By Catherine Cuellar
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-473277.mp3
Candidates Face Runoff in Fort Worth District 6
Fort Worth, TX – Catherine Cuellar, 90.1 Reporter: Fort Worth's District 6, including southern and southwest parts of the city, had the highest district turnout in the May 7th election. Jungus Jordan got 48 percent of the vote, followed by Byron Sousa with 36 percent. To reactivate supporters from last month and capture voters up for grabs, Sousa is walking door-to-door.
Dr. Byron de Sousa, District 6 candidate: We have walked all these neighborhoods so many times, not for the voting right now but many years in the past to do things like the petition against the public-owned hotel, also to raise funds for this common neighborhood fence and things like that, so we know most of the people.
Cuellar: Although Sousa was born in Brazil, he has lived all over the United States, and in Fort Worth for 14 years. He teaches at the Tarrant County College south campus, and has served as a member and chair of the Fort Worth City Plan Commission for the past seven years. Retiring district 6 council member Clyde Picht endorsed Sousa.
The other District 6 candidate, Jungus Jordan, a retired military officer currently working as a financial advisor, chaired the city's zoning commission and process improvement committee. Former mayors Bob Bolen and Kay Granger, as well as the Star-Telegram, endorsed Jordan, who began his campaign by polling constituents.
Jungus Jordan, District 6 candidate: We sent out a survey to the citizens of the district and we asked their opinions on infrastructure, on police protection, what the streets were, priorities within the facilities, and we asked them to comment and rate different city services, and then we developed our platform based on what believed those to be.
Cuellar: Jordan says that if elected, he will continue to encourage communication with residents
Jordan: It's important to do that for a representative because that seat belongs to the citizens of the district, it doesn't belong to the council person, and we will continue doing surveys. You can see what our priorities will be and in two years again if I'm fortunate enough to be elected, the citizens will be able to pull this out and do a report card on us and make sure that we achieved what we said we would.
Cuellar: Meanwhile, Sousa is promising fiscal conservatism and a higher quality of life.
Sousa: Another library in District 6, this is very important to us. District 6 has the highest readership of the entire city of Fort Worth according to a library survey and we have a very small library, the Wedgewood library. We want more services, more community facilities. And we want to keep taxes as low as possible. So we really need to keep a lid on government spending.
Cuellar: Fort Worth's only runoff race is in District 6. Since Fort Worth and Crowley ISDs school years have ended and there are no other items on the ballot, turnout is expected to be down. Today is the last day for early voting, which concludes tonight at 7pm. Election day is this Saturday, June 11th. For KERA 90.1 I'm Catherine Cuellar.
For more information, go to http://fortworthgov.com/election/