There is so much news on the mayoral front that I can barely keep up with it — Mayor Park Cities not running for re-election; U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison not running for re-election, which means Leppert may actually get to run for senator; M Streets councilwoman Angela Hunt considering running for mayor; and all the rest.

But we don’t need to mess with any of that. I have the perfect candidate: Dallas Observer columnist Jim Schutze.

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Why perfect, you ask?

• The city has already elected one Observer columnist as mayor, Laura Miller. And she is looking a whole lot better in retrospect.

• Jim worked with me at the Dallas Times Herald, and I like to think we’re pals. And who doesn’t want a pal as mayor?

• It would drive the bosses crazy at Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper. Schutze and The Morning News get along about as well as. … well, they don’t get along at all. I’d get almost too much column fodder out of that.

• Jim is ethical, hardworking, and doesn’t want to be a U.S. senator.

• We’d finally, once and for all, be rid of the Trinity toll road.