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Mayor's race
May 11, 2009
Wynn, Leffingwell thank McCracken
Council Member and Mayor-elect Lee Leffingwell thanked Council Member Brewster McCracken at a 4 p.m. news conference during which McCracken formally announced he is dropping out of the mayor’s race runoff.
Leffingwell and four other council members — two newcomers and two re-elected incumbents — will be sworn in June 22.
“I want to thank (Brewster) for making this decision. I think it’s the right thing to do for his supporters, my supporters, the taxpayers and the City of Austin,” Leffingwell said. “It gives us all an opportunity to refocus on what’s important, which is going to work to protect and improve our special quality of life.”
Leffingwell said he looks forward to playing an active role in the Pecan Street Project, a clean energy initiative that McCracken helped start, and hopes McCracken will stay involved with it, too.
Mayor Will Wynn said McCracken “has had a remarkable impact on the city” in his six years of service, noting that McCracken championed ideas such as new design standards for commercial buildings and rules to encourage denser, walkable developments along major roads.
“I can’t tell you how optimistic I am about this city’s future, the team that’s in place, the incoming mayor and council, the city work force. … It is stellar and bodes well for this city’s future,” Wynn said.
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McCracken bows out
Council Member Brewster McCracken is bowing out of the mayor’s race runoff, saying the contest would’ve been too much of an uphill battle.
McCracken trailed Council Member Lee Leffingwell by 20 points after Saturday’s general election, a gap many political consultants said is too big to close in a five-week runoff.
McCracken sounded upbeat in a phone interview this morning and said there are three main reasons he’s stepping aside: continuing on with such long odds would have required asking a lot of fundraisers and supporters; the election would have been expensive for taxpayers — $500,000; and there was little chance of avoiding negativity from both sides in the runoff.
“I’m proud of the campaign of ideas that I ran,” he said, noting that by the end of the race many of the candidates were echoing themes he had talked about all along, such as creating jobs in clean energy, bio tech and digital media.
“I hope that the legacy of my campaign will be advancing ideas that are important to the city’s future,” he said.
McCracken said he’s been leaning towards bowing out since Saturday night. He met with about 15 supporters this morning, who had come to the same conclusion he had about the race, he said. He called Leffingwell at about 9:40 a.m. today to concede, congratulate him and offer his support.
The two will appear together at a 4 p.m. press conference.
McCracken said he’s not sure what he will do next, but hopes to work in the private sector on issues related to clean energy or the creative economy.
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May 6, 2009
But will they vote?
Another question in Saturday’s election is whether the artists, musicians and young folks mayoral candidate Brewster McCracken has been courting will actually turn out to vote.
They did in November for President Barack Obama. But that was also an unprecedented campaign where the election of the most powerful man in the world was at stake.
McCracken insists his campaign isn’t relying on such new and disaffected voters to win the mayor’s race. They haven’t turned out before, he acknowledges. But it makes sense for him to chase them: the smaller the electorate, and the more it looks like electorates of previous years, the more things work to Leffingwell’s advantage.
With early voting done, it looks like Austin is heading toward another dismal turnout in the mayor’s race. But consider this: a small electorate means everyone’s vote counts more. If those new voters do defy history and show up to the polls en masse Saturday, they’ll have a far bigger say in who gets elected Austin’s mayor than they did in who got elected president.
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May 5, 2009
Speaking of Buttross ...
Mayoral candidate David Buttross has had a busy day. At around the same time he announced that he has seven apartment units available for victims of Monday’s Westheimer Regency apartment fire, he made the news for a minor violation of campaign rules.
County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir said Buttross was passing out flyers at the Heman Marion Sweatt Travis County Courthouse while waiting for the start of a foreclosure auction. Buttross was apparently passing out the flyers while standing closer to a voting location than state law allows.
The election judge asked Buttross to move, and he did so without complaint after saying he wasn’t aware he was within the 100-foot, no-campaign zone, DeBeauvoir said.
Buttross was not chastised, DeBeauvoir said, as some television stations reported.
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April 30, 2009
McCracken ticks off St. Louis with YouTube video
It’s a good thing that Austin mayoral candidate Brewster McCracken isn’t running for mayor of St. Louis.
Folks there are ticked at him for casting St. Louis as a city in rapid decline in a YouTube video that’s been featured on blogs and at least one TV station.
McCracken starts the video clip by saying: “If you lived in St. Louis in 1904, you thought you were in the center of the universe” as it hosted events like the World’s Fair. Today, he says, “entire sections of St. Louis’ urban core have been abandoned for decades . . There’s a warning to cities all over the country in St. Louis’ story. Just because you have a great present or a bright past is no guarantee of a better future.”
He notes that the semiconductor industry, once the backbone of Austin’s economy, is faltering as those jobs move overseas. “How do we move forward instead of simply standing still and beginning a St. Louis-style decline?” he asks.
Then he hammers home his campaign theme of creating and recruiting jobs in clean energy, bio tech, and digital media.
One commenter on the Web site of a St. Louis TV station offered this: “Hey ‘Brewster,’ you have no right to talk about a terrific city like St. Louis with a goofy name like that. St. Louis may not be perfect, but you know what’s awesome about it? You’re not in it.”
And Austin mayoral candidate Lee Leffingwell sent a St. Louis TV reporter this message: “St. Louis is a terrific city and I don’t believe it deserves to be compared unfavorably to any other city,” he said. “There are lots of things about St. Louis that other cities, including Austin, ought to be jealous of.”
