1 week Ago By By Christian McPhate Staff Writer
Denton City Council candidates have filed their latest campaign finance reports, and political action committee money has come into play just as one race has heated up with claims of misinformation. This round of finance reports was due eight days before Saturday's election day, and early voting ends Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Here’s a look at the campaign finance reports and endorsements: Three candidates — Karen DeVinney, Margie Ellis and Suzi Rumohr — are racing to represent western Denton's District 3, which includes the University of North Texas campus and the Denia and Southridge neighborhoods. Ellis, a longtime Realtor in town, showed the largest campaign contribution among the campaign filings with $5,000 from the Texas Realtor PAC (TREPAC), whose mission is to promote homeownership, protect real property rights and increase political awareness. Ellis also received TREPAC’s endorsement.
In District 3, Ellis has taken the lead in campaign contributions, showing $11,845 in total political contributions with $7,382 in expenditures and $8,920 in political contributions maintained as of the last day of the reporting period. Besides TREPAC, Ellis has also received $1,500 from Kent Key, a local homebuilder, and $1,000 each from Byron Woods, a member of the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment and Dalton Allen from Denton Premier Properties. The Denton Fire Fighters Association PAC also contributed $500 and endorsed Ellis.
At-large council member Jill Jester donated $200 to Ellis’ campaign. Rumohr is in second place for District 3 campaign contributions with $7,333 in total political contributions, $3,902 in expenditures and $5,441 total contributions maintained as of the last day of the reporting period, according Rumohr’s report from Friday. Rumohr’s largest contribution was $701 from someone from Paris, Texas, followed by $521 from Kevin Roden, a former council member who also endorsed her campaign, and $500 from Kristine Bray, the former chair of the 2024 charter review committee and a local advocate who posts on social media as Denton Transit Posts.
Former council members Deborah Armintor and Dalton Gregory each donated less than $100 to Rumohr, according to the report. Rumohr has shared several endorsements on her Facebook campaign page. Those endorsements include Pat Smith from Serve Denton, Ben Martin from Texas Housers and Adam Briggle from Denton Sustainability Framework Committee.
BikeTexas, a state advocacy organization, also endorsed Rumohr, who is an organizer for local advocacy group Bike Denton. Robin Stallings, executive director of BikeTexas, called Rumohr “a tireless advocate for traffic safety for all road users.” In her April 25 report, candidate DeVinney reported $4,825 in total political contributions with only $1,088 in monetary donations and the other $3,697 in in-kind donations.
Political expenditures were only $197 with $2,695 in total political contributions maintained as of Friday. DeVinney’s largest contribution was $250 from a local resident and another $250 from former council member Mike Cochran, who also endorsed DeVinney’s campaign. Current District 3 council member Paul Meltzer is also supporting DeVinney’s campaign.
Meltzer serves as DeVinney’s campaign treasurer, and he endorsed her late last year when he announced he wasn’t seeking reelection. DeVinney’s campaign came under fire earlier this month when the Denton Together PAC, a progressive political advocacy group that endorses DeVinney, sent out a mailer that attacked Ellis and Rumohr with what they both call misleading information. In the mailer, Denton Together claimed Rumohr “supported a Strong Towns theory” about abolishing single-family zoning and included a quote that made it appear Rumohr had said it.
It then claimed Ellis supported the “status quo” and deferred to the Planning and Zoning Commission’s balanced interest approach that Denton Together claimed led to all the apartments in the city. “It is coming down to a decision more akin to triage," the Denton Together mailer reads. "Which neighborhood do we save and which do we write off?” The advocacy group Strong Towns campaigns against highway expansion and parking mandates and calls for transparent local accounting, safe streets and incremental housing, according to its website.
It challenges the notion that urban growth simply focuses on attracting jobs and new development, which could lead to unsustainable patterns, and stresses to build upon existing infrastructure instead of expanding it, as Denton and the rest of North Texas is doing. In an April 19 Facebook post, Rumohr said the mailer falsely attributed a quote to her that actually was a book passage offering “a rhetorical warning against the very kind of ‘business-as-usual’ thinking that leads to inequitable investments in the neighborhoods.” It’s also a quote Rumohr said she has never said and never endorsed, and it does not reflect her values or policy goals, she wrote.
“Elections should be about ideas and vision, not misinformation,” Rumohr wrote. “Denton deserves leaders who lead with facts, who honor their commitments and who work collaboratively to make our city stronger, safer and more welcoming for everyone. That’s the kind of leadership I’m offering.
