Partisan politics take a back seat to a move for change
Wednesday, Nov 7, 2007
Posted on Wed, Nov. 07, 2007

By BUD KENNEDY
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Fort Worth's long-dormant Democrats emerged from their slumber Tuesday night, filling election parties for three candidates and taking aim at Republican Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick.

Democratic House front-runner Dan Barrett rented the backroom of a South University Drive hamburger restaurant for his party. But all the booths filled up fast, and Barrett wound up eating his burger with the regular college crowd.

The celebration for Fort Worth City Council front-runner Joel Burns spilled out of the rear dining room at a West Magnolia Avenue Tex-Mex restaurant. At another party for school Trustee Juan Rangel, cars and trucks were parked around the block on West Felix Street, bringing voters to celebrate as their candidate edged out a well-funded Republican for a runoff spot against Burns.

"We're finding a lot of independent voters who are tired of the way things are being run everywhere," said Barrett, a Fort Worth lawyer leading but still running an uphill race in the predominantly Republican House District 97 election.

"Most of the people I've talked to aren't voting Republican or Democratic," he said. "They're voting on issues that aren't partisan. They just want change."

Apparently, so do some partisan Republicans.

They rejected a veteran Republican who had served a decade in the House, and a young Republican with the backing of former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm.

Instead, their runoff candidate in the District 97 race will be Mark Shelton, a political rookie with no campaign experience but years of real-life experience as a pediatric-infectious-disease specialist at a children's hospital.

Shelton beat better-funded opponents Bob Leonard and Craig Goldman simply by sending out a mailer calling them -- well, politicians.

A mailer from a so-called conservative voters group almost made it sound bad that Leonard served in the House. Goldman was dismissed as a former campaigner for U.S. Sen. John McCain and thus somehow was connected to amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Speaking by phone from his home, Shelton said his support came from his family, from "medicine" -- Texas doctors -- and "from our grassroots campaign to stop illegal immigration and cap real estate tax rates."

Actually, those became Shelton's top issues about midway through the campaign when he otherwise was having trouble getting traction in the seven-candidate field. He came off as the nice-guy doctor then.

But he's already playing Austin politics: He said that he's supporting Craddick.

That puts Craddick squarely in the middle of a runoff between Shelton and Barrett. Other issues will include Shelton's support for school vouchers and for hard-line state laws to discourage illegal-immigrant workers.

If the House runoff is the same day as the Dec. 11 City Council runoff -- that decision is up to Gov. Rick Perry -- then Barrett will win votes in nine overwhelmingly Democratic precincts where voters will choose between Democrats in the council runoff.

That's a nonpartisan race, but rival Democratic political organizations backed both Burns and Rangel. Together, they elbowed out statewide Republican political campaign consultant Chris Turner.

"This race is like nothing I've ever seen before," said Rangel, a seven-year veteran of rough-and-tumble school elections. In the last week, he was tailed by somebody with a video camera and some of his best voters were given bilingual handouts telling them the election was Saturday.

"We've had a lot of Democrats who worked hard and a lot of Fort Worth firefighters who worked very hard," Rangel said. He said he will argue that "experience" should favor him over Burns.

Burns, speechless at a surprisingly large early lead and also at a huge crowd of followers, declined to comment early in the evening.

They'll all have plenty to say in the next five weeks.