Colin Rowan, a spokesman for McCracken, said the video “is a legitimate historic case study of what happens when a city sits still. I know everyone’s protective of their hometown. Leaders there should be commended for their efforts to revitalize the city. But the point remains, they did have to revitalize,” Rowan said. “Brewster doesn’t want Austin’s leaders in 50 years to have to revitalize Austin. He wants to chart a proactive course to strengthen our economy now.”
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April 27, 2009
Leffingwell running into your living room
Mayoral candidate Lee Leffingwell has taken to the airwaves in advertisements that seek to re-enforce his message as the campaign’s strong, steady candidate.
Two different ads show Leffingwell in his exercise getup running at a steady clip past peaceful Austin settings. One starts with Leffingwell saying he starts every morning by running five miles a day. (Get it? He’s “running” for mayor).
“We’ve got a lot to be thankful for here, but we’ve also got a big responsibility because the future of this city is too important to be left to chance,” he says in one ad. Another notes that, as a City Council member, he authored the city’s water-conservation rules, and says he will protect the city’s small businesses. A third ad available on Leffingwell’s campaign Web site shows various supporters talking about what a great guy he is.
Leffingwell’s ads make no mention of his two main opponents, City Council Member Brewster McCracken and Carole Strayhorn, a former Austin mayor and state comptroller. McCracken’s ad likewise does not mention the opposition, while Strayhorn’s slams her competitors.
You can see Leffingwell’s ads here.
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April 21, 2009
KXAN may cancel mayoral debate over invitation dustup
A televised mayoral debate hosted by KXAN and the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public affairs may be canceled over the organizer’s decision not to invite candidates David Buttross and Josiah Ingalls.
Mayoral candidate Lee Leffingwell said he won’t participate unless all five candidates are allowed at the debate, campaign spokesman Mark Nathan said. Carole Keeton Strayhorn said that “if their decision is to not let everyone participate, I will not participate.”
If they’re out, that would leave only candidate, Brewster McCracken, whose campaign confirmed he will be there. The debate is scheduled for Wednesday 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Buttross’ campaign contends he and candidate Ingalls should be allowed to participate, as they have at other forums.
“The LBJ School of Public Affairs is funded with taxpayer money, but it is excluding people from the political process,” said Steve Ray, a spokesman for the Buttross campaign. “That is unacceptable. It is not what Texas is about and it is certainly not what we should be teaching our students in one of our state’s universities.”
The Leffingwell and Strayhorn campaigns said they were informed that only three candidates were invited to participate last night.
Veronica Stidvent, a forum organizer as director for the LBJ School’s Center For Politics and Governance, said they decided to invite only three candidates because only Leffingwell, McCracken and Strayhorn have a legitimate chance to win.
Stidvent said KXAN will release polling data “thats there are three competitive candidates, and Buttross and Ingalls are not viable candidates.” Stidvent said the organizers wanted to preserve questioning time for what they consider the viable candidates. She said the decision was also made based on endorsements and fundraising.
Stidvent said organizers will announce during KXAN’s 5 p.m. news whether the forum will go forward.
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April 13, 2009
Mayoral forum live chat
Thank you to all who joined American-Statesman writer Ben Wear and KUT’s Nathan Bernier for the live chat on the mayoral debate. Feel free to replay the chat!
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April 8, 2009
Leffingwell lends campaign $58,000
Mayoral candidate Lee Leffingwell has lent his campaign $100,000 since the start of the year, according to letters filed with the city clerk’s office.
He lent his campaign $58,837 on March 30 and $41,163 on January 16.
The campaign finance reports for all of the mayoral candidates and candidates for four City Council seats are due tomorrow at 5. We’ll post them here as we get them.
Leffingwell said his fundraising is going very well and that the loan amount is not unusual, noting that Mayor Will Wynn loaned his campaign about $90,000 during his first mayoral race.
Former Austin mayor Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Council Member Brewster McCracken and two lesser-known candidates, David Buttross and Josiah Ingalls, are also running for mayor.
Council candidates can only raise $350 a person, so they have to aggressively troll for cash to get the thousands needed to air TV and radio ads. The ailing economy is undoubtedly making the task tougher this year.
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March 30, 2009
"Hunker down" video spurs mayoral tiff
Florida musician Josh Ramsteck is irked at mayoral candidate Brewster McCracken for using his song in a YouTube video without paying him or asking him first.
The video, created and posted by McCracken spokesman Colin Rowan, was meant to poke fun at candidate Lee Leffingwell. It juxtaposes clips of Leffingwell saying Austin should “hunker down” in this ailing economy with clips of McCracken and Barack Obama talking about the need for bold, visionary leadership. Ramsteck’s song “Hunker Down” — really a tune about battening down the hatches before a Florida hurricane — plays in the background.
Ramsteck, who’s also called “Captain John”, sure sounded ticked in a press release the Leffingwell camp sent out this morning.
“I’m a working musician, and I certainly don’t appreciate having my music stolen,” he was quoted as saying.
Contacted by phone today, Ramsteck said he’s not angry with McCracken but does think he deserves some money for use of the copyrighted song. He said Leffingwell consultant Mark Nathan alerted him to the YouTube video over the weekend. Ramsteck said he made all the statements listed in the press release.
Rowan said he had already taken down the video this weekend because it had “run its course.” Rowan said he’s asked Ramsteck if the campaign can pay him retroactively for using the song. Meanwhile, Rowan re-posted the video, sans the tune, a few hours ago. You can watch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZmvuUPP47E.
