Author Archives: Georgia Romig

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About Georgia Romig

Georgia Romig is The Prairie's Web Editor. She has been contributing since 2006, became a staff reporter in 2007 and an editor in 2008. Her job is to maintain The Prairie web site and social media outlets. She is a Graduate Student majoring in Communication. You can contact her on Twitter, Facebook or by e-mail.

Amarillo Mayor Candidates: Roy D. McDowell

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Roy D. McDowell for Mayor. Courtesy of Terry McDowell.

Roy D. McDowell for Mayor. Courtesy of Terry McDowell.

Web Editor’s Note: This is a part of our series on the candidates for Amarillo mayor. For more information on the race, check out this recent article! Also, be sure to check out the other interviews at the end of this article!

1. Why did you decide to run for mayor?

“I decided to run because I feel the citizens of Amarillo have gotten equal representation,” McDowell said.

Amarillo, he believes, has historically been overrepresented by the southwest part of the city.  “We’ve never had a mayor on the north side of Amarillo.”

The current city government, McDowell says, consists almost entirely of wealthier citizens who do not understand the problems facing most of the people of Amarillo.

“How can you represent people if you don’t know how they’ve lived, if they don’t know what it’s to like to not have enough money to last through the month. How can they speak for the people if they don’t have that experience?”

2. What are your goals as mayor?

“To keep Amarillo the great city it is. Bringing in new businesses, higher paying businesses,” McDowell said.

Another main goal of the candidate would be to deal with the water issues brought up by the drying of Amarillo’s main source of water, the Ogallala Aquifer.

“Get a pipeline up here,” he said. It’s going to take years of hard work and research, he adds, but it needs to be done now. “Without water, we might as well pick up and leave.”

The last of his main goals is to deal with Amarillo’s debt.

“Another vision I have for Amarillo is that we can stand up and say we’re debt-free!”

Some of the other issues in McDowell’s campaign are getting more police officers and making Amarillo safer. He is also against funding the renovation of downtown Amarillo with taxpayer money.

“I don’t see any way you can do that without raising taxes,” McDowell said. “We don’t need to spend one dollar of taxpayer’s money rejuvenating downtown.”

3. Why should people vote for you?

“I’m an independent,” McDowell said. “I’m not swayed by any group. I take my cue from the people. They want somebody with integrity. And,” he adds, “I think people like me.”

4. Is there anything else you’d like to say?

“The federal government is so far in debt that we’re totally broke. The state government is totally broke,” McDowell said. “Our state is insolvent. We don’t our city to become insolvent.”

For more information on candidate McDowell, check out his campaign web site.

More Amarillo Mayor Candidate Interviews

  1. Sandra (F.E. Dunaway) Dunn

Amarillo Mayor Candidates: Sandra Dunn Interview

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Sandra Dunn (F.E. Dunaway). Courtesy of Sandra Dunn.

Sandra Dunn (F.E. Dunaway). Courtesy of Sandra Dunn.

 

Web Editor’s Note: This is a part of our series on the candidates for Amarillo mayor. For more information on the race, check out this recent article! Also, be sure to check out the other interviews at the end of this article!

1. Why did you decide to run for mayor?

I noticed Mayor McCart was not seeking re-election, and I felt I had the qualifications and the education to do the job of Mayor. I have experience with different government entities, worked for the city and understand the workings of the city. Friends suggested I seek election for Mayor.

2. What are your goals as mayor?

Like many of the other candidates, to bring jobs to Amarillo. This may require us bringing jobs back to the United States, namely here. I would like to see the city utilize more “Green” resources and procedures. There is a need for more law enforcement on the streets and this will take some time to investigate and find the optimum solution. I want to encourage neighborhoods to develop an association to address their neighborhood concerns, assist in law enforcement, and become active in the municipal government.

3. Why should people vote for you?

I believe in government by the people and a responsible government. Major expenditures not related to the infrastructure should be decided by the people. Infrastructure requiring an additional long term overall expense should receive serious considerations and possibly voter approval. After all, it is supposed to be our city and yes we do elect a commission to handle certain issues; still there are some issues that the voter needs to weigh in on.

4. Is there anything else you’d like to say?

Water is an issue we will need to keep on top of. Some are saying with the Pickens purchase we are set for 200 years; [Lake] Meredith was a project that was to assist in our water solution. In 200 years, yes, we will all be gone and it’ll be someone else’s problem; is that what we are suppose to do, slough it off on someone else to fix? Water is a Panhandle problem and we need to start now on addressing it so that we do not need to worry about in the future.

There is an issue that we are seeing in the school systems concerning the cuts from the federal government and the state government. The cuts coming from the federal and state level has yet to be fully realized on the local level and the incoming commission will have some serious decisions to make concerning those cuts and not raising taxes.

