Just when you thought you could go a whole month without thinking about local politics, the Lubbock City Council District 4 special election has gifted us a runoff. The seat was left vacant after Braden Rose decided he’d rather spend time with his family than sit through another grueling council meeting, triggering an election that managed to lure a whopping 2,600-ish voters out of their air-conditioned homes.
In first place we have Tim Green, a homebuilder and former firefighter who secured 47% of the vote. Green’s entire platform hinges on being “pro-growth,” because if there is one thing Lubbock desperately needs, it’s to pave over thirty more miles of perfectly good dirt to build identical strip malls and cookie-cutter subdivisions. Green claims that stretching the city limits toward New Mexico will bring in “outside revenue” and magically lower your tax burden—a beautiful fairy tale local developers love to tell us while we dodge potholes on Loop 289.
Meanwhile, sitting in second place with 38% is Gary Boren, a walking encyclopedia of Hub City political appointments. Boren has already done stints on the City Council in the early 2000s, the LISD board, and the Brazos River Authority. He is so eager to get back into city hall that he literally had to sue the City of Lubbock just to prove he actually sleeps within the boundaries of District 4. Boren is running on a platform of fiscal salvation, loudly complaining that Lubbockites pay the highest electric costs in Texas and are drowning in over $1 billion of city debt—conveniently glossing over the fact that he was part of the local political machine that helped dig the hole in the first place.
With third-place finisher Bill Curnow already throwing his 184 votes behind Green, we are officially set for a thrilling summer showdown. Get ready for a high-stakes, low-turnout runoff where approximately twelve motivated citizens will decide whether we fund infinite suburban sprawl or hand the keys back to a guy who needed a judge’s permission to run.
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