ghughes

A pretty big deal in Fort Worth this morning. The Star Telegram endorses Betsy Price for Mayor.

http://www.star-tele...orth-mayor.html

The S-T always endorses incumbents. And if there's not an incumbent the endorsement will go to the one most like an incumbent. Betsy has absolutely zero city experience and her biggest accomplishment is efficiently running a small office with a budget 1/100 the size of Fort Worth's. Based on experience she would not be in the running for an assistant city manager job. However the endorsement is no surprise.

They pointed out that Lane's sponsorship by city employee almost-unions (2/3 of his funding) would present a conflict of interest. Duh. Even if he's not bought (and he's not; Jim's a good guy) there would always be a cloud.

And apparently the Ed Board could find no fault with Hirt or Barrett so just ignored them. I guess that's a backhanded compliment to them both.

There are five candidates running for Mayor. Let's look at their records... a strong indicator of what we might expect of them as Mayor.

We have a candidate who, when the current mayor and council didn't like a ruling of the ethics commission and fired them, was appointed by them and now sits on that commission.

We have three candidates with no experience of any kind in Fort Worth City government.

We have two candidates with a record of strong support for the Trinity River Vision.

We have one candidate who stands out with positives:

• She has served on City Council and on the Executive Committee of the Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T) and was President of the League of Neighborhood Associations
• While serving on City Council she fought the Southwest Parkway
• She was co-lead of a campaign for a moratorium on gas well permits pending environmental impact studies

That candidate is Cathy Hirt. The record is pretty clear: she has championed quality of life and has fought urban sprawl. I fully expect those values to continue.

So she is against growth/development, has tea party support and has clyde picht support---exactly what Fort Worth does not need.

Interesting interpretation; I suppose anything can be phrased in a negative way. Or maybe it's important to add a bit more. She has support from Lon Burnam and Jason Smith (not tea partiers last time I checked). Cathy has support from people of many ideologies who share an interest in open, clean, inclusive, smart government. It's the way she has worked and will continue to work.

She opposed unregulated industrial development in residential areas and opposed a sprawl-inducing highway, but if that's the kind of growth and development you're looking for she might not be the one for you.

There are five candidates running for Mayor. Let's look at their records... a strong indicator of what we might expect of them as Mayor.

We have a candidate who, when the current mayor and council didn't like a ruling of the ethics commission and fired them, was appointed by them and now sits on that commission.

We have three candidates with no experience of any kind in Fort Worth City government.

We have two candidates with a record of strong support for the Trinity River Vision.

We have one candidate who stands out with positives:

• She has served on City Council and on the Executive Committee of the Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T) and was President of the League of Neighborhood Associations
• While serving on City Council she fought the Southwest Parkway
• She was co-lead of a campaign for a moratorium on gas well permits pending environmental impact studies

That candidate is Cathy Hirt. The record is pretty clear: she has championed quality of life and has fought urban sprawl. I fully expect those values to continue.