For more information on candidate Dunn, check out her campaign page on Facebook.

More Amarillo Mayor Interviews

  1. Roy D. McDowell

Amarillo mayoral election makes history

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Vote! Courtesy of Creative Commons.org.

Vote! Courtesy of Creative Commons.org.

Amarillo is getting ready for the biggest mayoral election in the city’s history.

 

Eleven candidates will be competing to take the place of former mayor Debra McCartt.

According to experts, it’s not surprising to see more candidates in an incumbent-less race.

“Vacancies are like magnets. They draw candidates.” Susan Coleman, political science professor at WTAMU, said.

The candidates come from various backgrounds. Many are not politicians by trade: some are businessmen, others technicians, students, ministers, pastors and police dispatchers.

They are older, like Roy McDowell and Drew Alexander, both 69. They are young, like twenty-one-year old Ryan Vigil.

Some candidates have attracted controversy, such as Sandra Dunn (F.E. Dunaway), 53, full-time graduate student and transwoman; and David H. Grisham Jr., 50, a Pantex security officer and fundamentalist pastor of “Repent Amarillo”.

“It’s a unique group,” Coleman said. “We’ve had elections before with candidates who were characters.”

Characters or not, they all have one thing in common: wanting to address the issues affecting Amarillo.

“A number of the candidates have admitted that they are running for mayor to attract attention to particular concerns. Running for office to bring light to a concern is a recognized reason for seeking an office,” Dr. Dave Rausch, political science professor at WT, said.

However, not everyone likes having so many choices. There have been complaints that the race has turned into a “circus”, according to reports from both the Amarillo-Globe News and Channel 7.

Though the number of candidates may be unusual, the issues are familiar ones for Amarilloans, such as the development of downtown.

“It seems like most of the campaign rhetoric has focused on future economic development. ‘Should we continue to develop downtown? What sort of development should there be in downtown?’,” Rausch said. “Amarillo’s economy is relatively robust compared with other cities and yet there are a number of candidates who believe there are problems in the city.”

Property rights are a factor as well, says Coleman, as those who own businesses downtown worry they will be forced to pay redevelopment costs.

There is also the matter of districts. Historically, Amarillo has been an at-large district (goes by the number of votes, without representing districts), rather than a single-member one (where each district, no matter the size or population, gets a vote in elections), which some believe is not representative.

“Different parts of the city feel they are unrepresented,” Coleman said. “[Some feel that] most of the power comes from various powerbrokers in town. They feel excluded. It’s a continuing refrain. I suspect if we had single-member, people would be arguing for at-large.”

Early voting starts May 2-4, however, for those who can’t wait until voting day, Rausch is taking a Pre-Election Poll.

German Journalist visits WT on international exchange

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Jule Eikmann enjoying dinner with faculty at Dr. Trudy Hanson's house. Courtesy of Trudy Hanson.

Jule Eikmann enjoying dinner with faculty at Dr. Trudy Hanson's house. Courtesy of Trudy Hanson.

Last week, WTAMU welcomed an unusual sort of exchange “student.”

Her name is Jule Eikmann, and she was one of 12 German journalists chosen for an international exchange to the United States. Jule (pronounced “Julie”) was the only RIAS Fellow to visit the Texas panhandle, and she confirmed the area’s reputation for friendliness almost immediately.

“In Germany, there is a saying: ‘once you warm up their heart, you are friends for life.’ Here, you’re on the street for three minutes and people are asking ‘Where are you from?’, ‘What are you doing here?’”

Radio in the American Sector, or RIAS, was formed in Berlin after World War II to provide news and democratic messages via radio. During the Cold War, both Berlin and Germany were physically divided along ideological and political lines: the West was democratic and supported by the U.S., the U.K. and France; the East was communist and controlled by the Soviet Union.

After the cold war ended and Germany reunified, RIAS established itself an exchange program between American and German journalists.

German fellows spend three weeks in the United States. The first is in Washington D.C., the second is at various locations in the U.S. and the third is in New York City. During her time here, Jule visited local media outlets including television stations ProNews 7 and KAMR NBC 4, radio station KGNC-AM, and several WT communication classes.

She is a freelance radio journalist for Deutschlandradio. It is the largest public broadcaster in Germany, operating four networks across the nation. She also reports for Breitband and works on a variety of programs including a children’s show though the week and a digital culture show on Saturdays. She also produces stories on books and German culture.

According to Jule, German news is very different from what Americans are used to.

“It’s not good or bad, but it’s so fast — these commercials are crushing in and they’re even faster!” she said of American television fare. German news, she said, “will put you to sleep. It’s a little difficult to spice up dry, boring news.”

Dr. Butler Cain, assistant professor of communications at WT, became a RIAS fellow in 2007 and invited the program to send someone to the Canyon/Amarillo area this spring.