It's a boat-rocker versus the establishment in the bitter race for the Dallas City Council District 14, but the boat rocker is the incumbent.
Powerful establishment people are lining up behind challenger Matt Wood to unseat Councilman Philip Kingston in the district covering much of Downtown and Uptown Dallas.
Kingston, an attorney first elected in 2013, says his second re-election campaign has been energized by the attack campaign waged against him for being too negative.
"If you have a record like mine, and you really can't attack my record, then you have to make up stuff," Kingston said.
A Super PAC has raised big money for website video and mail ads accusing Kingston of rude behavior.
"I think they really messed up," Kingston said. "They showed there is a shadowy group of people out there who want to get rid of me."
Matt Wood, also an attorney, said he is uncomfortable with the attack campaign being waged against Kingston by the Super PAC.
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"The effort of the Super PAC has been sort of a mixed blessing, honestly," Wood said. "I've had to apologize for some of the things that they've done that I've had nothing to do with."
Wood said he has waged a positive campaign trying to show why he would be a better voice on the City Council to pursue many of the same things Kingston supports.
Wood has been endorsed by former Dallas Police Chief David Brown, The Dallas Morning News and many Dallas business and civic leaders.
"I think I'm just more of a collaborator," Wood said. "He often likes to find points of tension and argue for things as opposed to getting neighborhoods together."
Kingston opposed Mayor Mike Rawlings's plan for operation of Dallas Fair Park by pushing for competitive bids instead. Kingston supports taking a cut of Dallas Area Rapid Transit sales tax money to help solve a Dallas Police and Fire Pension System crisis, which the mayor strongly opposes. The DART money support helped Kingston win endorsement from the Dallas Police Association.
"I'm really running against 50 years of bad government in Dallas," Kingston said. "And all the people who make money off of abuse of our city government are the ones who funded the PAC and the ones who funded Mr. Woods."
Wood said he supports good government, too.
"I think we need watchdogs and we have several of them on the council. That's a good thing. That's not all that we need. We need some people who can work together," Wood said.
Early voting for municipal contests in Dallas and other North Texas cities begins Monday for the Saturday, May 6, elections.
