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The Mayor’s Race: Bob and Adlene and Garry and…?

By Jim Atkinson |

No sooner had the ink dried on the ballots November 2, than speculation about the 1977 mayoral campaign began. First, there were mysterious bumper stickers touting another Garry Weber candidacy. Then Mayor Pro Tern Ad-lene Harrison’s fans announced an in-depth poll measuring her strengths and weaknesses as a candidate. Finally, Mayor Bob Folsom, obviously hearing the faint patter of footsteps, rather peremptorily announced he would definitely seek another term next spring.

What’s going on here?

All things considered, Folsom appears invulnerable to challenge – much as Dolph Briscoe has been since 1972. On the other hand, political speculation always has its reasons for surfacing, and in this case it is because a lot of knowledgeable political people honestly believe Folsom is beatable.



Adlene Harrison

Strengths: She’s enormously popular and capable of rallying a respectable constituency in citywide races. In 1975, she garnered 49,000 votes as an at-large candidate for the City Council – only 5,000 less than Folsom’s winning total of 55,000 the next year. She’s a campaigner of proven tenacity and guile: Her decision to bolt the CCA in 1975 and run as an independent was a stroke of political genius – overnight she probably doubledher popularity. Also, Harrison liter-ally can stand on her record: She is generally acknowledged to be among the best-prepared, most articulate council members.

Weaknesses: She’s a woman, which still must be counted as a major minus. More significantly, she’s a woman of average means. Any serious mayoral candidacy would have to be financed wholly from outside sources – sources, which, because of her controversial politics, may say thanks but no thanks. Most importantly, if Weber jumps in the race, too, she will at best have to settle for half of the liberal/populist constituency. Intangibles: Harrison’s inimitable brand of urban populism has the proven capacity of mustering broad citywide support and considerable press exposure. But populism, by definition, needs something to run against. And Folsom might seem superficially vulnerable to a little-man-against-the-fatcats attack, but on the bottom line he has thus far kept himself remarkably clean of conflicts of interest on zoning cases and other such grist for populist mills.

Garry Weber

Strengths: He easily has the best name recognition of the three, and seems to have a bottomless reservoir of personal capital to spend on his political ambitions. And he’s no slouch when it comes to mustering votes either. Remember: he lost to Folsom last year by only 1,400 votes. Weaknesses: He’s already lost once to Folsom, and that has to be counted as a major liability. And like Harrison, Weber would have to settle for half a constituency if both decide to challenge the incumbent. Intangibles: Weber’s motivation must be questioned. While he has displayed in the past an almost insatiable lust for elective office, it must be remembered that he is a man who has spent probably one million dollars in pursuit of elective offices over the past 10 years. That’s got to get to a man after awhile, particularly after he loses a big one.

Bob Folsom

Strengths: He’s the incumbent, he’s immensely wealthy and obviously willing to spend what it takes to stay in office, his closet is thus far free of skeletons. What more could a candidate ask?

Weaknesses: He probably has some, but they have yet to surface completely. He’s not a particularly good campaigner, but that didn’t seem to make much difference last year. He has displayed on at least one occasion the kind of public relations naivete that can get political novices in trouble – his inexplicable decision to cancel memorial services on the anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination. But he has also displayed on at least one other occasion a fine knack for getting the right press on the right kind of issue – like his recent front-page announcement of plans for a downtown sports arena and of his efforts to garner an NBA franchise for Dallas.

Intangibles: A lot of things can happen to a political neophyte and most of them are not good. Folsom could start listening to the wrong people, or listening to too many people. He could become haughty and cocky with the press, or worse, reclusive and paranoid. He could slip and get himself tangled up in any one of dozens of nasty conflicts of interest. Any or all of that could make him considerably more vulnerable. On the plus side, Folsom could count on walking away with it if both Harrison and Weber run. There simply aren’t enough liberal/populist votes for the two to divide and present formidable challenges to Folsom. And more importantly, perhaps, Folsom is a winner, and those personality types tend to endure well in politics. And his city is a winner, too – it can’t hurt an incumbent mayor to enter a re-election campaign armed with studies showing his city as the number one convention center in the nation and his state as the number one business climate.

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