Flower Mound politics has never been for the faint of heart. Residents of Flower Mound expect their candidates to know their stuff. If a candidate’s positions don’t quite make sense or appear to be contrary to their opponent’s positions, Flower Mound residents are okay with tough questions.
What we are not okay with are attack politics. We all know attack politics when we see them. Think about Harry Reid claiming that Mitt Romney hadn’t paid taxes in 10 years. Reid knew it wasn’t true – he said it anyway. Why? To win of course.
Brian Rountree, candidate of Town Council Place 5, has brought attack politics to Flower Mound in a manner not seen in my memory. At The Cross Timbers Gazette candidate debate, Mr. Rountree called his opponent, incumbent Mike Walker, a cardboard cutout and empty seat filler among other things.
Mike, a retired 30-year veteran, business executive, urban planner and lifelong community volunteer, is anything but. During his first term on Council, Mike has championed strengthening our tree ordinance, implementing a sustainability program that was stalled for 5 years, and been part of a dynamic council who has further protected the Cross Timbers Conservation Development District, finally brought Flower Mound it’s first hotel and first movie theater and helped create more than 5,000 jobs among many other things.
I’m a firm supporter of Mike Walker. I always have been. He’s what I look for in a community leader: educated and willing to give his share his experience to build our community in a positive manner. Mike has made room in his life to help build this community while working and raising a wonderful family.
Mike’s opponent on the other hand, is a newcomer to helping build Flower Mound although he has lived here for almost 30 years. His opponent has no town board or committee experience and has not been a regular contributor to the town dialogue until very recently. As someone who looks for experience in candidates, I frankly never paid much attention to him. I had heard chatter that he ran a Facebook page that tended to the negative including cartoons that poked fun at residents and council members he disagreed with and that he had been a controversial member of a LISD school rezoning committee. Until last Wednesday, I had seen no evidence of the negative person Mr. Rountree was purported to be.
Mr. Rountree showed all of that negativity and then some on Wednesday. I suspect Mr. Rountree attacked because everything Mr. Rountree is running on, Mike has managed to work toward and accomplish in his typical pragmatic, positive manner.
If we can continue Flower Mound’s dynamic growth while protecting everything we love about Flower Mound under Mike’s solid leadership, why on earth would we introduce someone who is so prone to negativity into our currently winning equation? Please join me in re-electing Mike Walker.
Philip M. Van Guilder
Flower Mound, TX
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