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Council elections
May 1, 2009
Mayoral candidates ask each other questions
One of the highlights of the Real Estate Council of Austin campaign forums is that they always let the candidates ask a question of one of their opponents. Here’s a rundown of what mayoral candidates Lee Leffingwell, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Brewster McCracken, Josiah Ingalls and David Buttross asked each other today.
Leffingwell said McCracken used to be a strong proponent of light rail, but on the campaign trail has opposed holding a rail election next year, as Leffingwell has proposed. He asked McCracken whether he supports light rail or not.
McCracken said he still supports rail, but that the city and taxpayers can’t afford to take on the debt now to pay for it, given the grim state of the economy.
Strayhorn must be confident that she’s going to make it into a runoff with Leffingwell, because she rattled off a list of complaints about his council record then challenged him to two one-hour runoff debates. “I’d welcome that opportunity,” Leffingwell said.
McCracken said Leffingwell has only recently begun to talk about wanting to create jobs in the clean energy, bio tech and digital media fields (an idea McCracken has touted for months) but has also warned against “putting all our eggs in one basket.” He asked what other industries Leffingwell would recruit.
Leffingwell said local small businesses are “inherently diverse” and he would work to promote them. He said he has also talked about creating jobs in green energy, bio tech and digital media on his campaign Web site and as far back as his 2005 council campaign.
Ingalls asked McCracken why he didn’t take a stand and try to get Ingalls and Buttross included in a KXAN debate that they weren’t invited to. (Strayhorn and Leffingwell said the day before the debate that they wouldn’t go unless Ingalls and Buttross were invited. KXAN did allow all five to attend.)
McCracken said KXAN asked him, Leffingwell and Strayhorn early this year to attend the debate, and they all agreed to. “I kept my word. I said I’d go to the debate. I didn’t add any caveats or pull a last-minute political stunt,” he said.
Buttross noted that Leffingwell has been endorsed by 35 groups, including the city’s unions, and asked if that would entitle those groups to special treatment.
“Most of them are political clubs and have no financial interest in this at all,” Leffingwell said. “You could argue that a few, potentially, have some skin in the game, but the truth of the matter is that everyone that’s endorsed me has endorsed me because they believe I’m the best candidate for mayor.”
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April 16, 2009
Correction on Leffingwell and parks in bond election
Last night, during the mayoral debate sponsored by the Statesman and KUT, I blogged on the candidate’s different positions on Council Member and mayoral candidate Lee Leffingwell’s proposal for a bond election in 2010.
I mistakenly wrote that Leffingwell wanted parks included in it. He didn’t mention parks.
Leffingwell talked only about transportation projects, saying that Austin is the most congested mid-size city in the country. He said he still wants rail included in the bond package but said it wasn’t likely to be included because an election authorizing the expansion of the rail system would also be needed.
The other four — Brewster McCracken, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, David Buttross and Josiah Ingalls — opposed a bond election next year, saying in different ways that the city couldn’t afford it now.
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April 13, 2009
LULAC representative weighs in one single-member districts
Gavino Fernandez, the coordinator of El Concilio and deputy director of the local League of United Latin American Citizens chapter, said Monday that he supports a proposal in the state Legislature that would mandate single-member districts in Austin.
The proposal would divide Austin into six districts of roughly equal population, and each would elect their own council member. Council members and the mayor are now elected citywide.
Council members said Monday that, despite differing opinions on single-member districts, they did not want the Legislature mandating a change and prefer that Austin voters approve a change.
To which Fernandez said in a statement: “Is it not ironic that this is the same government that went to the Legislature to enact laws to protect birds and bees in West Austin?”
The bill was proposed by Sen. Jeff Wentworth, a San Antonio Republican whose district extends into South Austin. Wentworth has noted that Austin is by far the largest Texas city not to have single-member districts.
Proponents of Austin’s current system say it heads off parochialism and protects black representation. Currently, one of the six council seats is set aside for a black council member, another for a Hispanic council member.
A switch to single-member districts would probably require 14 council members to ensure a majority-black district. Hispanics now make up about a quarter of Austin’s population, but only 14 percent of its City Council.
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April 9, 2009
Highlights from the environmental forum
City Council candidates have gathered here at City Hall for the Austin Combined Environmental Forum. The candidates for the City Council have just finished, and the mayoral candidates will start shortly.