Ramsteck was already planning to be in Central Texas for a gig in early May. The Leffingwell camp is paying for him to stay an extra night to do a concert for the campaign.
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March 23, 2009
Strayhorn: Bring medical school to Austin
Mayoral candidate and former state comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn wants to get a medical school built in Austin. The school would create 14,400 jobs and generate $1.5 billion a year in economic activity, she said at a press conference this morning.
She was short on specifics about what steps she’d take to get the $1 billion project — which has been talked about for years — moving.
But she knocked the City Council for failing to show the leadership needed to get state and federal dollars for the school. She also said they’ve wasted money on a biomass (wood waste) energy plant and a solar power plant.
“This council spent over $2.3 billion for 100 megawatts of biomass energy in Nacogdoches. Building this medical school would cost less than half as much, give hard-working Austin families greater access to the best health care in the nation, while creating thousands of jobs,” she said.
Former UT chancellor Dr. William Cunningham and Dr. Charles Mullins, the former executive vice chancellor for health at UT, were on hand today to say that Strayhorn is the best person to make the medical school happen.
“Carole understands how state government works and this school will require state funding,” Cunningham said.
Council member and mayoral candidate Lee Leffingwell said he’s made it clear that one of his priorities is building up Austin’s bio tech industry “and the foundation of that is locating a medical school here. I support doing everything we can to lure a medical school,” he said. “The city would stand ready to offer assistance in the form of incentives for a medical school to locate here and I think we should do that.”
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Favorite mayoral catchphrase? "Hunker down"
Joe the Plumber, step aside — “Hunker down” appears to be the favored folksy reference of this spring’s mayoral race.
Candidate and City Council Member Brewster McCracken was the first to use it on the campaign trail, arguing that Austin can’t just hunker down and survive right now, but must actively recruit new companies and jobs.
It’s a not-so-subtle dig at Council Member Lee Leffingwell, whose mayoral campaign is centered on maintaining core city services, such as social services, public safety and road maintenance. Leffingwell says the city needs to do a little hunkering down as the economy tanks.
Now the two are trotting out the phrase at every campaign forum, like this exchange Sunday:
McCracken: “We can hunker down or try to control our own destiny. We have a chance to make Austin a global leader in energy storage” and by attracting film and digital media jobs, he said.
Leffingwell: “I do think we need to hunker down. We need someone in the mayor’s office who will stay focused on the fundamentals … We should be helping our people (and small businesses) here in Austin, not trying to recruit big new companies all the time from New York and San Francisco and Palo Alto.”
So what do you think? Should Austin hunker down right now?
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March 14, 2009
McClellan adds a grandson to Strayhorn's brood
One Tough Grandma has a new grandson.
Mayoral candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn said her son, Scott McClellan, and his wife, Jill, welcomed a baby boy yesterday afternoon at a Virginia hospital.
Strayhorn has four sons and six granddaughters, so the baby — who doesn’t have a name yet — is a first of sorts for her clan.
“Scott’s first words were, ‘We broke the trend, Mom,’” Strayhorn said in a statement. “I am thrilled and the whole family could not be happier.”
McClellan is President George W. Bush’s former press secretary, and he published a tell-all book last year about his White House job.
Strayhorn famously called herself “One Tough Grandma” during her 2006 gubernatorial bid, even trying to get that name on the ballot.
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March 11, 2009
McCracken parts ways with top campaign staffer
Mayoral candidate and Council Member Brewster McCracken, right, has fired his deputy campaign manager, Mario Bravo.
Bravo initially was McCracken’s campaign manager when he launched his campaign late last year. But several weeks ago, McCracken moved Heather Beckel to the top job.
Beckel worked for George Stephanopoulos in Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign and later, in the White House.
Bravo did a good job, but Beckel has slightly more experience managing all aspects of a campaign, from messaging to field operations to raising money, said Colin Rowan, a spokesman for McCracken.
McCracken found it inefficient and redundant (in terms of time and money) to have a manager and a deputy, and let Bravo go this week, Rowan said.
“We’re not happy about having to do it but think it’s the right thing for the campaign,” Rowan said. “Campaigns are high-energy environments where talented people are asked to do many different things. The idea that a campaign staff is the same on election day as it was when the candidate announces he’s running is very unlikely.”
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Leffingwell scoops up more endorsements
Council Member Lee Leffingwell has racked up more endorsements in the race for mayor.
Over the past few days, he’s won the support of nine groups (including the Capital Area Progressive Democrats and the Texas Environmental Democrats), most of whom held a joint campaign forum last night.
Leffingwell and Council Member Brewster McCracken, another mayoral candidate, got a dual endorsement from the Austin Lesbian / Gay Political Caucus.
The clubs asked the candidates to fill out lengthy questionnaires about their records and positions on issues prior to the forum. Only Leffingwell did so.
Colin Rowan, a spokesman for McCracken, said: “If the measure of support is endorsements from political groups, that’s one thing. If the measure of support is the number of people who have pledged to help the campaign, donors, the enthusiasm of crowds, performance at forums — Brewster is winning all of those.”
“We have faith that Austin voters will look at issues and where candidates want to take Austin, not just endorsements,” Rowan said.
He said McCracken has opted to go to forums and make his case in person, rather than filling out written questionnaires. McCracken also didn’t think it would be right to have campaign staffers fill them out, Rowan said.
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March 6, 2009
Our prospective mayors' takes on the solar plant
The story in today’s paper on the city’s $250 million solar plant focused largely on the where, when, why and costs. But, as environmental activist Paul Robbins jokingly put it to me, there’s enough material for a book.
