Vote Yes! group says no to forum on Rangers stadium election

Vote Yes!, the political action committee supporting a new stadium for the Texas Rangers, has declined an invitation from the League of Women Voters to participate in a forum with an opposition group.

Vote Yes! initiated talks with the League of Women Voters of Tarrant County to have Mayor Jeff Williams speak at one of its events, said Kate Lattimore, president of the League of Women Voters of Tarrant County, confirmed Wednesday.

She said the league could not host a one-sided presentation, but was open to having a forum that would include Save Our Stadium, the opposition PAC.

“We very much wanted to set up a forum for the issue,” Lattimore said. “Once we got the ‘no’ side committed to come, the ‘yes’ said they wouldn’t do that.”

Arlington voters will decide Nov. 8 whether the city can extend its half-cent sales tax, 2 percent hotel occupancy tax and 5 percent car-rental tax to spend up to $500 million to help the Rangers build a new, $1 billion climate-controlled ballpark.

Allan Saxe, an associate political science professor at UT Arlington, said he was not surprised that the party that feels it’s “way out ahead” in an election would turn down a forum invitation.

“They have nothing to gain for it,” said Saxe, and plenty to lose. But he doesn’t see much benefit in political debates and forums.

“I’m not against those kinds of things,” he said, “but people pretty much much have their minds made up.”

Brian Mayes, campaign manager for Vote Yes!, said Arlington residents have had plenty of opportunities to voice their opinions and ask questions about the election. He mainly counts as forums the past half dozen City Council meetings that permitted comments and sometimes got a little rowdy.

Something he blames on the opponents.

“They’re not willing to be civil,” Mayes said. A forum “doesn’t do any service to the citizens if the other side is unwilling to be honest.”

Faith Bussey, president of Citizens for a Better Arlington, which is behind Save Our Stadium, said Vote Yes! can’t back up its claims.

“They know that if they actually had to see the light of day and their facts ever got challenged, they wouldn’t be able to hold water,” Bussey said.

Also Wednesday, Save Out Stadium released a poll that they say shows their side ahead 46.5 percent to 38.9 percent among likely voters. The Save Our Stadium’s poll says the margin of error is 3.7 percent.

Bussey said the poll was conducted by DHC Data, which she described as a private polling firm. The Star-Telegram could not find a website for the polling firm.

In an email Bussey said, “589 respondents were chosen randomly from a Tarrant County elections file of historical general election voters residing in Arlington. Respondents were interviewed through an automated telephone survey” conducted Sept. 25.

Vote Yes! called the poll results “unreliable” and raised questions about the pollster and polling methods.

Mayes said Vote Yes! has done its own survey that will be released in the next few days. He said it will show the stadium backers with “a comfortable double-digit lead.”

This story was originally published September 28, 2016 at 7:10 PM with the headline "Vote Yes! group says no to forum on Rangers stadium election."