Here’s a recap:
Place 2: In the most interesting round, Incumbent Mike Martinez defended his push to delay a vote on the controversial Wildflower development — a move that infuriated Austin environmental activists — while opponent Joe Quintero accused the environmental groups who organized the forum of hypocrisy.
Martinez said he pushed for the delay on the Wildflower project because it had seemed to meet all city regulations, but an 11th-hour meeting with environmental activists left him with questions. The council decided to delay the vote until August, and some activists were upset because the council didn’t take public comment on the project before the delay. Martinez said the delay will require the project to go through the city’s evaluation process again, during which time the public will have opportunities to weigh in.
Martinez, answering a question about whether he would push for the closure of Pure Casting, a company that some activists say is polluting its East Austin neighborhood, said he was the first council member to make such a call.
Quintero looked incredulously at the panel when the question was put to him and responded that most of the environmental groups sponsoring the forum had not helped East Austin much while pushing for projects not wanted there, such as a recycling facility.
“You allow those things, then you want me to answer the question of whether you want Pure Casting in East Austin? … There’s a double standard.”
Place 6: Challenger Sam Osemene spent much of his time criticizing incumbent Sheryl Cole, who said she has worked effectively on environmental issues during her time on the council.
Cole said she isn’t yet convinced the city should delay building its Water Treatment Plant 4, a project some environmental groups don’t like because of its location and argue isn’t necessary with the city’s water-conservation initiative. But, Cole said, if Austin’s conservation programs continue curbing the city’s water use, she would consider it.
Osemene said the plant isn’t necessary and pledged to delay it if elected.
Place 1: Perla Cavazos and Chris Riley spent most of their session agreeing with one another. For instance, on a question about where Austin should get its energy in the future, both said Austin should aggressively switch to solar, wind and other sources of renewable energy.
Place 5 candidate Bill Spelman, who is running unopposed, pledged to work on multimodal transportation, work on various environmental issues and head off urban sprawl, which will require more population density in the city.
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March 22, 2009
Council candidates take questions
City Council candidates took questions today about a new animal shelter, locally grown food, the city’s Web site and other topics at a forum hosted by the citizens’ group Better Austin Today. Ten of the 12 candidates for five seats showed up.
We thought we’d highlight one question to give a taste of what each candidate had to say. Answers below are summarized and paraphrased.
Question: What would you do to ensure that we have a more citizen-driven city government?
David Buttross (mayoral candidate): Change the City Council to district representatives. (Right now, all 7 council members represent the whole city, and some folks say it’s tough for different parts of town to get their issues addressed.)
Brewster McCracken (mayoral candidate): Build consensus around projects that will be included in a 2012 bond election that he’s proposed. The election would be for projects like neighborhood parks, athletic fields, swimming pools, bike paths and sidewalks.
Josiah Ingalls (mayoral candidate): Pick up the phone to alert neighborhoods to issues that might affect them, rather than just posting information on the city’s Web site.
Lee Leffingwell (mayoral candidate): Post council meeting agenda items earlier so that the public has more time to review them; hold some council meetings outside of City Hall; form a cabinet of community leaders to advise him; hold an election proposing a mixed system of citywide and district-based council seats.
Chris Riley (Place 1 candidate): Make the city’s Web site more user-friendly and add data; overhaul the infamous “neighborhood planning” process; better heed the policy advice of the city’s many volunteer boards; hold office hours during which any citizen can stop by.
Perla Cavazos (Place 1 candidate): Allow more time for public comment before making key decisions, such as choosing a firm to write a long-term growth plan; increase citizen participation in the crafting of the city budget.
Mike Martinez (Place 2 incumbent): The lead advocate for creating a mixed system of citywide and district council seats, he said he’s continue pushing for an election to let voters weigh in on the idea.
Bill Spelman (only Place 5 candidate): Agreed with Martinez that some sort of mixed system or geographic representation is needed.
Sam Osemene (Place 6 candidate): Said the city needs to listen better to the people and stop offering subsidies to big companies.
Sheryl Cole (Place 6 incumbent): Upgrade the city’s Web site; hold some meetings outside of City Hall; do a better job of listening to the city’s many commissions.
