A changing of the guard

Analysis: The surprising outcome of May’s city council election marks a generational and geographic shift

Story by Sam Gillespie | Portrait by Danny Fulgencio

It wasn’t the solemn ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington, D.C. It wasn’t the tourist event held daily at Buckingham Palace in London. They weren’t selling tickets on the web and there was no one there to watch, but sometime late on a Saturday night in May, when all the precincts had reported and the votes were tallied, there was a changing of the guard in East Dallas. Mark Clayton, not much more than half the age of our current councilman and from a different part of the neighborhood, won a clear and convincing victory over four opponents, including several who had longer East Dallas residencies, endorsements from previous city councilmen and community service résumés arguably stronger than his. This was a 32-point victory with Clayton receiving 57 percent of the vote and his nearest opponent earning 25 percent. It’s a remarkable generational and geographic shift for the community.

How did it happen?

Angela Hunt, eight years a councilwoman (2005-2013) from neighboring District 14 and a Clayton supporter, made a comment early in the campaign that now seems clairvoyant. “In recent years, we’ve had a fairly equitable representation of women and men on the city council, as well as racial diversity” Hunt said. And with some premonition she added, “What we’ve lacked are younger councilmembers. Families with small children, as well as younger urban residents, offer a critical — and often, missing — perspectives on important issues like parks and transportation planning.”

In District 9, Hunt’s generational prediction proved correct. Mary Poss, Gary Griffith and Sheffie Kadane, the three representatives of District 9 since 1995, were all Baby Boomers whose children were older or out of the nest during their time

Let’s get a little wonky. Using data from the Dallas City Secretary’s website, District 9 has eight precincts on the west side of the lake with a population total of 22,171, and 23 precincts on the east side of the lake with a population of 73,734. So why the historic dominance of the west side in East Dallas city council leadership?

That’s where the votes are, that’s why. In May’s election, citywide turnout was a mere 6.76 percent of registered voters. In contrast, seven of the eight precincts west of the lake had voter turnout ranging from 14 percent to 21 percent, with three of them over 20 percent. Alternatively, of the east side’s 23 precincts, 13 had turnout in the single digits, including the four precincts adjacent to Gus Thomasson-Ferguson and three of the four that touch Garland-Jupiter.