The Anchorman Returns: Mike Snyder Hopes Voters Remember His TV Persona — Not the Fake Ones He Created as a Consultant

He was, for much of his career, the most familiar face and voice of NBC5 news in Dallas. Granted, his longtime co-anchor, Jane McGarry, may have something to say about that. Oh, well. Both have moved on, dropping their anchors elsewhere: McGarry, now co-host of WFAA-TV's Good Morning Texas, left the local NBC station in July 2012, about two months after she was arrested for and pleaded no contest to DWI. Snyder, whose pay and profile had been reduced amid a station overhaul, retired two years earlier, in the summer of 2010. But now, Snyder is taking a bold if unexpected step to return to the public's eye -- as a politician. There is a glaring hitch. Given his name recognition, the local TV personality has a good shot at becoming Tarrant County's next tax assessor-collector. (The last guy, Ron Wright, left the job to pursue Joe Barton's 6th Congressional District seat after a sexting scandal forced the GOP congressman to jettison plans for another term.) Snyder is eager to fill the void left by Wright, a fellow Republican. But the nagging questions for the former TV personality are these: Which Mike Snyder will voters remember? Which one should they? Will they recall him as a reliable and trusted news anchor? Or, will voters recall the dirty tricks that Snyder pulled -- about three years after he left the TV station -- as a hired gun in one of the ugliest public relations battles we've seen in North Texas? He certainly put his credibility on the line.   Continue reading...