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March 9, 2009
List of Austin council candidates is set
The final slate of Austin City Council candidates is now set. Today at 5 p.m. was the deadline to file to run for the May 9 election.
Five people will vie to be Austin’s next mayor: council members Brewster McCracken and Lee Leffingwell, former mayor Carole Keeton Strayhorn, real estate investor David Buttross and Josiah Ingalls, a houseman at a local hotel.
Only one of the four other council races, Place 1, is looking particularly competitive. Public policy analyst Perla Cavazos and attorney Chris Riley will compete for that seat, which Leffingwell is vacating.
Bill Spelman, a former council member and a public affairs professor at the University of Texas, is guaranteed a seat on the dais. He’s the only person running for McCracken’s current seat, Place 5.
Council Members Mike Martinez and Sheryl Cole will compete against lesser-known candidates in their re-election bids. Martinez will face Jose Quintero, a sales representative for a wine distribution company, in Place 2. In Place 6, Cole will face Sam Osemene, a government professor at Austin Community College.
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February 25, 2009
Riley and Cavazos split union endorsements
The city’s police and EMS unions have endorsed Chris Riley in the race for Place 1 on the Austin City Council. But the firefighters’ union and the Central Labor Council — which is made up of 30 smaller groups, including Austin’s non-public-safety employees’ union — are backing candidate Perla Cavazos.
Riley is a lawyer; Cavazos is a former policy analyst for state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr.
Place 1 is shaping up as the only competitive race this spring, aside from the mayor’s race. Mike Martinez and Sheryl Cole are running for re-election in places 2 and 6, and have drawn no significant challengers. Former council member Bill Spelman is the sole candidate for Place 5, the seat being vacated by Brewster McCracken, who’s running for mayor.
The unions have wielded considerable clout in past council races, aggressively raising money and campaigning for their candidates. But they’ve kept a fairly low profile in the past few campaign cycles, so it will be interesting to see how actively they campaign for Riley, Cavazos and Lee Leffingwell, their choice for mayor.
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January 15, 2009
Candidates report fundraising
Today is the first chance the public will have to see how fundraising is going in the May city council races. There will likely be four seats up this year, in addition to the mayoral race.
The reports are due to the city clerk’s office by 5 p.m. Thursday. To view the reports, check the city clerk’s Web site.
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January 7, 2009
Mike Martinez kicking off re-election campaign Jan. 14
City Council Member Mike Martinez will kick off his bid for a second term on Wednesday, Jan. 14 when he holds a fundraiser at Nuevo Leon Mexican Restaurant in East Austin.
“I couldn’t think of a better and more appropriate location to launch my re-election bid to Place 2 on the City Council,” Martinez said in a statement. The fundraiser is scheduled to run from go from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
No candidate has so far declared a challenge to Martinez in the May city elections.
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December 18, 2008
Candidates gear up for council races
While city watchers are wondering who is in or out of the spring mayoral race, a small crowd is gathering for the rest of the seats for Austin City Council.
Chris Riley, former Planning Commission chair and Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association founder, and Rick Cofer, Solid Waste Advisory Commission vice chair and Pecan Springs-Springdale Neighborhood Association vice president, are among those who have filed paperwork showing that they seek a council seat and have appointed a campaign treasurer.
Former planning commissioner Perla Cavazos also is considering a run and has filed paperwork. And former City Council member Bill Spelman already has announced for Place 5.
With as many as four council seats up in 2009, plus a mayoral contest, candidates are already beating the bushes for donations and holding campaign events.
Feb. 7 is the first day a candidate may file for a place on the May 9 ballot.
Council places two, five and six, currently held by Mike Martinez, Brewster McCracken and Sheryl Cole, respectively, are up for grabs. McCracken announced last week that he is running for mayor.
Riley and Cavazos said they are interested in Place 1, which is the seat of Lee Leffingwell, who also is considering a run for mayor. Cofer has also been mentioned as a candidate for the spot, but did not specify on his treasurer paperwork. Leffingwell can’t announce a campaign or start raising money until Jan. 9 if he wants to avoid resigning his Place 1 seat and triggering a special election.
Trevor Titman, who according to his Web site is a college dropout whose political experience includes a term as the seventh grade Latin club president, also filed paperwork indicating that he is seeking a council seat.
