Trophy Club, the little Texas town with the strange name, swore in a new mayor this week. What makes it noteworthy is the way Mayor Jeannette Tiffany was elected.
She did it in a way you never see, using a technique that never works.
The 80-year-old won the top job as a write-in candidate.
Picture this: in a town of only four square miles with about 12,500 residents, almost 2,000 voters wrote in her name — J Tiffany.
The Watchdog can’t recall a write-in candidate ever winning a Texas election. One reason is that even though some Texans like to write in the names of favorites — Ron Paul, Willie Nelson and Mickey Mouse are popular — the votes are not usually counted and announced.
Under state election law, a write-in candidate must officially register before the election in order for their write-in votes to be counted.
That’s easy enough. The hard parts are teaching voters how to write in a name and convincing them that it’s not a wasted vote.
Tiffany won easily with 63% of the vote. Her opponent, Mayor Pro Tem Greg Lamont, whose name was the only one listed as a mayoral candidate, received only 37%.
How did this near impossibility happen?
Small town soap opera
For this story, we dig into small-town politics. In this case, the primary reason for the citizens’ revolt is that many thought they were victims of a cruel election trick.
The hoax I’m about to describe is not uncommon up north in big city political machines. It’s not illegal, but it’s devious. And it certainly didn’t fly in Trophy Club.
The hoax is like musical chairs. Everybody moves around and when the music stops, you gotta find a seat or you’re out.
Incumbent mayor Alicia Fleury announced publicly that she was running for reelection. Lamont, an ally, filed to run to keep his council seat.
But on the final day to register as a candidate, the mayor and mayor pro tem pulled a fast one. With less than an hour before the registration deadline, the mayor withdrew.
Lamont then pulled out of his council race. He announced he was going to be the lone candidate for mayor. The music stopped and he had the chair, but his opponents didn’t have anyone to run against him.
Call this the ole switcheroo.
Town got heated
The temperature level in the town rose. Voters felt like they’d been hoodwinked. They didn’t want the old mayor to handpick the new mayor. They didn’t want anyone to walk into the job without a fair election.
To make matters worse, Lamont changed the title of his Facebook page well before voting began: “Greg Lamont Trophy Club Mayor-Elect.”
Except that he wasn’t, and now he won’t be.
Lamont is a longtime council member who has acknowledged publicly that in his many years on council he’s rubbed some people the wrong way. As he wrote on social media, “Yes, my NYC accent does sound hard and it is a problem I try my best to change.”
Some question his trustworthiness. Years ago, when he was getting his start in local politics, he was caught lying on his campaign bio. He never graduated from Fordham University, as he claimed. He apologized and deleted it.
Back then, he also bragged that he worked in the New York Yankees front office. When questions were raised about that, he deleted that, too.
Outgoing mayor attacked
It came as a surprise to Mayor Fleury that she was under attack for her role in the switcheroo. She wasn’t on the ballot anymore, but she was being blamed for it.
Residents dug into public records and learned that last year the mayor bought a house in Louisiana. She sold her home in Trophy Club, rented an apartment in town and lived with friends, including a stay at Lamont’s house.
The mayor, a longtime airline pilot, told the public in Facebook posts that her fiancé had surprised her with plans to marry in what she called a “last minute elopement” in Hawaii. That’s why she decided not to run for reelection, she said. (She married on Feb. 23 and now goes by the name of Alicia D’Elia).
In an April council meeting, a resident stood and asked if the mayor was a legal resident of the town.
The mayor responded by giving each of her council colleagues copies of her driver’s license, car registration, and insurance — all showing her Texas residency,
In an interview, D’Elia said there was no organized plot to replace her with an ally.
“Had I wanted to be nefarious, I could have waited until the write-in [registration] period had ended,” she told me.
She complained vigorously on social media that she was defamed by some of Tiffany’s supporters, “And I’m not even a candidate.”
She acknowledged that she notified Lamont “of my dilemma, and he showed up at Town Hall and filed” to replace her.
Lamont wrote on Facebook, “As to the mayor withdrawing, that was her decision and her decision alone.”
Lamont did not respond to requests for comment.
Recruiting a candidate
The other side found their write-in candidate, Jeannette Tiffany, who previously served on council.
Educating voters about how to do a write-in vote is tricky. Trophy Club is split into mostly Denton County but also Tarrant County. So there were two different ways to write in votes. Voters would have to be educated.
Tiffany’s campaign caught fire with many voters. She recalled, “They rolled down their windows. They’d say ‘thank you, clean it up, go for it. We want to be part of this.’”
In an interview, the new mayor said she wanted to bring stability to the town. In the past decade, the town has had seven town managers and interim managers. Currently, the town is looking for yet another.
At the swearing in Wednesday night, the outgoing mayor, who flew back the night before from Korea, concluded her farewell remarks by saying, “Move forward in kindness and leave the hate behind. And with that, au revoir, because I’m off to Paris.”
She didn’t stick around, and Lamont didn’t attend the meeting, even though he was slated to receive a service award for his years on council.
After Tiffany was sworn in, most of the 80 people in the room gave her a standing ovation.
Her husband Jarry joked, “I didn’t expect anything like that, but I guess after a while we’ll get used to it.”
When I asked why her election matters, Mayor Tiffany answered, “Democracy starts at your doorstep. If we don’t pay attention to that, we lose it.”
How did Trophy Club get its unusual name?
Back when the town was created legendary golfer Ben Hogan agreed that his golf trophies would be on permanent display. But the cantankerous golfer had a falling out with the Houston developers and pulled out. Today, his trophies are on display at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth. The town kept the name and named one of its golf courses after him, as well as a neighborhood.
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2023-05-18 19:30:13Z
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