Former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller Files To Run For City Council 2 Hours Before Deadline
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - It's back to the future at Dallas City Hall.
Former Mayor Laura Miller said she's running for the 13th District council seat to protect homeowners and residents from what she says are numerous developments that would cause traffic and other problems.
"It's extraordinary that I would need to run to help homeowners be able to keep their quality of life in that district," Miller said.
Miller showed up at the city secretary's office at 3 o'clock Friday afternoon to file her paperwork, two hours before the filing deadline for all mayoral and council candidates.
She told CBS 11 that for a year and a half, she had been trying to recruit candidates who would fight for homeowners, but she said when no one came forward, she decided to run at noon yesterday.
Miller said while there are concerns about multiple planned developments, she does support development that's done properly.
"I talked to a lot of people over the last year and a half and sincerely wanted someone to run and it didn't work out and yesterday at noon, I decided I would run," she said.
She was Dallas Mayor between 2002 and 2007.
"I feel I did a lot of things as Mayor but my passion has always been local neighborhoods. That's why I ran for city council in Oak Cliff in 1998, so this feels right," she said.
So it's been 12 years since serving at city hall, and when she was here last time, she was seen by some as a lightning rod for controversy.
"I'm a 60-year-old mellow person now. And I only have one focus on being on the city council: and that is to protect the homeowners of all District 13 who are exhausted by what has been happening for six years."
Incumbent Jennifer Staubach Gates told CBS 11 she has a solid record of basics: working on streets, infrastructure, and police and that's where she's focusing going forward.
Gates said the city is on the right path and needs to stay on course.
Meantime, there are 12 candidates running for Dallas Mayor.
Nine of them are qualified to be on the ballot — three are pending.
In alphabetical order, they are: developer Mike Ablon, businessman Albert Black Jr., Dallas Councilman Scott Griggs, State Representative Eric Johnson of Dallas, former Presidential candidate for the socialist workers party Alyson Kennedy, philanthropist Lynn McBee, Regina Montoya, who recently served on the Mayor Mike Rawlings' task force on poverty, Dallas ISD Trustee Miguel Solis, and former State Representative Jason Villalba of Dallas.
Steve Smith, an environmentalist and businessman is among those whose pending.
Election day is Saturday, May 4.
With this many candidates running for Mayor, most believe there will be a runoff, in which the two top vote-getters will be up for election in June.