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December 15, 2008
PAC kicks off efforts for Leffingwell candidacy
The Council Member hasn’t officially tossed his hat into the ring, but the Draft Lee Leffingwell for Mayor political action committee at noon today announced its support of him, citing Leffingwell’s knowledge of various local issues and describing him as the person who can lead the city in a tough economy.
“I know what the job of mayor requires,” said former Austin mayor Gus Garcia, one of the committee’s 10 co-chairs. “Lee’s the right person for the job.”
The various backgrounds of the co-chairs allowed them to speak to what they considered Leffingwell’s strengths, ranging from the environment, social services, union relations and his perspective on Austin’s growth and transportation issues.
Aside from Garcia, the other co-chairs include: Mandy Dealey, planning commission member; Alicia Del Rio, Texas president of the National Women’s Political Caucus; Amy Everhart, a Sierra Club organizer; Joene Grissom, past chair of Community Action Network and Child Care Council; Jack Kirfman, of the American Federation of State, Council and Municipal Employees; Ramey Ko, president of Capital Area Asian American Democrats; Joe Pinnelli, a general contractor and past president of Austin Heritage Society; Ted Siff, a publisher and past executive director of Austin Parks Foundation; and Beverly Silas, former executive director of Envision Central Texas.
Committee members declined to speak about the differences between Leffingwell and Council Member Brewster McCracken, who announced his mayoral bid a week ago.
They were not there to talk about that, Garcia said, adding that that would come out during the campaigns. “We’re here supporting Lee because we like the way he does things,” Garcia said.
“We want to make sure he knows there’s a bunch of people who support what he’s considering doing,” said co-chair Siff, who is the committee treasurer.
The committee also today provided a list of more than 100 supporters, including Council Member Mike Martinez and Paul Carrozza, of RunTex.
McCracken, 42, is the only person so far to formally announce a mayoral bid. Former Texas comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, former Texas Monthly publisher Mike Levy and Council Member Lee Leffingwell have also expressed interest in the job. Leffingwell can’t announce a campaign or start raising money until Jan. 9 if he wants to avoid resigning his Place 1 seat and triggering a special election.
Two other people have filed preliminary paperwork to run for mayor: perennial council candidate Jennifer Gale and Austin resident Josiah Ingalls.
The election is May 9.
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December 8, 2008
It's official: McCracken will run for mayor
Surrounded by more than 100 supporters, Austin Council Member Brewster McCracken announced today that he plans to run for mayor.
“By innovating while remaining true to our community values, we will achieve the promise of what a great American city can be,” he told the crowd gathered in a cavernous white room at Heliovolt, a photovoltaic company.
McCracken, who is currently serving his second, three-year council term, said his campaign will center on four themes:
Creating jobs in biotech, health care, film, digital media and clean energy (hence the campaign kickoff at Heliovolt);
Leading the Pecan Street Project, an effort to draw renewable energy experts to Austin to develop a new electrical grid and utility business model;
Starting a program to train Austinites in green-collar and health care jobs, and creating an endowment fund to invest in health care, affordable housing and open space;
Improving Austin’s quality of life by paying for new sidewalks, neighborhood parks and athletic fields through a 2012 bond election
McCracken warned that Austin will face tough times in the coming months and years, as the economy continues to slow. (The council has already slashed $25 million from the 2009 budget and will likely have to cut more.)
But McCracken noted that when Austin’s economy faltered in the 1980s, city leaders lured the semiconductor industry here instead of giving up. Austin needs to do the same thing now, he said.
“We need to be cautious about making new financial commitments,” he said. “But this is the wrong time for inaction and lack of vision.”
McCracken, 42, is the only person so far to formally announce a mayoral bid. Former Texas comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, former Texas Monthly publisher Mike Levy and Council Member Lee Leffingwell have also expressed interest in the job. Leffingwell can’t announce a campaign or start raising money until Jan. 9 if he wants to avoid resigning his Place 1 seat and triggering a special election.
Environmental activist Ted Siff filed paperwork at the city clerk’s office this morning to form a political action committee called Draft Lee Leffingwell for Mayor to start raising money for Leffingwell.
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December 5, 2008
McCracken makes mayoral bid official Monday
Austin City Council Member Brewster McCracken, whose interest in becoming Austin mayor has been an open secret for over a year, will officially announce Monday that he’ll run for the job this spring.