As it’s election season, let’s start with a rundown of how Austin’s major mayoral hopefuls fell on the project, which was approved Thursday by the City Council:
Brewster McCracken: For it. McCracken, a City Council member, pushed for the project’s approval three weeks ago, saying the city should move as quickly as possible. Doing so, he said, would demonstrate Austin’s commitment to solar energy, a commitment he said would help attract solar-based employers to Austin. Attracting solar businesses has become a cause of McCracken’s.
Lee Leffingwell: For it. Leffingwell, also a City Council member, pushed three weeks ago for a short delay. He argued along with Council Member Mike Martinez that the delay would allow the city to determine if the solar energy should be offered as a separate, Green Choice package, as opposed to selling the power to everyone and increasing everyone’s bills. The suggestion came partly in response to concerns that the city’s large industrial users in particular could be hurt by the increased cost of solar.
By waiting three weeks, the city was also able to insert provisions into the solar contract that could reduce the cost to Austin customers by as much as a third if the project receives new federal tax credits.
- Carole Keeton Strayhorn: Against it. Strayhorn argued the cost is too high given the economic downturn. Estimates put the cost of the energy will be buying at 16.5 cents per kilowatt hour, higher than other forms of electrical generation. Other types of power plants, though generally also come with additional construction costs, while the 16.5 cent charge from the solar array includes the cost of both construction and generation.
Strayhorn said not many customers would buy a Green Choice offering, given the city’s struggles to sell the current batch of wind energy. She said that, if elected, she would try to undo the solar contract.
(Strayhorn says she supports solar and other renewables, but only at costs lower than the solar plant).
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February 28, 2009
McCracken and Leffingwell debate on public access TV
Mayoral candidates and council members Brewster McCracken and Lee Leffingwell took part in their third debate of the week today, a Q&A with Pam Thompson and Peggy Vasquez, both hosts of public-access TV programs. Candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn skipped this forum and the others, saying she had previous commitments.
A few topics that came up:
Single-member districts. Right now all 7 council members represent the whole city. Leffingwell said he’d prefer a system in which some council members represent smaller districts, because Austin has grown too big for council members to address needs and issues all over town. McCracken favors keeping the council as is, saying district systems often disintegrate into turf wars and ward politics.
Stimulus money. Leffingwell said it should pay for infrastructure, such as road repairs and erosion control in creeks. McCracken said he wants to invest it in clean energy initiatives, such as solar technologies and programs to train workers in green-collar jobs.
City budget cuts. McCracken said if more cuts are needed, he’d prefer freezing the wages of all city workers, including police officers (whose pay is dictated by a contract) and council members. Leffingwell said he’d prefer cutting 10 percent from the salaries of council members and executive-level staffers before freezing other workers’ pay or wading into renegotiating the police contract.
Posting a daily calendar online of folks they meet with as mayor. Both seemed open to this idea. McCracken said some meetings would have to be kept private, such as personnel matters. Leffingwell said it would drain staff time because the city doesn’t have the technology yet to post up-to-the-minute calendars easily.
A new water plant. Both indicated the plant should be built, though activists say it’s not needed because water conservation efforts have been successful. McCracken noted that the city has to plan for infrastructure needs 10 to 15 years in advance. Leffingwell said the city should build the plant’s first phase, which will produce 50 million gallons a day, then decide if more water and other phases are needed.
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February 27, 2009
Leffingwell racks up more endorsements
It’s been a good campaign week for Council Member Lee Leffingwell, who’s running for mayor.
He’s racked up endorsements from Travis County Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt and state reps Eddie Rodriguez (D-Austin) and Donna Howard (D-Austin). And today at his campaign office on North Lamar, he was endorsed by Travis County Sheriff Greg Hamilton, five local constables and two law enforcement groups, the Travis County Sheriff’s Law Enforcement Association and the Travis County Sheriff’s Officers Association.
“I believe all of these endorsements are a reflection of my resolve to protect the safety of our city, our neighborhoods and our families,” he said.
Leffingwell’s dad was a firefighter and then a sheriff’s deputy who suffered a brain injury in a rollover accident while on duty. He’s taken flak for being perhaps too close to the city’s three public safety unions, who have also endorsed him, but he said: “I believe working men and women have the right to organize themselves in the interest of securing a fair wage and fair benefits for a hard day’s work.”
Leffingwell said he has serious reservations about a plan City Manager Marc Ott unveiled yesterday to save $200,000 by having three firefighters instead of four (the national standard) staff some fire trucks sometimes. He said he’ll be working with other council members to suggest other things to cut in the city budget.
We asked the two other mayoral candidates, Council Member Brewster McCracken and former state comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, if they wanted to respond or tout any of their endorsements.
Strayhorn’s camp hasn’t called back. Colin Rowan, a spokesman for McCracken, said: “We have an uphill battle against Lee’s well-oiled political machine… . With voters that look at endorsements over ideas, we’re at a disadvantage,” he said.
“Every week, Leffingwell rolls out a political group his consultants have lined up,” Rowan said. “Every week, Brewster explains a different issue that will move Austin forward. One is focused on politics. One is focused on Austin’s future.”
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February 25, 2009
McCracken and Leffingwell debate, without Strayhorn
Members of the Urban Land Institute posed questions to mayoral candidates and council members Brewster McCracken and Lee Leffingwell today at the Four Seasons Hotel.
Candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn missed this campaign forum and another held on Monday. She doesn’t plan to attend one slated for Saturday. A spokesman said Strayhorn had prior commitments but will attend future debates.
A few highlights from today’s forum, moderated by former mayor Bruce Todd:
Asked whether they would commit to serving two full terms, McCracken said yes and Leffingwell said no. Leffingwell said he’s focused on winning this term.
Asked what should be cut from the city budget, McCracken said public safety costs have dramatically outpaced the cost of other city services. Leffingwell said McCracken supported a 2 percent pay raise a few years ago that drove up public safety costs.
Leffingwell favors holding a bond election for rail and transportation projects in the next few years; McCracken doesn’t. “There are worthy things we can’t afford to take on right now,” he said.
Leffingwell said he’d focus on keeping basic services, such as street maintenance, intact during this economic downturn. McCracken said Austin needs to have a grander vision to emerge stronger from the downturn. “Will we duck our heads and just survive? We will scour the budget, but is that all your want us to do?” Leffingwell said later: “Yes, there will be a little hunkering down. Anyone who tells you differently isn’t telling the truth. We’ve got to take care of the basics.”
Both got a laugh when asked what they thought of Strayhorn’s plans for the city budget. Leffingwell replied: “Not much.” McCracken joked: “A good way to stop (Leffingwell and I) from being tense with each other is to pile on to Carole.”
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February 24, 2009
Strayhorn: Cut council salaries, staffs
The City Council should cut their salaries, their staffs and money spent on state and federal lobbyists, mayoral candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn said today.
“Cuts should come from the top-down, not the bottom-up,” she said, standing in front of John Henry Faulk Central Library.
City Manager Marc Ott proposed a $20 million cost-cutting plan earlier this month, including reducing library hours, closing a day-labor center and freezing vacant city jobs.
Strayhorn noted that no cuts are proposed for council offices. Council members make $67,556 a year, including car and cell phone allowances, the city budget office said. Mayor Will Wynn would normally make $78,425, but he turned down a cost-of-living increase the council got in 2006, so his salary is $60,629, the budget office said.
Wynn has five staff members and the other council members have three. Strayhorn said she’d need only two, the number she said she had when she served as Austin’s mayor from 1977-83. But Austin’s population has more than doubled since then. Council members now represent more than 750,000 residents citywide.
Austin is spending $830,000 this year for 10 firms to lobby at the state capitol, and $270,000 for two firms to lobby Congress. “We should not farm out the job of our city leaders to high-paid lobbyists to walk across the street and hold meetings with lobbyists,” Strayhorn said.
Colin Rowan, a spokesman for council member and mayoral candidate Brewster McCracken, said if salary cuts are necessary, they should apply to all city employees, including council members and city management. And he said council staffs are modest, given the workload of representing 750,000 residents. “It’s almost like (Strayhorn) wants to jump in a time machine and head back to 1977,” Rowan said.
Council member and mayoral candidate Lee Leffingwell said in an e-mailed response that council members and city administrators should take a 10 percent pay cut before any lower-level staffers’ salaries are cut. And he said reducing council staffs would make City Hall less responsive to constituents.
Leffingwell said the lobbying contracts are expensive, “but I think it would be much more expensive to forgo the state and federal funds for transportation and other needs that our lobbying efforts help secure, or to let legislation that harms our environment or neighborhoods pass without a fight. Lobbyists are a necessary if unpleasant expense for all big cities, including Austin.”
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February 19, 2009
Leffingwell gets EMS nod; McCracken touts solar in San Antonio
Looks like mayoral candidate Lee Leffingwell has pulled off a clean sweep of union endorsements.
The firefighters’ union, police union, and the Central Austin Labor Council (which is made up of 20 groups affiliated with the AFL-CIO, including the union that represents non-public-safety City of Austin workers) are all backing Leffingwell. Today the EMS union endorsed him, too.
“We know and trust Lee Leffingwell to help our community’s paramedics do their job,” said Steve Stewart, the union’s president. He said the union board interviewed Leffingwell and mayoral candidate Brewster McCracken before making a decision.
EMS might have been waiting to hear whether Texas Monthly founder Mike Levy would join the race. Levy, a decades-long advocate for EMS, had been exploring a mayoral candidacy but announced Sunday that he wouldn’t run.
Meanwhile, McCracken took a trek down to San Antonio on Tuesday to speak at a clean technology conference. He talked about the importance of that city and ours working together to land the next generation of clean-technology and solar companies.
McCracken said such an effort will take “tax incentives and political push,” according to a story in the San Antonio Express-News. McCracken spokesman Colin Rowan said tax incentives would be only one of several ideas McCracken supports to attract clean-tech firms.
The Express-News described McCracken as “the leading candidate to be the next mayor of Austin,” a line that ruffled some feathers over in Leffingwell’s camp.
Rowan said Pike Powers introduced McCracken at the conference as the next mayor of Austin — an off-the-cuff comment that the San Antonio reporter must’ve picked up on, Rowan said.
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February 16, 2009
Thoughts on Levy's decision
We called some political consultants this morning to ask how Mike Levy opting not to run for mayor affects the race.
Their gut reaction: The race will be a heck of a lot duller without Levy, who regularly excoriates city officials in his widely distributed e-mails.
“I’m devastated,” political consultant Mark Littlefield said. “He definitely would have brought passion and eloquence to the race. And his presence would have forced the other candidates to focus on some important issues, like public safety and basic city services.”
Consultant Mark Yznaga said Levy’s history of making outrageous and abrasive comments would’ve come back to haunt him on the campaign trail.
