Mayor to outside school bond-bashers: ‘Don’t mess with Cleburne’

Cleburne Mayor Scott Cain is Texas’ newest hero.

In no uncertain terms, he is telling out-of-town Tea Party leaders to essentially buzz off and “don’t mess with Cleburne” or meddle in its $130 million school bond election May 7.

Finally, a Republican community leader has the backbone to stand up to the petty Tea Party activists smearing local governments and schools.

“Cleburne voters do not need outside people telling us what is good for our community,” Cain wrote in a strongly worded letter and Facebook post.

A rural Tea Party activist from between Burleson and Mansfield, 21 miles away, pushed a handful of outlying county Republican chairs to pass a resolution Tuesday opposing the bond for a new Cleburne High School.

Burleson and Mansfield have nice new high schools. Cleburne doesn’t.

With the new tollway making Fort Worth a short commute, Cleburne would like to lure families home-shopping in the ’burbs.

“Our high school is in dire need of replacement, and the community is incensed that someone from outside wants to tell us what we need,” Cain said by phone.

The opposition is part of a statewide campaign against local debt. It’s spurred mostly by liberty movement activists led by Tim Dunn of Midland, an oilman and co-founder of a Christian private school.

“We don’t need people from Midland, Austin or Burleson telling us how to run our local communities,” Cain said.

He said organizers from as far away as Wichita Falls with no stake whatsoever in the election came last year to campaign against a $150 million proposition. It failed.

Cleburne voters are justifiably wary of advice from Burleson or Mansfield taxpayers. According to the North Central Texas Council of Governments, both those cities have grown sharply while Cleburne has shrunk.

The resolution also reflects the deep Texas divide between civic leaders and some often-abrasive movement activists.

Cleburne’s civic leaders are — in Cain’s words — “extremely conservative.” To wedge voters away, party activists must claim to be “more conservative,” opposing even reasonable debt.

“This group of people involved is very small,” Cain said.

“I just want people to let Cleburne make up its own mind.”

His letter ends: “If you read that I am upset, I am … If someone calls you that you don’t know, ask them where they’re from.”

Never listen to strangers.

This story was originally published April 9, 2016 at 5:37 PM with the headline "Mayor to outside school bond-bashers: ‘Don’t mess with Cleburne’."