The announcement is set for Monday at noon at Heliovolt, an Austin photovoltaic company.
McCracken, who’s serving his second term, joins a crowded list of possible contenders to replace Mayor Will Wynn, whose term ends in June. Austin City Council Member Lee Leffingwell, former Austin mayor and Texas comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn and retired Texas Monthly publisher Mike Levy have also expressed interest in the job, though only Strayhorn has filed a campaign treasurer form with the clerk’s office, freeing her to start raising money.
A Corpus Christi native, McCracken, 42, went to Princeton then got a law degree from the University of Texas. He worked as a prosecutor in Harris County before coming to Austin to work for private law firms.
He first ran for council in 2002, losing to Betty Dunkerley. He was elected in 2003 and won re-election in 2006 by 72 percent of the vote.
McCracken has a self-taught interest in New Urbanism — creating dense, walkable areas where people can live, work, and play — and has led three major land-use initiatives.
He worked with residents, developers and business groups for more than two years to write design rules for new shopping areas. He also helped write incentives to encourage developers to build projects that have a dense mix of housing, shops and offices along major roads.
And McCracken led the 2006 effort to write the controversial “McMansion ordinance,” which limits the size of of new or renovated homes in older, central-city neighborhoods.
In 2004, a citizens group petitioned to try to oust McCracken and Wynn for voting in favor of a toll-road plan. The group eventually removed McCracken as a target. The petition effort failed.
McCracken has been a vocal critic of cost increases in police and firefighter contracts, and last year he pushed for, then backed away from, a ban on panhandling.
He’s backed Wynn’s idea to have a public vote on building a Central Austin passenger rail system that would connect the airport, downtown and the University of Texas, as well as the Triangle and Mueller developments.
And McCracken recently helped form a group called the Pecan Street Project, which aims to bring great minds of clean energy — and the money and jobs that come with them — to Austin to develop the electrical grid and utility business model of the future.
McCracken has a 4-year-old son, Ford, with his ex-wife Mindy Montford, who lost a bid for Travis County District Attorney this year. Last month, McCracken married Sarah Groos, a program manager at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation.
Two other people have filed to run for mayor: perennial council candidate Jennifer Gale and Austin resident Josiah Ingalls.
The election is May 9.
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October 20, 2008
Prop. 2 campaigns heat up with start of voting
The start of early voting resulted in dueling press conferences today over Proposition 2, a City of Austin ballot referendum.
If approved, Prop. 2 would prohibit the city from giving financial incentives to current or future retail projects.
The measure landed on the Nov. 4 ballot after the group Stop Domain Subsidies gathered thousands of signatures to prevent the city from paying out millions in tax rebates that it promised Simon Property Group Inc., owner of the Domain shopping center in North Austin.
Stop Domain’s founder, Brian Rodgers, said today that Simon is hypocritical because the company recently lobbied the El Paso City Council not to give millions in tax incentives to a competitor.
His evidence? A letter Simon sent to El Paso residents.
“Giving up sales tax revenue will cost taxpayers millions of dollars and will make funds available to the developer which will lead to tenant inducements ultimately favoring one shopping center owner over others,” the letter said.
Stop Domain has argued virtually the same thing; that the the Domain subsidies hurt small businesses by giving Simon an advantage.
“I don’t think it’s fair to use my tax dollars to subsidize a competitor,” said Matthew Culmo, one of two dozen small-business owners who joined Rodgers at a press conference. Culmo owns By George, an upscale clothing store on South Congress Avenue and Lamar Boulevard.
At a later press conference, Mayor Will Wynn, surrounded by a crowd of supporters, urged voters to reject Prop. 2, saying the city must honor its agreements. Prop. 2’s passage would trigger lawsuits, lower Austin’s stellar AAA bond rating and unravel parts of the Mueller agreement to redevelop the airport into homes, stores and offices, he said.
Kathleen Shields, a senior vice president at Simon, said in a statement that the El Paso shopping area is not a good point of comparison because it is a very different kind of project than the Domain and is only a proposal, not an already-built project with an existing agreement.
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June 14, 2008
Morrison wins council seat
Laura Morrison achieved a landslide victory Saturday night in a runoff for an Austin City Council seat.
Morrison, a disaster management consultant, got 65.2 percent of the vote; her opponent, urban planner Cid Galindo, got 34.8 percent.