Others said Levy would’ve been a threat because he has money to self-finance a campaign and could’ve cast himself as a City Hall outsider with fresh ideas.
His decision “removes a real wild card from the race,” political consultant Elliott McFadden said. “His shooting-from-the-hip personality and capacity to bankroll a campaign and put his ideas on TV or in direct mail would have destabilized the race one way or the other, depending on which of the candidates he targeted.”
Some consultants thought Levy could’ve made it into a runoff, but most were skeptical he could win. Only about 10 percent of Austinites vote in city elections.
The other candidates — Council Members Brewster McCracken and Lee Leffingwell and former mayor Carole Keeton Strayhorn — have already staked out key voting blocs, Littlefield said, so Levy would’ve had to draw in lots of supporters who don’t normally vote in city races. That is very tough to do, he said.
Strayhorn said Levy is a life-long friend who cares passionately about the city, and she wishes him well. Leffingwell said he respects Levy’s decision and hopes Levy will continue to be a champion for issues like public safety. McCracken did not wish to comment.
McFadden thinks the independent and conservative-leaning voters who would’ve backed Levy will swing to McCracken. Peck Young, director of the Center for Public Policy and Political Studies at ACC, said Levy’s voters will most likely defect to Strayhorn.
“There will always be voters who are dissatisfied with City Hall. Mike would have split the ‘I-ain’t-the-incumbent’ vote with Carole, and now it’s all hers,” he said.
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January 29, 2009
Election for Leffingwell's seat set for May 9
The election to fill Lee Leffingwell’s seat on the City Council will be held May 9, after all.
Because Leffingwell is running for mayor but has a few years left on his Place 1 term, state law requires the city has to hold an election to fill his Place 1 seat.
The council decided today to hold the election on May 9, the general election day for four other council seats — places 2, 5 and 6 and the mayor’s slot, held by Mike Martinez, Brewster McCracken, Sheryl Cole and Will Wynn, respectively.
Council Member and mayoral candidate Brewster McCracken argued in a recent memo that the city must fill Place 1 within 120 days of Leffingwell’s campaign announcement and factor in a possible runoff — which would’ve meant holding a special election earlier than May 9.
That latter scenario would’ve been a political blow to Leffingwell, who had promised not to burden the city with the cost of a special election.
The council schedules elections, so deciding when to fill Place 1 was a politically dicey choice for Leffingwell and McCracken’s colleagues.
But the item passed this morning without a hint of discussion and with everyone, including McCracken, voting for the May 9 date.
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January 27, 2009
Public safety unions to endorse Leffingwell
The police and firefighters’ unions endorsed Council Member Lee Leffingwell for mayor today.
Leffingwell “has demonstrated a keen understanding of and commitment to public safety issues,” Austin Police Association president Wayne Vincent said at a announcement this afternoon.
The unions represent more than 2,000 police and firefighters and in past council races have wielded considerable clout, though they kept a fairly low profile in last spring’s council campaigns.
The unions said they didn’t formally interview the other mayoral candidates, Council Member Brewster McCracken and former Austin mayor Carole Keeton Strayhorn, because they knew those candidates’ records and felt Leffingwell was the best choice.
Leffingwell recently backed an effort to consolidate 92 parks police, airport police and other public safety workers into the Austin Police Department — a $2 million change that he said would create uniform standards for hiring, training and promotions.
The City Council will likely have to cut the city budget soon to deal with falling sales tax revenues. Leffingwell said he opposes cuts to critical public safety services, such as police patrol officers, but would be open to cutting “inefficiencies.”
McCracken said the city should follow up a hiring freeze that the city manager has already put in place by freezing the salaries of all city employees. That salary freeze should not exempt police and firefighters, he said.
Leffingwell said the council shouldn’t back a wage freeze until it sees a menu of suggested cuts that the city manager will present next month.
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January 26, 2009
Strayhorn: City spending rising too fast
Mayoral candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn said today that City of Austin spending is rising too much too fast and that homeowners can’t keep up.
Standing at the kitchen table at the Bengtson family’s home in North Austin, Strayhorn said the city budget has grown from $1.84 billion to $2.77 billion in the last six years.
During that time, the city taxes and fees that a regular family of four pays have gone up from $10,507 to $13,602, she said.
“Our city budget should not, will not and cannot out-pace hard-working Austin families’ ability to pay for it,” she said.
She said that if elected, she’d form a task force of budget experts to review city spending and suggest ways to reduce it.
Asked what she thinks should be cut from the budget, Strayhorn said she’d wait to hear the task force’s ideas. She wouldn’t rule out employee layoffs. But said she opposes making across-the-board cuts to city departments, wants to keep critical public-safety services and doesn’t plan to dip into the city’s reserve fund.
Bradley Bengtson said he and his wife, Jennifer, are paying triple the property taxes that they paid when they bought their North Austin home 14 years ago. The Bengtsons also own four rental properties appraised at $310,417, $209,146, $147,486 and $157,000, according to the Travis County Appraisal District Web site. Bradley Bengtson said the properties are all older — three were built in the 1930s and one in the mid-80s. All of the properties are rented out, but after property taxes, repairs and insurance, the properties don’t yield much of a profit, he said.
The Bengtsons own a gift business and Jennifer said she works at Apple. They have 7-year-old twin daughters.
“Carole has been mayor and state comptroller,” Bradley Bengtson said. “She knows how to read a budget and I think Austin needs that leadership.”
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January 23, 2009
Is Leffingwell the next John McCain?
