Year in review: Spurred to action

From resident, to voter, to volunteer, to activist grass-roots energy surged in 2014, changing the local political landscape for a long time to come.

Rumbles began early in 2014 as the Denton Drilling Advisory Group launched a petition drive that would eventually bring about the first ban on hydraulic fracturing in the state.

People registered to vote in large numbers, showed up at the polls to cast their ballots and weighed in other city matters, large and small. Thousands signed another petition, and thousands more voted, to end the citys prohibition on liquor sales. A big public-private partnership unraveled as community support for a new convention center and hotel plummeted. Public opinion pushed both an obscure property maintenance rule for flag displays and the citys once-perfunctory legislative agenda back to the drawing board to better reflect local priorities.

Denton became the first Texas city to ban hydraulic fracturing after a citizen-driven proposition cruised to a landslide victory at the polls in November.

Although voter turnout statewide was thought to be the lowest in the nation, local turnout was higher than average for a gubernatorial election. Thousands of people registered to vote in Denton. Although not all those newbies cast ballots, the city saw more voters make their choice in the fracking ban than in any other municipal issue in recent history.

Dozens of cities in New York and elsewhere have banned fracking, but Texas is oil and gas country. So Dentons proposition over the rights of a Texas city to police what happens within its borders pushed the local battle into the national spotlight.

The campaign was the most expensive in the citys history, by far. Denton Taxpayers for a Strong Economy, which opposed the ban, far outraised and outspent Pass the Ban in its Frack-Free Denton campaign.

Denton Taxpayers pulled in close to $700,000 through Oct. 25, the latest campaign finance reporting date, a figure nearly 10 times the $75,000 raised by Pass the Ban. Chevron and Occidental Petroleum contributed $95,000 to defeat the ban even though neither operates any gas wells in Denton. EnerVest, XTO Energy and Devon Energy, which do have wells in Denton, all made six-figure donations that totaled more than $540,000.

Final campaign finance reports are due in the city secretarys office next month.

Denton Taxpayers sent out several mailers and had ads running in print, broadcast and social media, many of them with an image of a pink piggy bank being smashed by a gavel, in the final days before the election. The group also secured testimonials from former Texas Womans University chancellor Ann Stuart and former mayor Perry McNeill as well as support from the North Texas State Fair Association, the Denton Chamber of Commerce and the Denton County Republican Party, which bought its own ads opposing the ban.

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Year in review: Spurred to action