Has Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker earned a second term? Here’s our recommendation | Opinion

We could simply tell you that incumbent Mattie Parker is the only candidate on the ballot ready to serve as Fort Worth mayor.

But that would be unfair to Parker’s record in her first term and the promise of another. She has infused energy into important city priorities, from fighting crime to improving education and bolstering economic development. She’s navigated tricky politics and mostly steered the council and city to solid policies on contentious issues. We heartily recommend her for a second term.

Parker took over from a well-liked 10-year mayor, Betsy Price, and was part of a huge turnover on the City Council. The group had to coalesce quickly and deal with hot-button issues such as redistricting. The hard divisions of our national politics are trickling down to local government, and the city faced a painful moment with the trial of former police officer Aaron Dean for the killing of Atatiana Jefferson. The emergence from the pandemic and rampant inflation have made governing more difficult everywhere.

Throw in tensions over management of downtown that involved some of Fort Worth’s most prominent citizens and City Manager David Cooke’s failure to disclose personal travel benefits from one of them, Ed Bass. It’s been a bumpy road, and Parker’s steady leadership has been important to Fort Worth.

There have been stumbles. The council’s insistence on seeking an extravagant pay raise, which voters firmly rejected, was presumptuous. And we regret that Parker was among the five-vote majority that declined to create a citizen oversight board for police, one of the most important recommendations of the Race and Culture Task Force the city created a few years ago.

In a second term, we anticipate that Parker, 39, will continue to shine as a saleswoman for Fort Worth. She’s drawn national attention as one of the youngest big-city mayors in America. She presents a vision of a dynamic city that is growing and improving all the time, and that’s big for attracting business — which is the vital base for fixing economic disparity, education and high property taxes.

Parker, a lawyer by trade who has also worked to promote education partnerships, is an important political voice, too. She has been bold about criticizing the Republican Party from inside of it, especially the lurch to the hard right in primaries.

Given Parker’s strength, she drew no real competitive opposition. Jennifer Castillo, 35, who works in real estate and mortgage lending, shows promise as a candidate but needs more knowledge and seasoning and to start at a more realistic level. Alyson Kennedy, 72, who works in a bread factory, is running explicitly as a socialist, answering our questions in broad ideological terms with few specifics to the job of mayor.

Also running are Kenneth Bowens Jr., a 32-year-old business owner, and Adrian Devine Smith, a 43-year-old veteran. They declined our interview request.

The mayor is elected to a two-year term, earning $29,000 annually. If no candidate gets an outright majority, the top two will advance to a runoff. Early voting runs April 24-May 2. Election Day is May 6.