Source: Reddit.
After running a generally unobjectionable campaign (read "boring") for the first two months, Mayor Bob Dubey turned negative in a mailer during the first week of open voting. Why? Maybe he always planned to go negative at this point in the election or maybe he has some new polling that suggests Amir Omar's message of positive change is resonating with voters whereas Dubey's status quo message is not.
Source: Washington Post.
Amir Omar is running for Mayor of Richardson. His campaign website biography says, "Amir is most closely tied to the creation of Tree the Town, which was the largest tree-planting initiative in North Texas history powered by donations from commercial and residential community members vs the City." That program was discontinued by the City of Richardson soon after Omar left office in 2013. He later resumed his tree-planting efforts, "personally buying and planting trees across Richardson, starting with planting trees for individuals who lost countless mature trees in the tornado that damaged hundreds of homes in southeast Richardson in 2019."
That led me to wonder, just how many more trees are needed, or even possible? A lot, it turns out. Mayor Amir Omar will have plenty to do.
Artist: John Trumbull.
On April 17, 2025, the Richardson Charter Review Commission continued their review of the Richardson Charter, covering Article 4 (Nomination and Election of City Council Members). The Commission had planned to review Article 3 (City Council) as well, but decided to postpone that until the May 1 meeting to give them time to study the material prepared by staff (history of Richardson's City Council turnover, and surveys of other cities and the terms of city councils, compensation, and length of terms). I still expect major changes to Richardson's form of governance to come out of that meeting. Everything from longer terms to staggered terms to, who knows, ranked-choice-voting and other unlikely, but not necessarily crazy, changes. If anyone wants a say, submit your inputs or come speak in person.
Still no video by the City to link you to. To paraphrase City policy: "Move along. There's nothing to see here."
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Hulu
I published my Voters Guide yesterday covering the City Council election. I've also been publishing accounts of the ongoing work of the Charter Review Commission. The two topics have kept themselves separate. Today, they collide.
