Community Weighs in On Price, Caraway Battle

DALLAS (CBS11) - Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price sent a formal letter of apology to radio station Heaven 97 Wednesday.

The representative for the District 3 seat said he regretted his involvement in a high profile shouting and shoving match inside the radio station's studio on Monday.

Price and contender Dwaine Caraway shouted insults and obscenities, while Caraway had to be physically restrained yelling, "I'll kill you" toward Price.

With the election for the county's District 3 seat set for Tuesday, March 1, voters are talking about their view of the brawl.

At Top's Cafe in Oak Cliff, the lunch crowd reflects the demographics of 682,000 residents in a district that includes the cities of DeSoto, Glenn Heights, Cedar Hill and 10 other locales including a large swatch of southern Dallas... older working-class black, Latino and white voters.

"At a Christian radio station. They profess to be Christian. It just didn't look good, but I've known these guys for a long time," said Walter Keith a 40-year resident who said he admires the pair but criticized their display of disdain for one another..

Mollie Finch Belt publishes the Dallas Examiner, the weekly paper known for encouraging voter turnout.

Belt says the District 3 race garners a great deal of public interest based on the top two candidates' high profiles.  But the fight brought public admonishment to both men and Belt says some voters saw the outburst as an embarrassment.

"People are emotional about it. People who work so hard to get people to vote. They don't like it. They don't want to see any negative," says Belt.