” Ellis also took a strong stance against the mailer in her April 19 post to Facebook, claiming it degraded her work and service to the city. She stressed that she is proud of her nearly nine years on the Planning and Zoning Commission and the recommendations she and others sent to the council. “This mailer has the word ‘Together’ in it,” Ellis wrote.
“But between defaming me, as well as lying about a fellow opponent, the word they should have used was Divide. There is nothing less Denton than political attack ads.” Last week at a candidate forum, DeVinney said the mailer was an “attempt to differentiate us from each other after many forums where we started to sound alike.
” “The language in the mailer may have been tough, but the differences are important,” DeVinney told voters at the forum. “First, Suzi uses the Strong Town’s approach, at least in part, and I know this because she put the book in my hand so I can read it. And while those theories are interesting, they can lead to greater density housing.
” Rumohr stressed that she does support protecting green spaces and neighborhoods that have single-family homes. She also said she does support a variety of housing options that also includes single-family housing. Charles Maroh, the founder and president of Strong Towns nonprofit, responded to DeVinney’s criticism via a comment he left a few days ago to her Facebook campaign page.
Maroh wrote that DeVinney had misrepresented him, his organization and his work. Maroh couldn’t be reached for comment Monday. “Denton is a beautiful city,” Maroh wrote in a comment to DeVinney’s April 18 post about early voting.
“I've been there many times. I'd love to engage with anyone there who wants to have a serious conversation about fiscal management of municipalities and how we make cities like Denton financially responsible. Sadly, that doesn't seem to be Karen DeVinney.
” Over in District 2, which includes northern and eastern Denton and a sliver of downtown, incumbent Brian Beck is seeking to fend off a challenge from Nick Stevens for what would be his third and final term on council. Stevens is an activist with Decriminalize Denton and a former campaign adviser for Beck. Beck reported $3,464 in total political contributions, $3,674 in expenditures and $627 in total political contributions maintained as of Friday, according to his latest finance report.
Beck also reported $4,187 in outstanding loans and showed only $727 in monetary contributions and $2,737 in-kind contributions. Beck’s largest contribution was $250 from Brandon Chase McGee, the Place 5 council member. Former council member Dalton Gregory donated $75.
Beck has mentioned several endorsements on social media and on his campaign website from the Democratic Municipal Officials, a municipal voting advocacy group, the Denton Fire Fighters Association PAC, and Denton Together, the local progressive political action committee behind the mailer supporting DeVinney. Regarding the Denton Together mailer, Stevens defended Ellis and Rumohr on social media, calling them both “incredibly smart, capable, kind and people-centered leaders who would serve our community with integrity.” “I’m speaking out because this is exactly why I’m running — for transparency and fairness,” Stevens wrote in an April 19 post to his campaign Facebook page.
“This is what’s wrong with local politics. If winning requires blatant misinformation and attacks on good people, we all lose. Denton deserves better.
” Beck’s other endorsements include Lesly Molina Poer, the executive director of the Denton County Democratic Party; community advocate Keri Anne Caruthers; Denton school board member Charles Stafford and former school board members Doug Chadwick and Rudy Rodriguez; former council candidates Lilyan Prado-Carrillo and Amber Briggle; former council member Alison Maguire and current council member Paul Meltzer. With only $590 in total political contributions, Stevens reported the lowest contribution amount out of all the candidates for this filing period. He showed $3,082 in political expenditures and $2,789 in total political contributions maintained as of the last day of the reporting period.
Stevens reported $8,791 in outstanding loans, according to his report last week. He has also shared endorsements on social media, including one from Bruce Burns, a former board member of the nonprofit Denton Music and Arts Collaborative, and a recent one from Texas Working Families Party, a grassroots political party that supports progressive candidates. Stevens does have several former supporters of Beck’s who are supporting his first campaign run for council.
Those supporters include former council member Deb Armintor, who serves as his campaign treasurer; local wildlife rescuer Diana Leggett, Beck’s former campaign manager and Stevens’ current one; and Randy Hunt from Historic Denton and the John B. Denton Neighborhood Association. Stevens announced on social media that he was the association’s first ambassador.
Beck’s latest campaign finance report wasn't posted to the city’s campaign filings website with the others Friday, but it went online Monday afternoon. On Monday morning, Beck said he had emailed his report last week to the city secretary’s office, only to learn they still hadn’t received it, so he resubmitted it. The city secretary’s office confirmed that Beck submitted his campaign filing last week and cited a tech issue on their end.
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