{"id":20506,"date":"2017-03-22T01:41:36","date_gmt":"2017-03-22T01:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=20506"},"modified":"2017-03-22T01:43:26","modified_gmt":"2017-03-22T01:43:26","slug":"amarillo-matters-hits-the-streets-for-its-city-council-slate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=20506","title":{"rendered":"Amarillo Matters hits the streets for its City Council slate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The doorbell rang this evening.<\/p>\n

I went to the door and greeted a young woman who was handing out single-page campaign sheets.<\/p>\n

It came from Amarillo Matters, a political action group formed to promote a pro-growth agenda for Amarillo. I’ve written about this group a couple of time already. What’s interesting is the slate of City Council candidates that Amarillo Matters has endorsed and is recommending for election on May 6.<\/p>\n

It’s an interesting and impressive slate of candidates.<\/p>\n

Two things stand out about this slate: First: Amarillo Matters is recommending a female-majority City Council. Second: The group is recommending the election of an entirely new slate of council members to take office when all the ballots are counted.<\/p>\n

You want “change,” Amarillo voters? Consider this slate of candidates. Not a single one of them has served on the City Council or on its earlier incarnation, the City Commission.<\/p>\n

Amarillo Matters is recommending Ginger Nelson<\/strong> for mayor, who the group calls a “renowned lawyer and successful small business owner.” Interestingly, it doesn’t mention Nelson’s stint on the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation. That’s fine; I’ll mention it here.<\/p>\n

It is recommending Elaine Hays<\/strong> for Place 1 instead of incumbent Elisha Demerson. It cites Hays’ work as a financial planner and calls her “one of the community’s best authorities on fiscal responsibility and smart budgeting.<\/p>\n

Freda Powell<\/strong> gets the nod for Place 2 from Amarillo Matters, which cites her “balanced approach to problem solving.”<\/p>\n

The PAC endorses Eddy Sauer<\/strong> for Place 3, recommending him as a “voice for positivity and real solutions to the challenges we face.”<\/p>\n

Howard Smith<\/strong> gets Amarillo Matters’ endorsement for Place 4 over incumbent Mark Nair. The group cites Smith’s “kind, charitable spirit” and his desire for “helping countless Amarillo families find their home.”<\/p>\n

Three incumbents are not running for new terms: Mayor Paul Harpole, Place 2 Councilwoman Lisa Blake and Place 3 Councilman Randy Burkett.<\/p>\n

In my 22 years as an Amarillo resident, this is the first time anyone has ever rang my doorbell and handed me a piece of local campaign stationery stating an organization’s preferences for candidates seeking\u00a0local government office.<\/p>\n

You want change yet again at City Hall? Consider that Amarillo Matters wants to wipe the slate clean; it wants voters to fill all five council seats with newbies. Imagine that, will you?<\/p>\n

I also am intrigued by the idea of a slate of candidates comprising mostly women. Big deal, you might say. What’s so special about that? Only this: Amarillo for many years has been run by\u00a0various network of good ol’ boys. <\/em>I am not demeaning the gender of the city’s political leadership, per se. I merely am noting that an influential political action group has decided to buck what I perceive to be the norm in Amarillo, Texas.<\/p>\n

Demerson, Nair and Burkett joined the council in 2015. They all pledged “change” would come to city government. Of the three new guys, Burkett emerged as the loudest, most obnoxious agent of change. Demerson and Burkett knocked off incumbents who were seeking re-election; Nair won a seat that was vacated by an incumbent who was appointed to fill a seat upon the death of an incumbent, but who chose not to seek election.<\/p>\n

Demerson and Nair have been more circumspect than their new-guy colleague, but their presence on the City Council seemingly hasn’t earned them recommendations from Amarillo Matters for new two-year terms.<\/p>\n

Hey, I’m just one voter. My wife is just one more voter. I am impressed that Amarillo Matters’ door-to-door messenger this evening thought enough of us to talk\u00a0at some length about this important election.<\/p>\n

Oh, and make no mistake. This election, um, matters.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

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The doorbell rang this evening. I went to the door and greeted a young woman who was handing out single-page campaign sheets. It came from Amarillo Matters, a political action group formed to promote a pro-growth agenda for Amarillo. I’ve written about this group a couple of time already. What’s interesting is the slate of … Continue reading Amarillo Matters hits the streets for its City Council slate<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[288,290,6892],"class_list":["post-20506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-amarillo-city-council","tag-amarillo-city-hall","tag-amarillo-matters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20506"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20510,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20506\/revisions\/20510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}