Morrison will replace retiring council member Betty Dunkerley at a June 25 swearing-in ceremony.
Galindo said he was very proud of the campaign he ran and hasn’t ruled out trying against next year. At least two council seats will be up for grabs then, and possibly a few more if Council Member Brewster McCracken and Council Member Lee Leffingwell decide to run for mayor.
“I’m committed to this city and to the idea of how we need to grow and I will be involved in the future of this city,” he said.
The runoff campaign turned caustic in its final days as Galindo and Morrison traded barbs in a series of mailers, TV ads and phone calls.
Galindo accused Morrison of wanting to require homeowners to make energy-efficiency upgrades before they can sell their homes. Morrison said she would not support such a mandate.
Morrison has painted Galindo as a real estate developer who would promote rapid growth and sprawl as a council member.
Galindo said he is an urban planner who wants to reduce sprawl by creating seven town centers (each with a densely packed mix of housing, offices and shops) on Austin’s eastern perimeter.
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June 2, 2008
Galindo slams Morrison in mailer
A runoff election that has been very tame is suddenly getting heated.
Place 4 Austin City Council candidate Cid Galindo has sent out a mailer bashing his opponent, Laura Morrison. It says that Morrison supports requiring energy-efficiency upgrades to homes; wants to delay building an affordable neighborhood downtown; and wants to “install a $36 million city computer system that would allow identity thieves to invade our privacy if we communicate with a council member on the Internet.”
Efficiency upgrades is an idea that a city task force is considering, but it is not a formal proposal yet. Galindo says he is categorically against the concept, because it would financially burden homeowners. Greening up homes should be done through incentives instead of a mandate, he said.
Morrison stressed that there is no proposal yet, and said she won’t support any plan that unduly burdens folks who want to sell their homes.
Galindo thinks the city should choose a developer soon to redevelop the Green Water Treatment Plant downtown. That city-owned land is one of the best remaining options for building affordable housing downtown, he said. Morrison said city leaders should slow down and take more time to gather residents’ ideas for the land.
“Each of the (bidding) developers stated that they will need some kind of public financing, which means taxpayer dollars. I think there needs to be some kind of public scrutiny because that’s our money,” she said.
The computer system item refers to a citizen-initiated referendum that voters rejected in 2006 that would have required the city to post more public records online. Morrison campaigned for the referendum.
Galindo’s claim is “absurd political propaganda,” she said. “I believe in open government. Since the voters turned down the (2006 referendum), we’ll continue to strive to find other ways to have an open, transparent government.”
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May 21, 2008
Council canvasses May 10 election
It’s official: Lee Leffingwell will hold on to the Place 1 council seat and Randi Shade steps into Place 3.
The council canvassed the results of the May 10 vote at a budget work session this morning, noting that the newly and re-elected council members will begin their terms on June 25.
“Please join me in congratulating Council Member Lee Leffingwell,” Mayor Will Wynn said, handing the Place 1 council member a certificate.
“I’m just glad to note that there are no speakers in opposition,” Leffingwell said, drawing laughter.
Shade, who defeated Place 3 incumbent Jennifer Kim, was not at the meeting.
But election season isn’t over yet.
Cid Galindo and Laura Morrison have to get through a run-off for the Place 4 seat. They will draw names this afternoon to see whose name goes first on the ballot for the June 14 election.
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May 13, 2008
Cravey won't endorse in Place 4 runoff
Robin Cravey has decided he won’t endorse either of the candidates in a runoff for the Austin City Council Place 4 seat.
Cravey, an Austin lawyer and poet, finished third out of the six candidates vying for Place 4 in Saturday’s election.
Disaster management consultant Laura Morrison and urban planner Cid Galindo got the most votes Saturday and are now headed for a June 14 runoff. Both will try to convince Cravey’s fans to now support them. We’re guessing that the environmentally minded folks who backed Cravey are more likely to support Morrison, a former Austin Neighborhoods Council president who’s been endorsed by the Austin Sierra Club.
Cravey said he spoke to Galindo and Morrison by phone Monday. “Both of them were gracious in their praise of my campaign, and I congratulated each of them on their success. I expressed my hope that the two of them would be able to continue running positive campaigns in the runoff,” he said.
