Caraway To Battle Price For Dallas County Commission Seat
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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price has picked up a challenger in next year's Democratic party primary. Eight year Dallas Councilman Dwaine Caraway threw the proverbial hat in a day after leaving city hall due to term limits.
Both are veteran elected Dallas politicians. But Caraway's district is just a tiny sliver of the county quadrant Price has supervised for decades.
With a drum line as an escort, one-time interim mayor Dwaine Caraway announced he's shifting his sights to the Dallas County Commissioners Court. He says his eight years on the council shows he has the experienced to "connect the dots," as his campaign says, where state federal and local governments overlap.
"We have educational dots that need to be connected, health dots that we need to connect, homeless dots that we need to connect," Caraway told an enthusiastic lunch time crowd.
Price---the veteran incumbent---claims much more experience is needed than the exposure Caraway garnered from two recent issues: Caraway's "pull up your pants" plea to young men with saggy drawers, and his attempt to eliminate plastic bags in stores and supermarkets. "We just don't do bags or we don't do social pull-up-your pants issues," Price said after learning of Caraway's candidacy. "We run daily operations---we're about governance."
Between now and the primary Commissioner Price is set to stand trial on federal bribery and tax evasion charges. Caraway promises not to run a negative campaign. "I'm not going to throw the first rock or the second one. Okay? So I expect to keep doing what I'm doing now, giving high respect to commissioners and all of them."
Still, Caraway may find his stance on the bag issue could come back to haunt him with District 3 voters like Philifia Saulters. "The Bag Man. By him doing that, I don't know what else he's capable of doing. I feel we have a good commissioner in John Wiley Price. And I support him to the fullest."
And other customers polled at Elaine's Restaurant in South Dallas believe Price is their man downtown. K.B. Brookens told CBS 11 News, "Ever since he's been in office I just like what he's been doing for out city." Shariann Hamilton added, "He's more experienced here, and he's more active here and knows at lot more people and listens well."
Conventional wisdom might argue Price's legal woes may make him more vulnerable this time around. But Prices is undaunted and says he will run again.
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