Former Councilwoman Wins Dallas Mayoral Runoff

A runoff race overshadowed by accusations of ballot tampering and bribery came to a decisive end Saturday as Dallas voters elected former City Councilwoman Laura Miller mayor of the nation’s ninth largest city.

With all precincts reporting, Miller had 54.9% of the vote, trouncing insurance executive Tom Dunning in a contentious race to succeed former Mayor Ron Kirk, who resigned in November to run for the U.S. Senate.

Running on a campaign to take care of the “little things that make a big difference in people’s lives,” Miller pledged to focus on basic city services, such as street repairs, public schools and crime control.

“I truly think the citizens want City Hall to focus on them and their neighborhoods and their families,” Miller, 43, said at her victory party.

In a five-candidate mayoral election Jan. 19, Miller won 49% of the vote, just shy of the 50% plus one vote needed to win the office outright. Dunning came in second, getting 38% of the vote and the right to meet Miller in Saturday’s runoff.

Shortly after the general election, both candidates faced allegations that they tried to buy the endorsement of a defeated contender, state Rep. Domingo Garcia. The allegations stemmed from a radio interview in which a Garcia supporter said that white business leaders would have to pay off Garcia’s campaign debt before Dunning would win Garcia’s endorsement.

Though Garcia later endorsed Dunning, both men denied cutting a deal. Garcia said that he used his own money to pay campaign expenses, and that it was Miller and her husband, a state legislator, who proposed the money-for-endorsement exchange.

“I would never, ever offer anything to Domingo Garcia,” Miller said. “I wouldn’t even buy him lunch.”

The district attorney of neighboring Fort Worth is investigating the allegations at the request of the Dallas district attorney’s office, which stepped aside to avoid any conflict of interest.

Another flap erupted when two campaign workers for Dunning were accused of running a door-to-door campaign to collect mail-in voting ballots from senior citizens. Though the practice is legal, Dunning and Miller had earlier come out against it, citing concerns about possible abuse when eager campaign workers help voters fill out ballots. On Wednesday, Dunning fired the campaign worker who ran the ballot collection drive.

Miller is a former newspaper columnist who once wrote that Dallas City Council members were “brain dead.” After her election to the council in 1998, Miller continued to be an outspoken critic. She was a reliable source of aggravation to Kirk, whose legacy of big projects--such as a $420-million sports arena and the failed pursuit of the 2012 Summer Olympics--were anathema to her pledge to provide basic city services.

If Miller ran as a politically savvy crusader, Dunning, 59, was the establishment candidate who campaigned on his business experience and connections that could bring jobs to Dallas. A successful insurance executive and former chairman of the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport board, Dunning raised $2 million in campaign contributions to Miller’s $1.4 million.

Miller will serve as mayor for the remainder of Kirk’s term, which ends in May 2003. She can then run for a full four-year term.