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May 7, 2008
Early voting totals out
Even by recent standards, Saturday’s local elections haven’t galvanized Travis County’s electorate.
Early voting ended Tuesday. Just under 20,000 people around the county cast ballots in city council, school board and other local races.
That’s 3.47 percent of the county’s eligible voters, which is actually a bigger early turnout than last year’s May election — but last year Austin didn’t have any city council races, either.
A light turnout in early voting is no surprise. In the May elections you don’t get Obama-rama and Clintonitis, nor do you get cigar-smoking Jewish country singers or Governor Good Hair.
According to the Travis County clerk’s office, the recent record for early turnout in a May election was in 2005 with 5.4 percent of the registered voters, many riled up about the proposed smoking ban. The next year, when Mayor Will Wynn cruised to an easy May victory, 4.5 percent of the county’s voters went to the polls early.
County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir said it’s hard to say what this year’s early voting totals will mean for turnout. But she said it’s a safe bet turnout will be light Saturday. In the May 2005 election, the biggest local one in years, a whopping 14 percent of the county’s voters cast ballots.
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May 2, 2008
Kim, Shade square off on ads, mailers
Jennifer Kim and Randi Shade continue to trade barbs in the Place 3 City Council race. Shade is questioning whether Kim stretched the truth on some of the points in her TV ad and campaign mailers.
Here’s the low-down on those points:
Pay raises: Kim says in her TV ad that she refused to accept a pay raise that the council approved in 2006.
Shade says: Kim pushed for the pay raise initially, then backed away from it when the public slammed the idea. We called Council Member
Betty Dunkerley to ask what happened; Dunkerley said Kim approached her in 2006 and asked her to propose the pay raise.
Kim says: She was only interested in a raise to be able to put the extra money into an IRA and save for retirement. (Council members can’t contribute to the city’s retirement system.) Kim said she also wanted an independent body to review the council salaries and recommend whether they deserved a raise. When that idea was taken off the table, Kim said she voted for the raise but refused to personally accept it.
Water treatment plant: Kim says in a mailer that she successfully prevented a new water treatment plant from being developed in the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve.”
Shade says: Kim is exaggerating. Kim was the only council member who voted against putting a plant in the BCP, but Kim supported building a new plant in East Austin that some community activists opposed, Shade said. Also, other council members took the lead on finding an alternative plant site.
Kim says: Before the council chose an alternative plant site, she was talking with environmental board members and working behind the scenes to “build up the pressure in the community and the city staff to do the right thing” and not build it on environmentally sensitive land.
Domain subsidies: Kim says in her TV ad that she opposes tax giveaways to corporate shopping malls.
Kim says: She supports a citizen-initiated charter amendment that would prevent the city from paying out a tax-subsidies agreement for the Domain shopping center. (But she thinks the Mueller airport redevelopment agreement would have to be tweaked first so that the amendment would not negatively affect it.)
Shade says: Kim is being hypocritical, because she and the rest of the council approved a resolution in December that says the city should honor the Domain subsidies agreement.
Campaign consultant: Kim says in a mailer that “Randi Shade’s top campaign adviser is a powerful City Hall insider and developer lobbyist who already advises several council members.”
Kim says: The advisor (Mark Nathan) lobbied for developments such as Barton Place, a condo project planned near Zilker Park. He also worked on the campaigns of five out of seven sitting council members. “He’s making money by lobbying the council members for special interests and those same council members owe their elections to him.”
Shade says: Nathan’s lobbying registration with the city expired in December and he did not renew it. Nathan notes that Kim asked him to work for his campaign before he decided to work for Shade. Nathan says that in eight years of working in city politics, he has only lobbied for two projects and adds that the developer of one project is supporting Kim’s campaign this year.
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May 1, 2008
Free cab rides for seniors on election day
Senior citizens can catch a free cab ride to the polls on election day.
Lone Star Cab, through a partnership with Council Member Mike Martinez’s office, will be offering trips to and from voting locations for residents age 60 and older.
The free rides will be available between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on May 10. Three city council seats are up for election that day.
“Voting is one of the fundamental rights that we all have in this country, and I applaud Lone Star’s efforts to facilitate exercising that right through an important community service for our seniors,” Martinez said in a statement.
