Sayonara to John Wiley Price hack Toni Pippins-Poole

Incompetent / grifter Dallas County elections administrator Toni Pippins-Poole is FINALLY retiring, nine years after being foisted on the county's voters for political reasons by Our Man Downtown, John Wiley Price.  It's also sad that the county's elections board never met to oversee her or do a performance review in her nine years. The link is from a wingnut website, part of the Mucus empire, but it's the only one I saw mentioning her retirement that also mentioned the lack of review. Here's more on her incompetence, magnified in this spring's primary.

Having lived in Dallas in the 2000s-oughts, I remember her predecessor, Bruce Sherbet, the acme of professionalism. I had moved away by the time JWP got him fired. But I still blogged about it. Per a Dallas Observer piece linked in that, current, and then newbie and JWP-puppet, County Judge Clay Jenkins was the one who actually swung the axe. I don't know if Jenkins' increasing independence from JWP led him to threaten a similar axe behind the scenes this time or not. Whether he did or not, he could still go further and offer a semi-apology while still walking the necessary political tightrope. Jenkins also convened the election commission that has not met since TPP's appointment to officially convene to whack Sherbet.

Kuff touts the idea of having an appointed elections administrator rather than an elected overseer, as is the case in Harris County. I told him, per my background, that this doesn't necessarily depoliticize the office.

I know Stan Starart was a joke down there before being defeated by Diane Trautman. And, he's running again. But, Toni Pippins-Poole was a joke, too. OTOH, I don't think the Harris County Comn Court has a blatant grifter on it, unlike JWP.

As for who will replace TPP? Jenkins, counting himself, has three Democrat votes on the Dallas County Commissioners Court who are not named JWP, so, it won't be a nutbar. It will still be someone who takes election issues seriously; Pct. 1 Commissioner Theresa Daniel has ties to the NAACP, LULAC and League of Women Voters. She also is a former staffer for former House Majority Leader Martin Frost.

As for JWP? The man's 70 and will have been in office 28 years as of the start of next year. If he doesn't plan on making this term his last, he seriously needs to be primaried. (Just for shits and grins, let's post Laura Miller's long-ago takedown of Our Man Downtown. As part of that, we have a former assistant of his using antisemitic stereotyping language, something JWP never, AFAIK know, reprimanded her for.)

John Wiley Price's 'boy' won't talk

Clay Jenkins, the hand-picked candidate of controversial Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price to be the Democratic nominee for Dallas County Judge, instead of incumbent JimFoster, who is definitely persona non grata to JWP, apparently doesn't like to talk a lot. So, the Dallas Observer profiled him, before his Democratic runoff against Larry Duncan, without his cooperation. They would have liked to hear from him about:

Where did he live before his current residence in Highland Park? Why didn't he vote in Dallas County until 2006? Why did he vote in Ellis County in 2007? None of which, obviously, were deemed worthy of a response from Jenkins or his campaign.

All good questions. I'm not claiming Larry Duncan is the bees' knees, but he's not a JWP hack. Or a Royce West hack. (Royce, put more daylight between yourself and JWP, eh?)

Anyway, Clay is JWP's boy. Has been ever since JWP tapped him just because "Foster Gump" AND folks like Hutchins mMayor Artis Johnson wouldn't dance when JWP snapped his fingers. Johnson wouldn't employ JWP-connected subcontractors to build a new bridge, and didn't like JWP's standing up of Dallas inland port progress.

And, since Hutchins Mayor Johnson is also African-American, this isn't a racial issue. Rather, it's JWP wanting to take care of his best buds.

Let's remember that, even before Foster opposed JWP on this, as the Dallas Observer first reported, JWP reportedly tried to "shake down" The Allen Group and CEO Richard Allen over the inland port and contractors and subcontractors.

For people who want more information on that, just click the "Price" tag (heh, heh) in the tags below. You'll learn more about the history of JWP with the Dallas Inland Port, etc.

‘Foster Gump’ or Price-West hack to run Dallas County?

I know my choice

The Dallas Morning News has done some early handicapping on the 2010 Dallas County Judge’s race.

Frankly, assuming there’s no Green candidate, I’d take Democratic incumbent Jim Foster over Clay Jenkins or anybody else on the D party line buried in the combined pockets of Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price and state Sen. Royce West.

The dynamic duo tried to shake down would-be south Dallas/Dallas County/south suburbs inland port developer Richard Allen two years ago, before Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson put a stop to it.

Then, Price attempted to get the Dallas County Commissioners’ Court to require Allen to have a full-blown development plan, apparently taking his cue there from Ross Perot Jr. and Dallas May Tom Leppert. Foster voted against that, which is when Price started calling him “Foster Gump.”

Especially if Elba Garcia knocked off Ken Mayfield to give Democrats a majority on the Dallas County Commissioners’ Court, Jenkins or anybody else in their pockets two years in advance of the election would be a hack job par excellence.

I’d consider voting for a Republican in the general election in that case, especially somebody I know like Cedar Hill City Councilman Wade Emmert.