There's an odd mixture of pairings among this season's Tarrant County political races: two friends running for Precinct 3 commissioner, an employee taking on the sheriff and a tax-averse Libertarian running for tax collector.
Republican County Commissioner Gary Fickes, running for his third term, is facing off against friend Norm Lyons, a former Texas Rangers baseball executive and first-time Democratic candidate. Early voting in the Nov. 6 election in Texas begins today.There's another twist to this race: A Grapevine Tea Party group has endorsed the Democrat for the Northeast Tarrant County precinct.The Boiling Point TEA Party PAC is siding with Lyons because it doesn't like that the Commissioners Court recently increased commissioners' salaries along with all other county employees' by 3 percent. The PAC also doesn't like that the court allocated $50 million in 2011 for new subcourthouse buildings while cutting $424,000 from the Human Services Department.Lyons, who retired in 2009 as vice president of community development for the Rangers, said he was stunned when the group contacted him."I told them they must have the wrong number. They said they like that I'm a fiscal conservative and that I'm very involved in the community," he said.Fickes, first elected in 2006, said he will happily stand on his record as a fiscal conservative against a "liberal Democrat.""I think I have done a very good job of taking care of money and being a conservative leader in Tarrant County," he said. "I have spent the last 27 years working to make Northeast Tarrant the best place to live, work and raise your kids."But where he has concentrated his effort is on untangling traffic."We have some of the worst transportation problems in Texas and the country. I've been working on that issue since I was mayor of Southlake."We've made a major impact. Right now, there are more projects going on in Northeast Tarrant than probably anywhere in the United States. We're not there yet and we still have problems, but we are making a lot of headway," he said.Fickes has also worked hard to empower senior citizens and to foster economic development."In Northeast Tarrant we've done well during the recession. We haven't raised taxes since I was elected," he said.Lyons said he is running to give voters an alternative."Gary and I are friends but I think people always need a choice."Tarrant County sheriffThe race to unseat Republican Sheriff Dee Anderson is decidedly less friendly.Sheriff's Sgt. Roberto C. Gracia, a Democrat, was fired from the department but was reinstated with a demotion from lieutenant by the Civil Service Commission in August 2010."He was caught on videotape abusing a prisoner. I think that lesser punishment was a mistake," Anderson said. "He's a classic disgruntled employee. I'll stand on my record against anybody and certainly a disgruntled employee."Gracia, a nine-year veteran of the department, begs to differ."If you say I'm disgruntled, I would say 90 percent of the department is disgruntled," he said.Gracia said he was initially disciplined with a suspension for five days without pay."I was terminated because in my rebuttal I complained that most of the people being terminated or wrongfully disciplined were minorities. That's when I was fired," he said. "The Civil Service Commission gave me my job back; I think that tells you something."Gracia said that he is not alone, that other minorities within the department have been wrongfully disciplined."Morale is a real problem," he said. "The people who are pushing me to run are the people in the department."Anderson says he has done what he promised to do when first elected in 2000."We have turned the department around. We have good fiscal controls and strong relationships with the county commission, municipalities and police departments. We are well-respected again," he said.Tax assessor-collectorRepublican Tax Assessor-Collector Ron Wright, who was appointed by county commissioners 18 months ago when Betsy Price left to become mayor of Fort Worth, says his background in business and government makes him uniquely qualified to retain the job.He has worked as chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Joe Barton and served eight years on the Arlington City Council."Everything I've done in my life has prepared me for this job -- in business, on the City Council and at the federal level. I've been managing people since I was 25," Wright said.He refutes the key planks of Libertarian Ken Stafford II's challenge.Stafford, a Bedford bookkeeper and tax preparer, says that if elected he will refuse to deny motor vehicle registrations for people who have unpaid red-light camera tickets.But Wright said his office does not bar customers from renewing registrations if they have outstanding tickets."We don't enforce scofflaw registration denials," he said. "A lot of counties do it but we don't."Stafford also takes issue with how tax overpayments are handled."They send notices and if you don't get the money it goes back into the general fund. I would apply it to the next year's taxes," he said.Wright says state law requires the money to be returned to the taxing entity."We make a good faith effort to locate people. Some counties send out one notice; we send out three," he said.Steve Campbell,817-390-7981Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
