The Ides of May: How Politics Plays a Role in Fort Worth s Mayoral Race This Year
With the race to succeed Mayor Betsy Price in a full sprint to the finish â polls close May 1 â the campaign trail has a new obstacle: politics.
Peoples, Zadeh, Parker photos by Olaf Growald
In another time and place in Fort Worth history, City Councilman Jim Bradshaw counseled his colleague on the local government board, Woodie Woods, Fort Worthâs political plumber and one of the townâs more noted political philosophers, as he plotted a run for mayor in the late 1970s.Â
As it was recounted in those days by a reporter, the encounter went like this:
TELL US YOUR FORT WORTH STORY:
I grew up in Fort Worth, and as a boy I did everything - from riding the Forest Park Train to taking the subway to the old Tandy Center to ice skate.
Stephanie and I have raised our kids here, and we built our businesses here. We just love the spirit of our city and I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience as a councilmember. It has been one of the greatest honors of my life.
FAVORITE FORT WORTH ACTIVITY?
We love to eat delicious food and listen to great music. Some of our favorite places are Enchilada s Ole , Dutch s, and Cousins BBQ.
Fort Worth Weekly
By Static
Through his numerous campaign flyers, Byrd has positioned himself as the candidate who will fight special interests. Our reporting found that his campaigns are funded in no small part by those same special interests.
Courtesy of Brian Byrd’s campaign
Links between campaign contributions and kickbacks are nothing new in politics, and in Texas, those exchanges rarely result in ethics violation enforcements. The state’s ethics laws “generally emphasize disclosure over prohibition,” one director at the Texas Ethics Commission (TEC) recently told me, meaning public office candidates and officials typically have little to fear once donations are publicly disclosed. In recent years, local examples of ethically precarious election gifts have involved members of Fort Worth school district’s board of trustees (“Ethics for Sale?” May 2018) and Tarrant County’s current tax assessor-collector (“Keeping Tabs on TAD,” Jan. 6).
Texas Rep. Carl Sherman (D-Lancaster) and author of “Bo’s Law” along with the chairman of the Dallas Police Association’s Political Action Committee, Detective Frederick Frazier on police reform and what needs to change to better the relationship between police and the communities they serve. Also ahead of the start of early voting on Monday, April 19, NBC 5’s Scott.
Brian Byrd
Brian Byrd currently serves as a Fort Worth City Councilmember representing District 3, a position he’s held since 2017. In addition, he’s a founder and physician of Texas Family Medicine as well as a former CEO of Texas Hospice. Byrd attended UT Austin and majored in international business and minored in marketing. He later went to medical school at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center and obtained a master’s degree in church-state studies at Baylor. If elected, Byrd’s focuses will be on keeping taxes low, attracting high-paying quality jobs to the city, creating an educated, job-ready workforce, maintaining a safe and welcoming city, and having an efficient government. Click here to learn more about this candidate.