Election Wrap-up

Glen Maxey

Photo by Jana Birchum

Peace at the Tax Assessor?

Given the carpet-bombing nature of his rhetoric against incumbent Nelda Wells Spears, former state Rep. Glen Maxey was positively gracious to her after she shot down his entire squadron with 74% of the vote last week. Ever loyal to the Democrats, Maxey said in a statement that whatever shortcomings he felt Spears had: "I hereby pledge my full support to Ms. Spears and have this race as my number one priority in Travis County. Don Zimmerman [her Republican opponent in the fall] has a long history of political work that few of us could even charitably say has been constructive. ... On just about every issue where I've seen Don Zimmerman take a position, he's been wrong. I intend to help Ms. Spears in every way possible to send him packing."

Maxey also said he intends to continue his Democratic organizing work. "I'm working with the Obama campaign to help him win the maximum number of delegates at the Texas Democratic State Convention." Still, that wasn't quite good enough for ardent Spears supporter Bill Aleshire. In a March 7 reply to the Chronicle Newsdesk blog (austinchronicle.com/newsdesk), the former county judge – and tax assessor previous to Spears – wrote: "You need to know that Glen Maxey has yet to place a phone call to Nelda Spears to congratulate her. Perhaps he realizes that he also owes her an apology for the deceitful campaign he ran against her." – L.N.