Photo by City of Amarillo
By Thomas Warren III, Editor-in-Chief
One of my favorite campaign slogans was used by the Brexit Party during the United Kingdom’s 2019 general election. The party promised to “change politics for good.” Whether you disagree with this slogan or not, you must admit that it makes a voter a think about changes that are both good and longstanding.
Well, I want to tell you that I think it’s time we change Amarillo politics for good.
Over the past four years, Mayor Ginger Nelson and her Amarillo Matters PAC-owned loyalists, Freda Powell, Eddy Sauer, and Howard Smith, have wreaked havoc on local taxpayers and their wallets. Taxes have skyrocketed and the city’s debt load has gone up, all while our elected officials have claimed to be for low taxes.
But, the tax increases are not the only bad things in the voting records of the candidates owned by Amarillo Matters. Local citizens have seen their freedoms to participate in Amarillo City Council meetings stripped away, while politicians have lied to our faces. The establishment has continued to spit in the faces of hardworking Amarilloans, while the politicians they own have smiled and continued to collect their campaign checks. Consider that even while local businesses are shutting their doors for good, jobs are being lost, and people are struggling to make ends meet in our community, the Amarillo City Council has continued to send checks to Austin to cover the salaries of well-paid lobbyists.
Consider this for a second: people are losing their jobs and businesses are closing, but the City Council still pushes for a tax increase. And what did they do once they passed the tax increase? They turned around and sent your tax dollars to Austin to pay people who do not even live in our community. Talk about keeping it local.
These points are just the tip of the iceberg. But the tip of the iceberg is still bad enough.
So, where do we go from here? The past four years have been bad, but how do we make the next two better?
The answer is clear: we must change Amarillo politics for good.
This year, voters must stand up and push back against the establishment and its constant assault on our community and our wallets. Voters must reject the same old playbook of the Amarillo Matters types, who raise taxes in September, then come back in May and claim they have been for low taxes the whole time. Voters must say no more to the PAC strategy of trashing anything and everything about the opposition, while covering up their own candidates’ failures and misdeeds.
Simply put, Amarillo voters must declare that enough is enough.
It’s time for Amarillo voters to step up and change Amarillo politics for good. We must reject Ginger Nelson, Freda Powell, Eddy Sauer, Howard Smith, and the PAC that owns them, Amarillo Matters. Voters must demand better from their elected officials instead of giving a free pass to the policy liars like Nelson and her band of tax-increasing minions.
It’s time to change Amarillo politics for good, but we can only do that if voters show up and make their voices heard loud and clear this May.
By Friday, we will know the full field of candidates seeking seats on the Amarillo City Council. If you are tired of sitting behind your computer screen complaining about your local government, and are now ready to take back City Hall, then now is the time to act.
Research the candidates. Attend the candidate forums. Ask the questions. But, most importantly, just show up and vote. Amarillo cannot allow Nelson, Powell, Sauer, and Smith to get a free pass after four years of raising taxes and neglecting our communities. But change can only happen if voters show up and demand better at the ballot box.
Let’s scare the establishment and take back our community. Let’s change Amarillo for good by voting for new representatives on May 1st.