The Wheel's Voter's Guide (May, 2025)

Source: ImgFlip.

Early voting for the 2025 local elections in Texas starts Tuesday, April 22, 2025. Election Day is Saturday, May 3, 2025. On the ballot will be two contested places on the City of Richardson City Council and two contested districts of the Richardson ISD Board of Trustees. Find more election information at the League of Women Voters of Richardson. Find your personalized ballot and the candidates' answers to the LWV-Richardson questionnaire at Vote411.org.

Here's the executive summary of The Wheel's recommendations:

For City of Richardson Mayor, I recommend Amir Omar.
For City of Richardson Place 6, I recommend Lisa Marie Kupfer.
City of Richardson Places 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are uncontested.

For RISD District 2, I recommend Vanessa Pacheco.
For RISD District 5, I recommend Rachel McGowan.
RISD District 4 is uncontested.
The other RISD Districts and Places are not up for election this year. To vote in either of these districts that are on the ballot, you must live within the district.

Read on for the reasons I make these recommendations.

LWV Forum for Richardson City Council

On April 16, 2025, the League of Women Voters of Richardson hosted a forum of Richardson mayoral candidates at the Eisemann Center, moderated by Lanet Greenhaw. Mayoral candidates Mayor Bob Dubey and former Councilmember Amir Omar participated. Alan C. North was unable to participate because of a scheduling conflict. Mayor Pro-tem Arefin Shamsul and Lisa Marie Kupfer, candidates for Place 6, also participated. About 150 persons were in the audience. The forum was live-streamed by the City and video on demand is available on the LWV website.

I was pleased with the forum, with the questions asked by the LWV and members of the public, by the earnestness shown by the candidates, by the decorum on stage and in the audience. I recap the highlights here, excerpts that I feel best show the distinctions between the candidates. I will be stripping out a lot of words, maybe at the risk of losing important context, but that's what the video is for. If a snippet of an answer here makes you want to hear more, then watch the video on the LWV website.

Einen Veritablen Shitstorm, Exhumed

Today I exhume a post buried deep in the archives. Why? Because someone is trying to rewrite this disgraceful history from Scott Dunn's time on the Richardson City Council. Why? To invent a false narrative that paints Amir Omar as the bad guy in this episode. Who is doing that? I won't name them here. I will say it's not Scott Dunn. I hope I won't have to name names. I hope that they will see that bringing this back up hurts their own candidate, Bob Dubey. The truth actually helps Amir Omar. What's the disgraceful episode this person wants to relitigate?

The Dubey Way: Breaking the Street Grid

Head shot from City of Richardson. CGI by Adobe Firefly.

February 10, 2025: Despite a City plan to redevelop downtown Richardson in a way that not only preserves the compact street grid, but extends it, Mayor Bob Dubey voted to approve a 580-foot-long apartment building in the heart of downtown that will create a superblock that cuts the downtown street grid, disconnecting business development on Polk Street from that on Kaufman Street.

The Richardson Way: Plan the Work, Work the Plan.

The Dubey Way: Plan the Work, Wreck the Plan.

The Dubey Way: More Drive-Thrus

Head shot from City of Richardson. CGI by Adobe Firefly.

December 9, 2024: Despite a new City plan to do a reinvestment study for the area around Plano Rd and Belt Line Rd, Mayor Bob Dubey voted to approve a drive-thru only coffee shop there. Luckily for the Richardson residents who have repeatedly said that area has more drive-thru restaurants than they need, especially chicken restaurants, the rest of the Council said no. They denied the request 5-2, with only one other Councilmember joining Mayor Dubey in thinking another drive-thru is a good idea there.

The Richardson Way: Plan the Work, Work the Plan.

The Dubey Way: Plan the Work, Wreck the Plan.