San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Reasons why District 9 doesn’t need Von Dohlen
A couple of years ago, Roger Legrand reluctantly met Patrick Von Dohlen for breakfast.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss whether Legrand, a political consultant and former City Council aide, wanted to run the 2019 council campaign of Von Dohlen, a financial adviser and culture-wars crusader.
Legrand was reluctant for a variety of reasons. Although Legrand leans conservative, he had reservations about Von Dohlen’s brand of social conservatism.
Over the years, Von Dohlen — who is currently locked in a City Council runoff with District 9 incumbent John Courage — and his San Antonio Family Association have directed their fire at gays and lesbians, Planned Parenthood and arts organizations.
They have championed the inhumane practice of gay conversion therapy. They have derided the city’s participation in a federally funded, voluntary teencontraception program as “chemical abortion.” And they have disrupted the city’s annual MLK Day march with banners denouncing gay marriage.
Legrand also recounted a strange brush with Von Dohlen back in 2013, during the heated debate over the passage of a nondiscrimination ordinance extending civil rights protections to the LGBTQ community.
At the time, Legrand served on the staff of Elisa Chan, the council’s strongest opponent of the NDO, which made her an ally of Von Dohlen and his organization.
The issue compelled hundreds of residents to show up for a citizens-to-be-heard council session that lasted past midnight.
One young girl had come to speak about the value of city recreational programs and had to wait for hours to speak. ThenCouncilman (and current Mayor) Ron Nirenberg showed his appreciation by awarding her a special certificate.
When Von Dohlen heard about the girl’s certificate, he called Chan’s office and demanded that his daughters — who attended the council meeting with him — receive similar citations from Chan, according to Legrand.
“He wouldn’t take no for an answer,” Legrand said.
About five years later, at the instigation of their mutual friend Weston Martinez, Legrand agreed to meet with Von Dohlen to talk about the 2019 council campaign.
At Von Dohlen’s North Side office, the candidate expressed his view that Courage was a socialist who needed to be challenged by a conservative.
Legrand agreed that challenging Courage from the right could be a viable move, but he remembers telling Von Dohlen that hardcore social conservatives rarely fare well with District 9 voters.
Two weeks later, they met again for breakfast at Magnolia Pancake Haus.
Legrand, who ordered freshsqueezed grapefruit juice for himself, intended to pay for his own breakfast. But Von Dohlen insisted on picking up the tab, according to Legrand.
“He’s looking over the check and sees a line item for the grapefruit juice for $6 or $7,” Legrand said.
“We are in this restaurant and Patrick flips out. Like, loses it. He said, ‘That grapefruit juice was half the cost of my meal. You call yourself a conservative? What kind of conservative would order something this expensive?’ ”
Legrand says the utter weirdness of the encounter caused him to block Von Dohlen’s phone number, but Martinez’s calls got through. Legrand says Martinez told him Von Dohlen felt bad about the breakfast incident and wanted to get together again to talk about hiring Legrand to design a negative mail piece against Courage.
They met at Taco Cabana. Von Dohlen ordered an egg taco. The server brought him a taco with potatoes in it, according to Legrand.
“So he’s berating this server for bringing him the wrong taco, even though she didn’t take the order and presumably didn’t assemble the taco,” Legrand said. “I couldn’t believe it. So, I shut my laptop and left and that was the last I ever heard from him.”
In a statement provided for this column, Von Dohlen said, “(Legrand) and I had only a few conversations. We had a difference of opinion on the (2019) campaign but departed on amicable terms from my perspective.”
Legrand came away convinced that Von Dohlen lacks the temperament to serve on City Council.
“He would be absolutely awful at this job,” Legrand said. “He doesn’t have the tact or the statesmanship.
“I talked to him about City Council issues, not just ideological issues, and he had no knowledge on road repairs or SAWS or anything like that. Patrick saw it as entirely superfluous to what he wanted to do on the council.”
Everything about the Von Dohlen candidacy suggests a lack of fitness for the office. He doesn’t want to serve his constituents. He wants to get on the dais to grandstand on religious issues and attack his colleagues for what he perceives as their moral failings.
A municipal Marjorie Taylor Greene will make a lot of noise, but won’t do much good for the residents of District 9.