Burnt Orange Report

Vote Today in the ACC Run-off!

By Byron LaMasters

I was in Austin for the weekend, and I stayed until Monday morning so I could vote early in the run-off election for ACC (Austin Community College) Board. The choice is about as clear as it gets. The run-off is between Democrat Veronica Rivera and Republican Marc Levin. This is an election between a candidate that represents mainstream, Austin values and a candidate that has a history of supporting far right-wing candidates and organizations. Levin is an officer in the Young Conservatives of Texas - a right-wing conservative youth organization that has sponsored bake sales where people of different races are charged different amounts. Here's what the weekly Travis County Democratic Party email had to say about the race:

Austin Community College Board of Trustee Place 6 will go to a runoff election June 19th between Democrat Veronica Rivera and Republican Marc Levin. Even though these are “non-partisan” races, Marc Levin’s experience and background speak for themselves. He currently serves as vice president of the Texas Review Society, a non-profit organization that publishes far-right public policy newspapers and journals in Texas. He has served as president of the far-right Texas Federalist Society and as state vice chairman and general counsel for the Young Conservatives of Texas. The YCT website currently lists him as Director of Governmental Affairs. The Young Conservatives of Texas are known for outrageous stunts like “bake sales” on university campuses in which members charge women, African American and Hispanic customers lower prices for pastries to protest affirmative action programs.

Veronica Rivera is a strong Democrat and education is a passion for her. It is so important that we continue to elect progressive candidates in Travis County and Veronica Rivera is such a candidate.

I'd encourage all our Austin readers to check out Veronica Rivera's website to learn more about her candidacy. Here's the early voting sites:

ACC Highland Business Center- 5930 Middle Fiskville Rd.
Rio Grande Campus- 1212 Rio Grande
Northridge Campus- 11928 Stonehollow Dr.
Eastview Campus- 3401 Webberville Rd.
Riverside Campus- 1020 Grove Blvd.
Pinnacle Campus- 7748 Hwy 290 West
Cypress Creek Campus- 1555 Cypress Creek Rd., Cedar Park

I voted at the Rio Grande campus (there's no early voting at the UGL at UT, as there usually is, so be sure to head on over to the ACC campus nearest to you and vote for a good Democrat, Veronica Rivera).

As a final thought, I would like to add that while I strongly disagree with Marc Levin's politics, he's a decent guy. I recall talking to him after our gay marriage debate at UT, and he commended me for the quality of my arguements - even if he may have disagreed with them. He also called me after the candidate that the University Democrats supported in the first round lost - Rodney Ahart. Levin asked if we'd consider not endorsing in the race. I wished him the best of luck, but that the fact that he is affiliated with an organization (YCT) that is so fundamentally opposed to so many of the values and principles in which I (and the UD's) support, I told him that I could not in good conscience not support, endorse and vote for his opponent, Veronica Rivera.