Nov. 5, 2008, TDMN, Page 1B

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MetroThe Dallas Morning News Section B Thursday, November 6, 2008
W . . . . . . . .
INSIDE
Regional roundup 2
Education notes 3
Asian culture and community 12
Obituaries 10-12
Weather 14
The Dallas-Fort Worth area leads the nation in
apartment construction, with more than 20,000
units under development. 1D
BUSINESS
Apartment building
pet.
The shelter, near Love Field, is
about $2,000 short of meeting its
monthly budget of $12,000 for No-
vember, leaving it financially un-
able to spay and neuter cats, said
Sandra Mustafa, the shelter’s direc-
tor. The shelter currently has about
300 cats and 20 dogs.
“We live on donations, but right
now, they aren’t coming in,” Ms.
Mustafa said.
Many large shelters in the Dal-
las area — such as Operation Kind-
ness in Carrollton — reported
drops in donations and adoptions
this summer as gas prices skyrock-
eted, but area shelters have not
pointed to any significant ongoing
problems.
James Bias, president of Texas’
Society for the Prevention of Cruel-
ty to Animals, said a slumping
economy doesn’t always affect pet
adoptions and shelters.
“There isn’t a correlation that we
have seen,” he said.
But Ms. Mustafa said her oper-
The Humane Society of Dallas
County’s shelter has stopped ac-
cepting surrendered animals for
the first time in its 30-year history
because of financial problems.
The no-kill shelter, Dog and Kit-
ty City, is facing a double whammy:
Donations have fallen roughly 75
percent since last year and adop-
tions have dropped 25 percent as
fewer people are willing to take on
the extra cost of caring for a new
Facility forced to turn away surrendered animals as donations, adoptions drop
NATALIE CAUDILL/Staff Photographer
Sandra Mustafa, director of Dallas County’s Dog and Kitty City, says the shelter is about $2,000 short of meeting its $12,000 monthly budget for
November. Donations have fallen about 75 percent since last year, while adoptions have dropped 25 percent.
Seeking shelter from financial woes
By DAN X. McGRAW
Staff Writer
dmcgraw@dallasnews.com
See SHELTER Page 6B
YourpetDOLLAR WISE
Demographic shifts, ener-
gized straight-party voters and
coordinated campaigns culmi-
nated in success for most Dem-
ocratic state House candidates
inDallasCounty.
And several Republicans
who won Tuesday should ex-
pect to be targeted in 2010 as
Democrats work toward long-
termdominancehere.
“We’ll go back and look at
the numbers and see what we
can work on,” said Darlene Ew-
ing, Dallas County Democratic
Partychairwoman.“Itstartedin
2002 when we got one judge
elected. It picked up in 2004,
and in ’06 it accelerated proba-
blyfasterthanwethought.”
This year, the Democratic
wave included wins by Robert
Miklos and Carol Kent. Kirk
England, who was first elected
as a Republican but changed
parties in 2007, held on to his
GrandPrairie-areaseat.
In Irving, with about 280
provisional ballots yet to be
countedandarecountlooming,
Republican Linda Harper-
Brown is clinging to a lead
against Democrat Bob Roma-
no.
The Democratic gains came
amid a pricey last-minute push
from Republicans. Ms. Harper-
Brown took in $10,000 from
House Speaker Tom Craddick’s
Stars Over Texas PAC in the last
week. Meanwhile, the Republi-
can Party of Texas spent more
Looking
ahead
toward
2010
DALLAS COUNTY
Parties analyze reasons
for side-by-side House
wins and losses
By IAN McCANN
Staff Writer
imccann@dallasnews.com
See PARTIES Page 14B
OPINIONS
Who is an
American?
Satvika Ananth of Coppell
takes a look at what defines
Americans. Community
Opinions. 8B
INSIDE
Walk for
a cause
Hundreds will take
part in the Breast
Cancer 3-Day, a
60-mile walk to raise
money for the Susan
G. Komen for the
Cure organization.
The event starts
Friday in Parker and
ends Sunday at
Southern Methodist
University. 9B
FILE 2007/Staff
A
mid the blizzard of
day-after election
coverage was a New
York Times piece offering
advice to “political junkies”
suffering from the letdown
(“withdrawal”) from the
frenzied campaign.
They quoted from one
political blog: “After Nov. 4,
psychologists predict, there
will be legions of people all
across America who will find a
hole in their lives and time on
their hands.”
Maybe this is so, if you
define the cessation of being
hit over the head with a board
as a hole in your life. Some of
us, regardless of how we
voted, are feeling nothing but
relief.
The campaign’s end spells,
if not the promise, at least the
hope of the resumption of
governance. It can’t get here
too soon.
Naturally, we need to
temper our expectations.
President-elect Obama
himself advised as much with
Election is over; let’s get to work
JACQUIELYNN
FLOYD
jfloyd@dallasnews.com
dallasnews.com/metroblog
See ELECTION Page 2B
Political leaders had long
considered Kim Brimer’s state
Senate district a marginally
Republican one.
Although District 10 leaned
toward the GOP, the Republi-
can incumbent hadn’t faced a
well-financed, well-known
challenger to test that assump-
tion until this year with Demo-
crat Wendy Davis.
Steve Maxwell, chairman of
the county Democratic Party,
said that his opinion about the
district started to change dur-
ing this year’s campaign.
“Once we began doing the
studies and the block walking
and the polling and all that, the
political pros concluded it was
a whole lot more evenly bal-
anced than we thought,” he
See TARRANT Page 13B
Red or blue? It’s
not black and white
STATE SENATE | TARRANT COUNTY
Davis’ victory shows
Democrats can win
previously GOP areas
By JEFF MOSIER
Staff Writer
jmosier@dallasnews.com
The eyes of Texas are on Ir-
ving, where the balance of pow-
er in the state House could
hinge on a race that probably
won’t be decided for days, if not
weeks.
Republican incumbent Lin-
da Harper-Brown leads the
House District 105 race by 29
votes as she fights for her career
— and her party’s current edge
in the House. But there are still
more than 280 provisional and
absentee ballots to count,
meaning Democratic challeng-
er Bob Romano could pull out a
victory.
If that happens, there is a po-
tential for a 75-75 tie between
the parties at the statehouse.
How long it takes to declare a
winner in District 105 depends
on how the votes play out.
“Those ballots could change
the direction of this race, and
once that occurs, I’m more than
confident either side will re-
quest a recount, and then once
that happens it will be a matter
See IRVING Page 13B
Hopefuls separated
by handful of votes
TEXAS HOUSE | IRVING
GOP incumbent leads
slightly in race that may
affect balance of power
By BRANDON FORMBY
Staff Writer
bformby@dallasnews.com
ELECTIONS ’08
ON THE
FRONT
PAGE
Even though
Democrats hold
most of the
elected offices
in Dallas
County, one
prize eludes
them: control of
the
Commissioners
Court.
Leading
conservatives
will meet to
discuss how to
rebuild the
Republican
Party, battered
by the election
and split over
its future.
Dollarwise
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