Group’s endorsement committee also recommends Claudia Meyer, Monica Alonzo, Jesse Diaz for Dallas council at 5-hour meeting
KEEPING COUNT | Stonewall Democrats board member Pamela Curry counts ballots during the endorsement committee’s meeting at Resource Center on March 9. (John Wright/Dallas Voice)
Dallas City Council candidates Bobby Abtahi, Delia Jasso and Adam Medrano received endorsement recommendations from a Stonewall Democrats of Dallas committee on Saturday, March 9.
The committee interviewed 10 candidates and two surrogates in six contested council races, deliberating and voting on the recommendations during a five-hour meeting at Resource Center Dallas.
Not surprisingly, the most hotly debated recommendations came in the city’s most heavily LGBT districts —1, 2 and 14. The committee’s recommendations of Abtahi, Jasso, Medrano — as well as three other candidates — are expected to be ratified by Stonewall’s general membership Tuesday, March 19.
“All of the races were hard for us to choose, because now we have so many great allies, so it’s hard to pick one over the other, but that’s part of politics, and that’s how the endorsement process goes,” Stonewall President Omar Narvaez said.
Perhaps the group’s most difficult choice was between Jasso and Scott Griggs, both incumbents, who were placed in the same North Oak Cliff District by redistricting. Jasso created the city’s LGBT Task Force after she took office in 2009, while Griggs, first elected in 2011, is the author of a proposed council resolution backing marriage equality and statewide LGBT employment protections.
During his Stonewall interview, Griggs criticized Jasso for failing to use her title of council member on a letter she wrote to state legislators asking them to consider marriage equality and statewide employment protections — a letter which she made public shortly after Griggs announced his resolution.
“I will use my title,” Griggs told Stonewall members. “I will stand out there and use it on your behalf, and that is the big difference. We don’t need to talk issues to death. We need to take action. I stand on issues with courage and conviction and take action.”
Jasso said later she opted not to use her title on the letter at the advice of the city attorney. According to the city’s Ethics Code, a city official may not “use the prestige of the city official’s position with the city on behalf of a candidate, political party, or political committee, except that a city official is not prohibited from lending his or her name so long as the office held with the city is not mentioned in connection with the endorsement.”
“The advice of the city attorney was to write it as a citizen,” Jasso said of the letter.
During her Stonewall interview, Jasso touted the LGBT Task Force’s accomplishments, crediting the group with making DPD’s LGBT liaison officer position full time, modifying city forms to be more inclusive, developing diversity training for DPD and Dallas Fire-Rescue, and organizing the city’s June Pride Month events.
“I’m very, very proud of all the initiatives that we continue to work on in the LGBT Task Force,” Jasso said. “What makes me a better candidate is that I have four years of experience now serving on the City Council. I have many allies on the council. I think that helps when you’re trying to get eight votes to pass whatever you need to pass. I do have that ability to get consensus — and that’s all I’ll say.”
In District 2, the committee recommended Dallas school district Trustee Adam Medrano — the nephew of incumbent council member and LGBT ally Pauline Medrano, who is term limited — over openly gay candidates Herschel Weisfeld and Vernon Franko, who also sought the endorsement.
Adam Medrano supported an LGBT-inclusive anti-bullying policy as a member of the DISD board, and has repeatedly ridden alongside his aunt and other council members in Dallas’ gay Pride parade. He said he was honored to receive the Stonewall committee’s recommendation.
“They probably just looked at, I would think, my history of supporting the LGBT community,” he said. “I’ve lived in the Oak Lawn area all my life, I’ve been active in my community and I think that’s what they really went on. And also my family has long supported the LGBT community and issues way even before others would. We’ve lived in the Oak Lawn area for over 50 years. This is our home. This is where we’re going to be for the rest of our lives.”
Weisfeld, a real estate developer, said he wasn’t surprised the recommendation went to Medrano. Weisfeld alleged Narvaez told him prior to the screenings that “he [Narvaez] was much more concerned about Hispanic representation as opposed to the LGBT mission of the organization.”
