Former Arlington mayoral candidates throw support behind Michael Glaspie in runoff
Michael Glaspie announced Tuesday that all of his former opponents who did not advance to the June 5 runoff have endorsed him for Arlington mayor.
Glaspie, a minister who previously served on City Council and Arlington school board, announced on his campaign Facebook he received support from Marvin Sutton, Doni Anthony, Cirilo “CJ” Ocampo Jr., Dewayne Washington and Kelly Burke. The five ran for mayor but did not receive enough votes to make the runoff. Glaspie was the second-highest vote-getter, receiving 21.12% of the vote while Jim Ross received 47.39%.
“The good part about it, hopefully, with their interest that they’ve shown, it’ll be an opportunity for our community to really capitalize on their perspectives, their passions, their concerns for Arlington, so that we can all work to make this a better place in which we can enjoy,” Glaspie said in a phone interview.
Burke, Anthony, Sutton and Ocampo confirmed they had endorsed him. Washington declined comment.
Sutton, outgoing District 3 council member who came in third place with 14.95% of the vote, said Glaspie’s experience as an at-large council member representing District 8 helped him make a decision.
“I think moving forward with the growth of the city and some of the concerns I had, that experience played a major role in my decision,” Sutton said.
Anthony, a sales employee and activist who campaigned on free speech, government transparency, public safety, business deregulation and small business support, said endorsing Glaspie was “a simple choice.” She said her decision was based on Ross’ targeting of her during the campaign and his failure to disclose a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing on a Star-Telegram candidate questionnaire, as well as Glaspie’s focus more on improving the city than spending money.
“In my experience, Michael Glaspie’s platform is the closest to mine,” Anthony said.
Glaspie said in a phone interview Friday he was proud of his campaign’s momentum.
“We feel we have a pretty good shot,” Glaspie said. “It’s a matter of getting people the message we’re bringing, the things we’d like to do with our community and how equipped I am to do that based on my experiences and broad-based relationships I have with the community.”
Ross, an attorney and business owner, has support from Mayor Jeff Williams, former Mayor Richard Greene and all four local police associations.
Brian Mayes, Ross’ campaign spokesperson, said in a statement that his team is “not concerned that a handful of little known candidates who struggled to connect with voters have made this endorsement.
“The bigger issue here is that Jim Ross has received the enthusiastic endorsement of dozens of elected officials and community leaders who have served side by side with former Councilman Glaspie and determined by that experience that Jim Ross is the far superior candidate for mayor,” Mayes wrote.
Glaspie also has endorsements from former Mayor Elzie Odom, former Police Chief Theron Bowman and former Arlington superintendents Jerry McCullough and Mac Bernd.