Interested senior voters should contact Solomon Kassa at Lone Star Cab for more information and to reserve a ride between May 4 and May 8. He can be reached at 836-4900.
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April 25, 2008
Kim consultant steps down
Matt Hersh, a general consultant to Council Member Jennifer Kim’s re-election campaign, said today that he’s stepping down.
Hersh e-mailed a letter to Kim’s supporters today saying that his wife is eight months pregnant and he’s leaving to spend more time with his family.
He wrote that in the six months he has worked for Kim, “I grew to have tremendous respect for her as a person and as an elected official. She is unbelievably smart and has a tremendous passion about policy and the issues. Most of all, she has done a good job and deserves to be re-elected,” he said.
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April 23, 2008
Kim knocks Shade on SOS comments
Council Member Jennifer Kim is criticizing comments that her re-election opponent, Randi Shade, made recently about the Save Our Springs Ordinance.
Voters passed the ordinance in 1992 to limit development over the Barton Springs portion of the Edwards Aquifer. The ordinance stemmed from SOS’ efforts to stop Freeport McMoRan Inc.’s plans to develop a retail/residential project in southwestern Travis County.
Shade was asked at a campaign forum: “You told (Stop Domain Subsidies founder) Brian Rodgers that we should have negotiated SOS instead of passing SOS. Why?”
Shade said: “What I told (Rogers) was how sad it made me to see it result in legislative action. That the will of the citizens … was basically taken by legislative process. And that there wasn’t better compromise that made everybody a winner. Because really when you saw the original proposal less land would have been developed than what ultimately did get developed.”
Kim’s campaign e-mailed out a letter Tuesday signed by environmental activists Robin Rather, Brigid Shea and Bill Bunch that said: “(The SOS ordinance) was put on the ballot by citizen initiative after decades of attempted negotiation with the developers who were building over the watershed … the community made clear its will with the overwhelming passage of the SOS ordinance that the Springs were to be protected, not bargained away.”
Shade said today that she supported the SOS ordinance back then and supports it now. She said she was referring to her wish that there had been a compromise to prevent the passage of 1995 state legislation that grandfathered properties and weakened the city’s ability to enforce the ordinance.
Rodgers has endorsed Kim. Bunch said he has not decided whether to support Kim or Shade.
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April 16, 2008
City council ads prompt ethics complaint
A supporter of Place 1 City Council incumbent Lee Leffingwell has filed a complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission about two advertisements in the Austin Chronicle that urge readers to vote for challenger Jason Meeker.
Former political consultant Mike Blizzard filed the complaint on Wednesday afternoon, alleging that the ads violated state and local election code.
Blizzard is not a consultant for anyone running for city council this Spring, but he said does support Meeker’s opponent, incumbent Lee Leffingwell.
The ads in question, bearing Meeker’s picture and the words “Vote for Jason Meeker on May 10th,” were printed on the top of a full page Discount Electronics advertisement in the Austin Chronicle.
The owner of Discount Electronics, Rick Culleton, was Meeker’s campaign treasurer until about a week before the first ad was printed.
Culleton said Wednesday that the ads were designed and printed without any input from Meeker. He said the second ad was paid from a personal account, not his business’ account.
“I certainly am not trying to break any rules,” Culleton said.
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April 14, 2008
Candidates answer City Beat
We posed a series of questions about city issues to the candidates in the May city council races. See what they said:
- Place 1 — Allen Demling, Lee Leffingwell and Jason Meeker
- Place 3 — Jennifer Kim, Randi Shade and Ken Weiss.
- Place 4 — Robin Cravey, Jennifer Gale, Cid Galindo, Laura Morrison, Sam Osemene and Ken Vasseau.
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Statesman.com hosts Austin City Council video debates
With less than a month to go before the May 10 City Council elections the campaigns are gearing up to full speed.
If you can’t make it to any of the remaining candidate forums, you can still see the candidates debate the issues on Statesman.com. You can also find our past campaign coverage, including Q & A for all the candidates, on the bloghere.
We invited the candidates for Place 1 and Place 3 to the American-Statesman and grilled them on the issues. (The Place 4 race has six candidates and appears destined for a run-off. So we will revisit that race in May to give candidates a chance to give more substantial answers.)
In case you lost track, Place 1 features Allen Demling, Lee Leffingwell and Jason Meeker.