The endorsement meeting grew dramatically in size just prior to the District 2 candidate interviews, and several members of the powerful Medrano family either joined Stonewall or renewed their memberships in February — just prior to the deadline to participate in the process.
Narvaez acknowledged there was “some truth” to Weisfeld’s allegation concerning his comments about Hispanic representation. Narvaez said he believes it’s important for the council to be as diverse and inclusive as possible.
“Is LGBT important? Absolutely, 100 percent,” Narvaez said. “Are Latino issues important? Absolutely, 100 percent.”
Narvaez said Stonewall’s mission is to elect pro-LGBT candidates and to educate people about issues facing the LGBT community — but also to educate people about racial and economic justice.
“We’re Democrats, and that is part of our Democratic Party platform,” he said, adding that there are always a few candidates whose feelings get hurt during the endorsement process.
Stonewall political chair Jeff Strater noted that even without the influx of Medrano family members and others prior to the District 2 interviews, Medrano had enough votes to capture the recommendation, because Weisfeld simply didn’t resonate with the group.
“There have always been Medrano members of the Stonewall Democrats — longer than Herschel Weisfeld — so it’s not an unusual presence,” Strater said. “It’s not like they were random people who came to our meeting.”
In District 14, where incumbent and LGBT ally Angela Hunt is term limited, three of seven candidates sought the Stonewall endorsement.
Abtahi, a former city prosecutor, has a lesbian sister and would be the city’s first Middle Eastern council member.
While the committee’s questions for candidates covered everything from gas drilling to the Trinity River project, party affiliation emerged as a major issue in District 14.
Prior to the meeting, Stonewall leaders distributed a spreadsheet containing the party primary voting histories of all 38 council candidates stretching back two decades. On the opposite side of the spreadsheet was an “Oath of Affiliation” to the Texas Democratic Party signed by District 14 candidate Philip Kingston — a requirement for him to be eligible for the endorsement since his primary voting history is almost exclusively Republican.
Stonewall member Pam Gerber, who supports Kingston, said later it was the first time she can remember that candidates’ full voting histories were distributed. Gerber said she felt the move was designed to target Kingston. Kingston did not appear at the meeting but was represented by Hunt, who has endorsed him to be her successor.
But other Stonewall veterans took a different view. Former state Rep. Harryette Ehrhardt, one of Stonewall’s founders, wrote a letter to the endorsement committee encouraging them to support Rogers — the only one of the three District 14 candidates seeking the endorsement whose primary voting history is exclusively Democratic.
Abtahi, 31, has voted in just two primaries — the Republican Primary in 2010 and Democratic Primary in 2012. He said he voted in the 2010 Republican Primary because he wanted to vote against Gov. Rick Perry.
During his interview, Abtahi called supporting LGBT equality a “no brainer” but said the fact that only three of the seven candidates in the race sought Stonewall’s endorsement “shows that we have a lot of work to do.”
“Too often we play politics with things like equality and civil rights, and that’s not what I stand and not what I’m going to do when I get on the City Council,” he said.
Strater defended the decision to distribute the spreadsheet containing voting histories.
“At the end of the day, it’s a Democratic organization, and a Democratic organization recommends Democrats, and that information is necessary,” Strater said.
In District 3, the committee recommended Mountain Creek neighborhood activist Claudia Meyer, who is challenging anti-gay incumbent Vonciel Hill. Hill, who did not seek the endorsement, is the lone sitting council member who has refused to appear in the gay Pride parade.
Asked by a Stonewall member whether she would appear at Pride, Meyer said: “Most certainly. Just invite me and I’ll be there.”
District 3 candidate Michael Connally also sought Stonewall’s endorsement.
In District 5, the committee recommended Jesse Diaz, the only one of four candidates who sought Stonewall’s backing. In District 6, the committee recommended incumbent Monica Alonzo, who was represented at the meeting by gay former DISD Trustee Jose Plata and was the only one of three candidates who sought the endorsement.
News editor Anna Waugh and staff writer David Taffet contributed to this report.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition March 15, 2013.