Arlington groups expect high turnout, low predictability in unusual city races
In a pre-pandemic world, new Arlington City Council members would already have a few months of experience at their post. But for the first time in recent history, residents will decide who fills City Council seats as they vote for president.
Voters will select replacements for longtime council members Sheri Capehart of District 2 and Robert Shepard, a District 6 at-large representative. Both have served on the council for over a decade and are unable to run under the term limits residents approved in 2018. District 1 Councilwoman Helen Moise and District 7 Councilwoman at-large Dr. Victoria Farrar-Myers are also up for re-election.
The municipal election, initially scheduled for May 3 and postponed due to the novel coronavirus, has seldom drawn more than 20,000 voters. However, experts expect a much larger turnout on Nov. 3, as people are buoyed by the 2020 presidential election, the pandemic response and the May 25 death of George Floyd.
“This will be the first time in my memory and I think ever we’re going to have a City Council race during an election where probably 100,000 voters are going to show up,” said Richard Greene, a former Arlington mayor who writes a column for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
A high turnout, he said, makes the election less predictable.
“The candidates who are lined up for these four city council seats are well-known. There’s a couple newcomers to the mix,” Greene said. “We’ll see, I suppose, how this turns out, but it will be interesting to see a city council race on a ballot like this.”
After the council voted unanimously to postpone the election, campaigns and fundraising in Arlington slowed as candidates adapted to social distancing protocols and virtual operations. Donna Darovich, president of the nonpartisan nonprofit MPAC Arlington, said her organization normally holds candidate lunches in April, when candidates field questions from the group’s “task forces” on city issues. Now, she said, the group has shifted focus to informing its members of the candidates and the issues rather than endorsements.
“A lot of people say if you have an issue on the ballot it very often gets more voters to the polls,” she said. “This year, I think the presidential choices are going to get voters to the polls.”
While the pandemic stunted fundraising efforts for several groups, some handed out checks to local and state candidates —all while urging voters to weigh in on every single election.
The Progressive Women of Arlington gave $1,000 each to District 2 candidate Jo Anna Cardoza and District 6 candidate Ruby Faye Woolridge.
Pat Connolly, the group’s president, said she was excited for two women of color to make their bids for the seats long held by incumbents. She said term limits have encouraged people such as Cardoza, who is Hispanic, and Woolridge, who is Black, to campaign for council seats seldom held by minorities.
“This is a whole new era for Arlington,” she said, adding that the races are guaranteed to gain attention and end in close calls.
Meanwhile, the Arlington Republican Club handed out over $20,000 on Thursday to candidates for county and state offices. Speaking to more than 70 people at the Texas Star Conference Center in Euless, Mark Hanson, the club’s president, said the longer list of ballot items may deter some from voting in every election on the November ballot.
“It’s going to take awhile to vote. I could see 20 minutes to get through it if you do it the way you’re supposed to,” he said.
Cardoza, vice president of marketing and development at Odeh Operations, is running against longtime Mansfield school board member Raul Gonzalez in District 2. Both candidates are making their first bid for city council. Cardoza’s priorities include supporting equity and equality and mass transit. Gonzalez’s campaign website states he aims to lower property taxes, support law enforcement and emergency services and improve quality of life in neighborhoods.
In District 1, real estate agent Jeremy “JJ” Fenceroy is challenging councilwoman Helen Moise to represent north Arlington. Moise is campaigning for her second term and prioritizes revitalizing substandard housing, cutting traffic and keeping taxes low. Fenceroy opposed the city’s restrictions on short-term rentals passed in 2018 and is running on restoring property rights. He also opposes changing Arlington’s current term limits and raising the city’s sales tax.
All Arlington voters can vote on Districts 6 and 7, which represent the entire city. Woolridge, a former educator, is running against John Hibbs, a sales manager, in District 6. Woolridge previously ran for mayor of Arlington in 2019; U.S. House District 6 in 2016 and 2018; and Texas House District 94 in 2004. Her campaign platforms include fostering economic development and retaining UT Arlington students. Hibbs has been a longtime member of the Arlington ISD Board of Trustees and is campaigning on encouraging civic engagement and supporting police and fire services.
In District 7, incumbent and former UT Arlington political science professor Farrar-Myers is running against Hunter Crow, a secretary; Chris Dobson, a substitute teacher; and Antoine Lane, a customer care specialist. Farrar-Myers is seeking her third and final term on the platforms of improving transportation and roads, support small businesses and lowering taxes. Crow most recently ran for Tarrant County College’s board of trustees in 2019, along with Arlington school board in 2018 and its board of trustees in 2017. Crow supports creating a universal healthcare system in Texas, banning hydraulic fracking and improving public education.
Dobson has run for either city council or mayor nearly every year since 2010 to encourage civic engagement and local accountability. Lane’s campaign is his first for local office, and his platforms include bolstering public transportation and public education, as well as providing reparations and economic development to Black residents.
