[Newspaper clipping: Rucker holds on to District 9 seat] Part: 1 of 2
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The Dallas Morning News: Juan Garcia
District 9 candidate Bill Nelson (left) and his campaign suits Saturday. Nelson lost to incumbent Jerry Rucker af-
manager, William W. Waybourn, watch early election re- ter a vigorous and often heated campaign.
Rucker holds on to District 9 seat
Incumbent weathers criticism of attendance, pro-development backingBy Ed Timms
Staff Writer of The News
District 9 City Council incum-
bent Jerry Rucker successfully
-weathered opponents' criticism of
his pro-development financial sup-
port and his attendance record to
-secure a third term Saturday.
With the last votes counted,
Rucker, a lawyer and businessman,
had chalked up a 67 percent major-
ity.
His closest challenger, Bill Nel-
son, took 23 percent of the votes
cast, and the third candidate in the
race, Roy H. Williams, trailed with
10 percent.
"The first thing I want to do is
work on consolidating this new
council," Rucker, 45, said from the
campaign headquarters of District
10 winner Al Gonzalez. "It's the best
one in over a decade."
The council is now made up of
"business-minded people" who un-
derstand that all problems cannot
be solved at once and can work to-
gether on developing workable
plans, he said.
Nelson, 37, president of the Dal-
las Gay Alliance and the Vickery
Place Neighborhood Association,
had launched a vigorous and fre-
quently heated attack against
Rucker during the campaign.
Nelson took Rucker to task for
missing important votes on the City
Council and repeatedly used
Rucker's large contributions from"The first thing I want
to do is work on.
consolidating this new
council. It's the best one
in over a decade."
- Jerry Rucker,
Dallas City Councildevelopers as political ammunition.
Through the end of March,
Rucker had raised more than
$90,409 in contributions, compared
with $13,019 for Nelson and $175 for
Williams.
Sunburned from walking neigh-
borhoods, Nelson admitted defeat to
his campaign workers at 9:30 p.m.,
but refused to call his speech a con-
cession.
"There are a lot of issues that
still need to be addressed, a lot of
neighborhoods that need to be pro-
tected, a lot of investments that
need to be divested," Nelson said.
"And these things are not conceded
in this election."
Rucker said accusations that
there was a rift between him andhomeowners were not founded.
"There never was one and the elec-
tion proves that," he said.
Nelson said he doubted the is-
sues he raised in his campaign will
change Rucker's views.
"The main impact is that we
made people more aware of the in-
fluence of high-density commercial
developers in this city," he said.
"When you ignore people services
in favor of developers, eventually it
sours the environment of the city
for all of us."
Nelson said he liked running ci-
tywide "because of the tremendous
diversity involved" and would
probably run for elective office
again.During the race, Rucker talked
about his accomplishments in off-
ice but frequently ignored Nelson's
accusations.
None of the District 9 candidates
raised the issue of Nelson's sexual
orientation, except in response to
occasional questions. Nelson ac-
knowledged early in the race, how-
ever, that he would have to con-
vince voters he was not a gay-issues
candidate.
Just before the election, Nelson
received television air timeson
three UHF stations to respond to
comments opposing gay candidates,
made on a show whose host is evan-
gelist James Robison.
Williams ran a low-budget race
on a platform calling for an affirma-
tive-action plan to increase the
number of minority officers and su-
pervisors in the Dallas Police De-
partment, and divestiture of city
funds from companies that conduct
business with South Africa.
In the 1985 election, Rucker's
margin of victory was much
slimmer. He captured 52 percent of
the vote and defeated former Plan
Commission member James
Garner.
Staff writers Esther Bauer and
Bruce Tomaso contributed to this re-
port.
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Ed Timms. [Newspaper clipping: Rucker holds on to District 9 seat], clipping, [1985..]; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc851798/m1/1/: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.