Front page of the April 5th, 1967 edition of the Amarillo Daily News | Image via Amarillo Public Library Archive
The 23 candidates on the May 6th ballot are tied with two other fields in Amarillo history for the most crowded city ballot. Many of our readers may remember the last time this happened. In 2011, eleven candidates sought Amarillo’s top office, while 12 sought positions on what was then still called the Amarillo City Commission.
To get to the first time Amarillo’s ballot had 23 candidates, we have to travel back to the sixties.
The date was March 5th, 1967. The number one song on the charts was Ruby Tuesday by The Rolling Stones. The Beatles are currently working on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Sunday News-Globe Amarillo is running the headline “Record Candidate Turnout Eyes 5 City Offices; 23 Men in Races.”
Incumbent Mayor F. V. Wallace was seeking a fourth term, though he did not actively campaign in the race. On April 4th , a record turnout of voters elected J. Ernest Stroud, who earned 51.88% of ballots, narrowly escaping a runoff. City commission candidates weren’t so lucky though, with voters sending each of those races to a May 1st runoff.
Stroud ran on bringing new industries to town, getting rid of paid parking downtown, fixing waste in the city’s bus program, opposing a city sales tax, stopping increasing gas rates, and moving the city dump. The morning after the election, the Amarillo Daily News front page headline was “Stroud Defeats Wallace, Runoffs To Decide Other 4 City Seats.” Stroud expressed optimism about the runoffs, telling the paper that “it looks like we’re going to have some good commissioners.”
Stroud’s optimism remained as the runoff results came in, saying that he was “looking forward to working with the new city commission and will give each new member my fullest cooperation.” Bill Mays and G. B. Gibson defeated incumbents Byron Reese and W. A. McCarty, while voters sent L. O’Brien Thompson and Henry M. Beverly back to city hall, saying no to challengers Joe Dovalina and Stanley Blackburn.
Front page of the January 9th, 1968 edition of the Amarillo Daily News | Image via Amarillo Public Library Archive
The good feelings didn’t last long, as a rift grew between Stroud and the commission. At one point, tensions culminated in Stroud inviting the commissioners to resign. Two years later, L. O’Brien Thompson ran against Stroud, promising to bring unity to the council. One of Thompson’s ads featured a compilation of negative headlines about Stroud as an ad. Meanwhile, an ad for Houston “Dee” Deford, who ran against Mays, took Mays to task for not supporting Stroud on the council. (The disclaimer on that ad read “Paid Pol. Adv. by former Mays supporters.”) Stroud and Deford eventually defeated Thomas and Mays in runoffs in 1969. However, Stroud’s political woes were not over yet, as he would be defeated in the 1971 election by Commissioner L. Ray Vahue, who was first elected in the 1969 election.