It looks like remnants of the presidential race have trickled down to Austin politics — even though City Council candidates here don’t run by political party.
In an e-mail announcing a new campaign Web site for mayoral candidate and council member Brewster McCracken, McCracken’s camp casts mayoral candidate and council member Lee Leffingwell as the next John McCain.
The announcement reads: “You may have heard that both of Brewster’s opponents have chosen to run on the John McCain campaign message: ‘a steady hand in troubled times.’ Brewster believes we need to expect more of Austin’s next mayor than simply trying to hunker down and weather the storm for a few years. In fact, that approach would cost us valuable time while other regions work to establish leadership in the emerging job sectors of the 21st Century Economy.”
Leffingwell’s campaign consultant, Mark Nathan, shot back: “I think it’s neither well-intentioned nor accurate for the McCracken campaign to compare Lee Leffingwell to John McCain, especially this week. Lee is a proud progressive Democrat who’s running on a great set of ideas to help make Austin better.”
Nathan said Leffingwell has hired J.D. Gins — the field director for Barack Obama’s campaign in Texas — to manage his campaign.
McCracken is 42 years old; Leffingwell is 69, three years younger than the Republican presidential nominee.
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January 21, 2009
When will city fill Leffingwell's council seat?
Now that Council Member Lee Leffingwell has joined the mayor’s race, the city has to hold an election to fill his seat.
The big question is, when?
City Attorney David Smith said he’ll send a written recommendation to the council early next week, and won’t make his opinion public until then.
Leffingwell has argued that the city can and should hold the election May 9, the day of other already-scheduled council races. But Council Member Brewster McCracken, another mayoral candidate, argued in a recent memo that the city must fill the seat within 120 days of Leffingwell’s campaign announcement and factor in a possible runoff, which could mean holding a special election earlier than May 9.
The latter scenario could be a political blow to Leffingwell, who had promised not to burden the city with the hefty cost of a special election.
Smith said the City Council (McCracken’s and Leffingwell’s colleagues) will ultimately have to decide when to set the election.
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January 20, 2009
McCracken pans Leffingwell ideas on radio show
The mayor’s race sure didn’t stay cordial for long.
Candidate and Council Member Brewster McCracken dissed a few of opponent Lee Leffingwell’s proposals on the Lisa Fritsch radio show on KLBJ Sunday night.
Leffingwell, another council member, just joined the mayor’s race Saturday. He has proposed holding a rail election and a bond election for transportation projects in 2010 and creating a program that would let homeowners buy credits to offset their carbon emissions.
In response to a caller’s questions Sunday, McCracken knocked the bond-election and carbon credits ideas, saying: “I think this is the wrong time to be socking people’s pocketbooks. We need to be all hands on deck trying to create jobs for the future.”
McCracken also said on the show that Leffingwell wanted to require homeowners to get energy upgrades before they can sell their homes.
(McCracken’s campaign communications director, Colin Rowan, said Leffingwell made this remark at an Austin Board of Realtors candidate forum in the spring of 2008.)
Leffingwell says he never favored that concept, and noted that he, McCracken and the rest of the council voted last fall to require homeowners to get energy audits — not make energy upgrades — before selling their homes.
“I’m concerned that the revival of the so-called ‘green home tax’ issue does not bode well for a dialogue among the mayoral candidates that prioritizes new solutions over old scare tactics,” Leffingwell said.
Leffingwell noted that McCracken was a strong proponent last year of having a rail election, and said that city budget staffers would first have to determine that Austin had enough bonding capacity to hold an election. He also said the carbon credits program would be voluntary.
Rowan said McCracken is still a strong supporter of rail but thinks 2010 is not the right time to ask voters to incur large amounts of debt, given the current state of the economy. McCracken thinks offsets are good public education tools and make a difference in individual energy consumption, but said the city needs a more sophisticated approach to reducing carbon emissions. “No air pollution problem in this country has ever been solved by voluntary measures,” Rowan said.
The caller was Jason Meeker, who ran against Leffingwell for his Place 1 seat last May. (That race was a bitter one, with Meeker criticizing Leffingwell as an out-of-touch City Hall insider. Leffingwell won re-election with 68 percent of the vote. We just put a call into Meeker — he said he has no animosity towards Leffingwell and hasn’t decided yet who he’ll support in the mayor’s race.)
A transcript of Sunday’s questions is below:
Lisa Fritsch (host): Jason, welcome to KLBJ.
Jason Meeker: Thank you for having Brewster on tonight. That’s great. I hope you have all the candidates on. I have a question for Brewster but it has something to do with something that Lee Leffingwell has put in his platform, and maybe he can illuminate us on this. Lee Leffingwell said something about he wanted to have a program where people could buy credits to offset their carbon emissions.Is this another thing that the politicians want to do to take more money out of our pockets? What is that?
Brewster McCracken: Yeah, I’m not really sure about what he’s talking about on that, Jason. And also I saw that he’s saying he wants to have a $500 million dollar bond election in 12 months.
Lisa Fritsch: Do you agree with that ?
Brewster McCracken: No I don’t. You know, we are having to freeze hiring at the City of Austin. People’s family budgets are hurting. I don’t think trying to do a massive bond election in 12 months makes sense. And the idea that Jason brings up, I think this is the wrong time to be socking people’s pocketbooks. We need to be all hands on deck trying to create jobs for the future.
Jason Meeker: Yeah, I think that’s the way to go. I understand that there’s a concern with green technologies and a green economy, but penalizing people or giving them this thing where they have to buy credits that obviously this credit is something to offset a cost somewhere else, I don’t know, I think that needs some explanation, and I don’t like it already.
