the IRS for further explanation. At the time,…
We missed the pro-convention center hotel wingding in front of Dallas City Hall last night. Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway did not. Here’s his pitch for the hotel, and it apparently has something to do with … cell phones?…
Ron Steinhart, chairman of Enough is Enough, at the group’s press conference not only talked about the negative personal attacks aimed at Mayor Tom Leppert, but he also referred to “inaccurate and misleading statements” from the anti-hotel campaign. Yet when he spoke with the Observer in late March for today’s…
Vanity Fair contributing editor Nancy Jo Sales has a lengthy “Web exclusive” about the post-presidency of George W. Bush — specifically, how he’s looking to “reshape his legacy,” both alone and with the assist of former White House colleagues. From Bush’s March 17 speech in Calgary, Sales offers this highlight:The…
Just hours after releasing its first radio ad, featuring Roger Staubach, the Enough is Enough’ers unleashed their first TV spot. Dunno how effective it’ll be, though I do know of at least one 5-year-old who thinks it’s a riot.Enough is Enough Convention Center Hotel TV Ad from Dallas Observer on…
As we mentioned yesterday, tomorrow’s cover story in the paper version of Unfair Park features Mayor Tom Leppert. One of the more fascinating interviews we grabbed while researching the piece was with former city council member Donna Halstead, who since 1998 has been president of the Dallas Citizens Council. She…
