Audio By Carbonatix
A couple of weeks back we got Mike Rawlings’s first big-money mailer — a slick meet-the-candidate flier highlighted by quite the ’70s ‘stache — accompanied by the first of what’s proved to be a series of good-looking short films starring the mayoral candidate. (The most recent follows.) The latest four-pager arrived in the mail this afternoon, and this one’s hardly as upbeat as its predecessor: As you’ll see on the other side, it features on its cover a stark, gloomy scene of Dallas City Hall, over which reads the headline: “Overtaxed and under-served?” Which, if you’ll recall, is a direct lift of a line used in former Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle’s no-tax-hike vow unveiled last month.
Inside, Rawlings’s campaign then takes a shot at Kunkle and Ron Natinsky, without naming his competitors:
Overtaxed and under-served by Dallas City Hall? Then why elect a Mayor who is part of the problem?
In the race for Mayor, one candidate comes from the public sector. He’s been a city hall employee for nearly 40 years. He’s never worked in the private sector, or met a payroll.
Another candidate has been a council member for six years, serving as Chair of Economic Development while the tax burden on homeowners increased due to the lack of new growth.
He then goes on (and on) to talk about his tenure as CEO of Addison-based (now Plano-based) Pizza Hut and how he’ll make “City Hall more user-friendly by reducing permit and development fees,” among other things.
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I’ve asked both Kunkle and Natinsky’s campaigns for response to Rawlings’s mailer. The former top cop called back with his reply; still waiting on the council member, but I will update accordingly. This is what Kunkle had to say:
“I’m flattered,” Kunkle says. “He’s essentially taken my message and made it his own, which I take as a compliment. And if it’s a question of who’s the most outside guy, I’d make the argument Rawlings is the most inside guy — he’s part of the same formula that’s been used over and over again. I agree — things aren’t working so well. That’s the sole reason I ran. And part of the reason I don’t think they work so well is a small part of the downtown community picks the guy they want, frequently at the expense of the majority of the people who live in the communities.
“If Mike doesn’t understand how important leadership is in the police department, he’ll get a big surprise if gets to City Hall. … If he thinks everyone filling a slot at City Hall is a bureaucrat, he doesn’t have a clue.”
I’ll update when Natinsky responds. Till then, Rawlings’s mailer and new video are below.Mike Rawlings New Mailer