Lisa Fritsch: I don’t think people are ready to be going to buy like a gift card to say you’re a good person for the environment. I just don’t think we are there yet at all.
Jason Meeker: Thanks Brewster! Thanks for running for mayor!
Brewster McCracken: Thanks, Jason. You know another area where Lee Leffingwell and I are different is that Lee was in favor of prohibiting homeowners from selling their homes until they got a government-approved energy upgrade on their home they were selling. I did not think that was a good idea. You know, I think that we should be helping people sell their homes not prohibiting them from doing it.
Lisa Fritsch: Oh, the whole thing that you had to go through all these hoops to make sure your home was green enough in these areas. Wrong idea.
Brewster McCracken: Yeah, I think it was, too.
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January 17, 2009
Leffingwell launches mayoral campaign
Council Member Lee Leffingwell kicked off his mayoral campaign this morning at the small South Austin home where he grew up.
He told dozens of supporters that he would be a levelheaded leader amid a turbulent economy.
“Right now we need strong, steady leadership at City Hall because there are tough times ahead,” he said.
City manager Marc Ott just announced a citywide hiring freeze yesterday, and the City Council may have to trim the budget further to deal with less-than-expected sales tax revenues.
Leffingwell said he’d focus on the core issues of economic recovery, transportation, environmental protection, public safety and social services.
The crowd included notables from Austin’s environmental and Democratic circles — folks like planning commission chairman Dave Sullivan, environmental activist Ted Siff and neighborhood advocate Kathie Tovo.
Noting that Barack Obama inspired him and others to re-think what it means to be an active citizen, Leffingwell said he wants to start a city internship program for high school and college students.
He said he isn’t running to satisfy his ego or as a stepping stone to higher office — perhaps a subtle dig at his mayoral opponents, Council Member Brewster McCracken and former mayor Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who are perceived by some to be overly ambitious.
Leffingwell, 69, joked about his reserved demeanor, noting that a nurse — his wife, Julie — was nearby in case anyone became overly excited by his speech.
“I’m not Mr. Entertainment,” he said. “But what I may be lacking in wide-eyed exuberance I make up for in passion for public service and a determination to make our home a better place.”
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January 16, 2009
Leffingwell pumps $41,000 of own money into race
Council Member Lee Leffingwell’s mayoral campaign just got a big infusion of cash — from the candidate’s own wallet.
Today Leffingwell loaned his campaign $41,163 — a symbolic $1 larger than the amount Carole Keeton Strayhorn has raised in the past few months of her mayoral campaign.
Leffingwell didn’t announce a mayoral bid sooner than this month to avoid triggering a costly special election to fill his Place 1 seat.
Strayhorn, however, filed paperwork to start raising campaign cash in mid-November, and Council Member Brewster McCracken entered the mayoral race in early December. McCracken has raised about $18,000 so far.
“Obviously, getting into the race late, you’re at a disadvantage, from a fund-raising perspective. I decided it was best to loan my campaign money so that I’ll be on financial par” with Strayhorn, Leffingwell said.
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January 11, 2009
Strayhorn will run for mayor
It’s official: Carole Keeton Strayhorn will run to be Austin’s next mayor.
The former Austin mayor and state comptroller will make a formal announcement at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow at 5300 Riata Park Court, the Northwest Austin location of a company called BancVue, a spokesman said.
Strayhorn, 69, filed paperwork in November that allowed her to start raising money for a mayoral bid. But she didn’t confirm until Sunday that she would run.
She will vie to replace Mayor Will Wynn, whose second term ends in June and who hasn’t gathered the petition signatures necessary to run for re-election. Election day is May 9.
A no-holds-barred campaigner, Strayhorn will spice up an already lively mayor’s race.
Austin City Council Member Brewster McCracken, a high-energy and ambitious figure, began his mayoral campaign in December. Former Texas Monthly publisher Mike Levy (who, like Strayhorn, has a sharp tongue) and Council Member Lee Leffingwell (the most reserved of the four) are seriously considering running.
An Austin native with four elected offices on her resume, Strayhorn can draw upon ample political and familial ties to try to rake in campaign cash.
Her father, W. Page Keeton, was a longtime dean at the University of Texas School of Law, and her four sons have all held high-profile jobs. (One of them, Scott McClellan, wrote a tell-all book last year about his time as President George W. Bush’s press secretary.)
But new campaign-finance rules the City Council passed last year, partly in anticipation of Strayhorn running, will prevent her from using money left over from other races towards a mayoral bid.
A former teacher, Strayhorn was elected to the Austin school board in 1972, then served as mayor from 1977 to 1983. She was the first — and so far, only — woman to ever hold the job.
She switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party in the mid-1980s and mounted a challenge to popular U.S. Rep. Jake Pickle, but lost.
She later won a Texas Railroad Commission seat and two terms as state comptroller. In the latter job, she so often lambasted Gov. Rick Perry and lawmakers for their stances on education, taxes and foster care that they finally stripped her office of some of its powers.
In 2006 Strayhorn ran as an independent against Perry and avoided a Republican primary that politicos speculated she couldn’t win.
She began the campaign pushing her One Tough Grandma motto and blasting Perry as a weak, do-nothing leader. Later she tried to soften her image, airing TV ads in which she reminisced about her later-in-life marriage to teen sweetheart Ed Strayhorn.
She won only 18 percent of the vote, finishing third out of five candidates.
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