By Thomas Warren III, Editor-in-Chief

There was one race on the ballot on Tuesday which had a special importance for me. This race was for Proposition B, which would have provided an extension of the Amarillo City Council’s terms to 4-years each.

While everyone was watching the other races closely — and believe me, I was too — I was ecstatic when Proposition B went down. This Proposition represented something of greater importance to me than most of the other races on the ballot. Let me explain why.

In 2019, when Amarillo Mayor Ginger Nelson was running for re-election, I attended a candidate forum held by the Potter-Randall Democratic Club where Nelson was a speaker. During the forum, I witnessed Nelson call for extending the terms of the Amarillo City Council publicly for the first time.

“I personally think it would be wise for us to move to 4-year terms, then every two years have half our council up for re-election,” Nelson said, going on to say the move would prevent voters from having the opportunity to “flip the whole boat again.”

I could not believe the hypocrisy of Nelson’s statement, considering Amarillo Matters PAC bought seats at the table for her and all four of her comrades when they won a clean sweep of the City Council in 2017. There wasn’t any complaining about “boat flipping” then.

Following the forum, I penned a news article about her statement. After the article made its way to social media, Nelson disputed the validity of the article in a message to a supporter, which prompted her supporters to decry the story as “fake news” and “propaganda,” and to call me a liar. All because I told the truth.

Nelson dropped this talking point from her campaign and won re-election in May 2019. Fast forward to the summer of 2020, and Nelson was back at it, but this time she wasn’t backing down. She supported sending extended terms to the ballot, just over a year after saying her proposal for longer terms had been taken out of context.

I recently referred to Nelson as “No Shame Nelson” for her consistent flip-flopping on many issues, and the issue of extended terms was no different. Nelson’s style of self-serving politics is often on full display as she says whatever she has to to get re-elected, while muscling the competition.

Once things started turning south on Proposition B, and another proposition to reduce the number of annual City Council meetings, Nelson released a video on social media trying to explain the validity of the proposals.

Luckily, voters didn’t take the bait.

On Tuesday, voters defeated Proposition B for longer terms, with 52 percent voting against the proposal. Voters saw the problems with Nelson’s proposal, even if she wouldn’t own up to it at election time.

As I reflect on the results of the election, I think about those responses I saw to that first report about Nelson’s push for longer terms. Now that voters have had their say, I wonder if Nelson’s supporters still believe her hunger for power and pursuit of longer terms is “fake news.”

Regardless, I’m glad Amarillo voters got this one right. No politician deserves to extend their term, especially if they won’t be honest about it in the first place.

Good job, Amarillo.

Now it’s time to make our voices heard in May 2021. And my favorite part about that election is we will be voting on five City Council seats, each for 2-year terms.