Did rally unleash new political power?

Did last April's immigration "megamarch" in Dallas unleash new political power?

Frank Trejo, in the Dallas Morning News, says no, at least not yet:

The effect so far on voter registrations, however, has not been as dramatic. Bruce Sherbet, Dallas County elections administrator, said about 1,500 new voters have registered since April. That's fairly normal for a year without a presidential election, he said. Dr. Cal Jillson [a political scientist at Southern Methodist University] said it's implausible to believe that a march will cause any group to suddenly take political control of the city.

On the other hand, Jim Schutze of the Dallas Observer says... well, also no.

Trejo interviewed Sherbet but buried his remarks and went with a higher figure, 1,500 registrations, which I happen to know was misrepresented in the story. Sherbet does not believe those 1,500 came from Domingo Domingo [sic]. Those 1,500 are par for the course, the number you'd expect anyway for this period of time.

They both say 1,500, right? The both say that's about normal, right? So, where's the disagreement? According to Mr Schutze, the DMN story "betrays such a fear of the truth and its repercussions that the end product winds up being simply incomprehensible." Huh? Mr Schutze admits that he's "not saying Trejo contradicted the truth." Apparently, then, truth is not Mr Schutze's priority. Dismissing the impact of the march on Dallas politics is.

Mr Trejo reports the facts -- the march had no immediate impact on voter rolls. Mr Schutze wants to wave the facts in the face of state representative Domingo Garcia -- the march was a "dud" that "meant zip". That kind of in-your-face language may sell papers (which the Dallas Observer technically is), but it's "piss poor" journalism in its own way.

That didn't stop Trey Garrison at DallasBlog.com and Tim Rogers at FrontBurner from throwing kisses Mr Schutze's way. Wick Allison then weighs in with an "I told you so" and a link to a June story in D Magazine that explains the demographic reason why April's march may eventually be seen as a turning point in Dallas' history, regardless of how many new voters registered that day. It doesn't matter that Hispanics vote in lower percentages than other groups. With population trends as they are, Mr Allison says "the handwriting is on the voting booth curtain."

Mr Allison doesn't let on that his story more closely aligns with Mr Trejo's piece in the DMN than it does with anything Jim Schutze, Trey Garrison or Tim Rogers had to say on the subject.