By Thomas Warren III, Editor-in-Chief

For the upcoming Amarillo City Council election, we are hearing many candidates begin to draw their contrasts from their opponents. While some candidates’ messages amount to little more than a Facebook post or two about random issues, one candidate seems to be drawing the right contrasts against his opponent with about a month to go before early voting.

Amarillo City Council Place 3 candidate Tom Scherlen has been drawing the clear contrasts between himself and incumbent Eddy Sauer for several weeks now.

Scherlen, a retired CEO of a major Amarillo employer, is hoping to unseat Sauer, an Amarillo Matters loyalist and lieutenant of Mayor Ginger Nelson in the May 1 election. Sauer is going for his third term in office after being heavily backed by the downtown special interest group Amarillo Matters, which also promoted attacks on the military service of Ronny Jackson in their ill-fated attempt to elect Josh Winegarner to the U.S. House last year.

Over the past several days, Scherlen has criticized Sauer for his attachment to Amarillo Matters, a group which Sauer has welcomed with open arms for his campaign.

“I am so proud to announce that I have NOT been endorsed by Amarillo Matters,” Scherlen said in a recent Facebook post. “That means I am for you the citizens.”

I totally agree with this point of view.

Amarillo Matters PAC has shown itself to be totally distant from the needs and concerns that are truly held by citizens across Amarillo. Whereas business owners struggled during COVID-19, leading some businesses to shut their doors entirely, the Amarillo Matters PAC-owned City Council has rushed to pile on more debt and tax increases. Even during the pandemic, the City Council backed the largest proposed tax increase in Amarillo history and raised taxes without voter approval in the fall of last year.

While all of this has been going on, the Amarillo Matters PAC City Council has allowed our local government to blow money on unnecessary expenditures, like covering the salaries of wealthy Austin-lobbyists, even while certain designated revenue streams were insufficient to cover debt service on municipal projects last year.

Amarillo Matters PAC wields power over politicians in the form of its checkbook, financed by a small group of wealthy donors. And the Amarillo City Council has shown its loyalty to be exclusive to Amarillo Matters and the campaign donors and business associates of the people in office. Average citizens will always be on the outside looking in, while Amarillo Matters gets to cut to the front of the line.

With attacks on the military service of politicians and a clear agenda that is against the concerns and needs of citizens in Amarillo, Amarillo Matters PAC, and its loyalists like Eddy Sauer, have ensured that sacrifice, servant leadership, and principled representation will always be thrown in the trash can when well-financed power grabs with empty politicians willing to do the bidding of wealthy donors are an option.

So, when Scherlen points out that he is not endorsed by Amarillo Matters, while his opponent Sauer is, that sends a clear message: Scherlen is a candidate for all of Amarillo. Eddy Sauer is the candidate for the special interests.

Scherlen’s contrasts so far on this issue and others, such as members of the City Council having a full-time dedication to representing citizens, are what voters are needing to hear right now. Let’s hope Tom Scherlen keeps up the contrasts and continues to show that while Sauer is in the back pocket of the special interests, Scherlen is working to represent average citizens.