Oakley goes negative in bid to become Dallas Mayor

by Shawn Williams of Dallas South

I was surprised when I got a 9 X 12 color flyer in the mail this week asking:"What do you really know about Tom Leppert?"

I was surprised when I got a 9 X 12 color flyer in the mail this week asking:"What do you really know about Tom Leppert?" On the front side of the page below a plasma TV screen with Leppert's picture are the words Pol. Adv. Paid by Ed Oakley for Dallas Mayor Campaign.

On the reverse side are three statements:

Leppert: Bad for the environment

Leppert: Poor record with minorities

Leppert: Fined for kickbacks

The flyer then goes on to expand on each point. At the bottom of the page it asks "Is he really the right person to be our Mayor?" and refers to the website TruthAboutTom.com. These ads are negative by any stretch. This is the candidate local Democrats have decided to support huh?

Mike Davis at Dallas Progress broke down the most recent mayoral debate from WFAA 8. In the same post he quotes a barkingdogs.org interview where Oakley denied any knowledge of the Truth About Tom website or the accompanying T.V. ad.

This is an unfortunate turn of events in what I thought has been a pretty good campaign. If there's something out there that needs to be known then by all means spill it. But "In Oregon, Leppert was fined $26,000 for illegally dumping construction waste on other people's land,' is a bit of a stretch.

I thought that my councilman would represent a little better than that. The noise you hear in the background is my shredder. This waste of paper may mean that Oakley is bad for the environment as well.