Find some time today to read an important story in the Texas Observer written by local journalist Steven Monacelli. It is titled “The Billionaire Behind the Bid to Break Dallas City Government.” The billionaire in question (though I doubt he’s actually a billionaire) is Monty Bennett. You know the name because I’ve written about him on this blog, covering his wacky January 6 conspiracy theory and his immense collar gap. Bennett is the main (if not the only) backer of Dallas HERO, the outfit that got props S, T, and U on your November ballot. Everyone in Dallas is against the propositions. Bennett, who lives in Highland Park, is for them.
Here’s Councilmember Paula Blackmon in the Observer article: “If passed, [the three propositions] would strip Dallas of the ability to self-govern by subjecting city decisions to the threat of lawsuits [and] to outside pressures from moneyed interests, like Monty Bennett, that don’t live within the city limits and take pleasure in disrupting local government with lawsuits that have cost taxpayers millions of dollars.”
Bennett controls the online “news” site Dallas Express, which is registered as a nonprofit. The Observer article raises serious questions about how he uses the outlet to further his own interests, questions that the IRS and SEC might be interested in answering. The Texas House of Representatives sees the Dallas Express as so suspect that it denied the organization a press credential. One expert says in the Observer story: “The charity is really not acting as a charity, it is acting as an advocate. … I’d recommend that charity get shut down.”
The Observer story also reveals that Bennett, through a company called Crowds on Demand, hired actors to protest outside of D Magazine’s office and call me a racist—which protest was covered only by the Dallas Express.
As I say, find the time to read this Texas Observer story. It’s long. It’s complicated. It’s important.
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