I was recently at Preston Hollow Park and noticed Park Lane is already dotted with city council campaign signs. I didn’t count, but it looked like a pretty even split between Brint Ryan and Ann Margolin.
What I didn’t notice at the time, however, was that Brint Ryan’s signs are missing the word “for” between his name and “Dallas City Council.” Turns out this is a violation of the Texas Election Code because the signs could mislead voters into thinking Ryan is the incumbent.
Ryan’s political consulting firm Allyn & Co. takes blame for the error, and they are replacing all those signs with corrected ones.
The sign snafu has caused quite a splash, some suggesting Ryan’s camp did this on purpose or that it shows his incompetence to serve on council. Whatever your interpretation, the bottom line is the rules are the rules, and candidates should all play by the same ones: that’s cut and dried. But by the same token, I think you’d be hard pressed to find a neighbor who does not know that Mitchell Rasansky is their current councilman. Love him or hate him, neighbors know that Rasansky is—and has been for nearly eight years—their city council representative. Sure, the signs might mislead someone over in Lake Highlands or Far North Dallas, but here in District 13, we all know who Mitchell Rasansky is, and that there’s an open race to replace him.
