Lee Leffingwell Announces Re-Election Campaign

by: Katherine Haenschen

Thu Nov 17, 2011 at 08:49 AM CST

In front of most of the local print and TV media, Lee pledged to keep Austin focused on the fundamentals, praised our job growth, and touted infrastructure improvements we've made over the last three years. Lee also proved that he continues to be focused on the future of the city he grew up in, reiterating his support for a rail bond election in November 2012, and most importantly stating publicly for the first time that Austin will set a timeline to phase out of Fayette, our coal-fired power plant. The pledge to make Austin's power 100% coal free was a big claim, and Lee promised to work with stakeholders across the city and region to make it happen.

Three years ago, Lee ran as the strong and steady type, ready to hunker down and lead Austin through the recession. By all accounts, the mayor has done just that, protecting public safety and working to protect both our environment and affordability. However, Lee has also supported a tremendous amount of job growth here in Austin, as Council helped bring Facebook, Hanger Orthopedic, and Sunpower to the city, while also watching many local companies expand and employ Austinites.

Initially when he took office, it wasn't necessarily clear if Lee even planned to seek more than one term. However, he's not only done a solid job, he's genuinely grown into the role. In his speech yesterday (reprinted in full below the jump), Lee touched on many of his less well-known accomplishments in his first term -- increasing citizen engagement via his Community Cabinet, supporting the First Lady's Let's Move initiative to fight childhood obesity, and launching Austin Corps to get a new generation of people interested in government and public service. While Lee has definitely focused on the fundamentals, he's also brought a broad, community-wide focus to the Mayor's office, and seems to actually work hard to engage folks across Austin in major decisions. As a native Austinite, Lee's ties to and love for the community run deep. It's hard to argue that he doesn't make decisions with our entire, diverse city in mind.

Now, the only question remaining is if anyone will mount a credible challenge to the Mayor.

Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole had expressed an interest in running, as many City Hall regulars have heard her indicate plans to challenge the mayor. Conceivably a Mayoral run was part of the impetus for her unprecedented move to unseat Mike Martinez as Mayor Pro Tem after the last municipal cycle. But could Cole actually capture the same coalition that propelled Kathie Tovo onto the council? Cole's voting record closely mirrors that of Randi Shade's, in her votes for the Water Treatment Plant, and South Shore and Grayco PUD projects, all of which were vehemently opposed by the neighborhood activists and staunch anti-growth advocates who supported Tovo. And while MPT Cole's signature achievement, the Waller Creek project, will do much to develop an area of downtown in need of revitalization -- and contribute handily to our tax base when finished -- I'm not sure if a large downtown development is the kind of marquis project that wins support from the Austin Neighborhoods Council and the like.

No other credible names have really circulated among the City Hall gossip-mongers to date. Arguably, the recent decision over whether Austin should move its elections from May to November only solidified the Mayor's re-election chances. Lee's vote to move the Election to November -- a move which failed along 4-3 lines, Morrison, Tovo, Spelman, and Cole voting for the May status quo -- was in line with what the majority of Austin voters, and activists, supported. A November election would have saved the City over $1 million in tough economic times, and boosted turnout to something above the abysmal 10% we currently see. That vote -- and in particular, the votes of the four Council members who would rather keep turnout low and municipal elections in the hands of a small cadre of hyper-informed voters seemingly fit to "understand" the issues at hand -- will probably be an issue along the 2011 campaign trail.

Lee has put together a strong re-election effort. His campaign will be managed by JD Gins, who helmed his 2009 effort. Joe Deshotel (son of the State Rep, not the State Rep himself) will serve as field director. Given the broad and diverse range of Austinites who came to the launch yesterday -- including Alamo Drafthouse maestro Tim League, perhaps one of the strongest supporters of Brewster McCracken in the 2009 race -- it's clear that The Lee Team is already working hard to grow and solidify support.

Lee's full announcement speech is below.  

RE-ELECTION ANNOUNCEMENT
Mayor Lee Leffingwell

Thank you all very much for being here this afternoon.

Before I begin, I want to acknowledge my wife, Julie Byers.  Julie, thanks for all you do for me and for Austin.

As some of you may know, I grew up just a few blocks from here, and this was my elementary school.

So, obviously, this neighborhood and school has always been special to me.

And when I announced my first campaign for mayor three years ago, I did it from the front porch of my childhood home, on Christopher Street, a few blocks north of here.

Today, I'm very proud to be back in my native South Austin - here in the library of my elementary school - to tell you that I will be a candidate to serve a second term as Austin mayor.

There's going to be plenty of time over the next six months to talk about accomplishments over the last three years, and what we hope to accomplish over the next three.

So today I'm just going to give you the short version of both.

But first, I want to thank a few people.

First, my colleagues on the City Council during my time as mayor.

We haven't always agreed on everything, but I sincerely respect each of them for their public service and their earnest desire to make Austin a better place.

I also want to recognize my office staff - current and former.

Michelle Soeur, Janet Jackson, Amy Everhart, Nancy Williams, Matt Curtis, Andy Mormon and Mark Nathan - thanks to each of you for your hard work and dedication.

I'm also pleased to have my 2009 campaign manager, JD Gins, back for an encore engagement this year.  And I want to welcome a new campaign staffer, Joe Deshotel.

JD and Joe, thanks in advance for the blood, sweat and tears I know you're going to shed over the next six months.

Finally, I want to recognize and thank the members of my Community Cabinet.  

Over the last 2 ½ years, I've been meeting regularly with a group of 35 community leaders who have generously shared their time and ideas with me all along the way.  

I'm very grateful to each of them for helping us succeed in our first term.

All in all, everything that we've accomplished has been a team effort.   While I have the honor of serving you as mayor, I'm really just another member of that team.

And I have to tell you, I'm very proud of the things we've accomplished together.

From the beginning, our goal has been to leave Austin better than we found it.

I want to say that again, because it's important: Our goal has been - and remains - to leave Austin better than we found it.

To me, that has always meant "focusing on fundamentals" - jobs; traffic; public safety; clean air, clean water, and clean energy; and transparent, accountable city government.

Some of you have probably heard me say before - probably many times before - that a good quality of life begins with a good job.

So I'm especially pleased with the progress we've made in bringing good new jobs to Austin over the last 2 ½ years - as well as helping our current local businesses prosper.

We put a deliberate focus on promoting growth in sectors that we believe play to Austin's strengths.  

For example, we focused on growing our new media sector, and brought Facebook to Austin.  We focused on life sciences, and brought Hanger Orthopedic. And we focused on renewable energy, and brought Sunpower to Austin.  

These are good new jobs for Austinites in sectors that we believe will continue to expand, and drive our local economy.

But we've also been focused on helping small local businesses, which is where the majority of our jobs actually are. As I've said before, in Austin, small business is big business.

So, last year, we held a Small Local Business Summit, and identified several dozen ways in which business owners believe the city could be doing a better job of helping them succeed.  We are working on implementing many of those ideas right now.

Another focus in the first term was fighting traffic congestion.  

We made progress on some big infrastructure improvements, like building the missing fly-overs at Ben White and I-35, and MOPAC and I-35 - which will save Austin commuters thousands of travel hours every day.

But probably our most significant transportation achievement was Proposition 1 - a $90 million bond package of new investments in roads, sidewalks, bike lanes, and trails, all over the city.

I think that was an important step, because it represented a new commitment on the part of Austin citizens to fight traffic congestion using every tool we have.

We also spent a lot of time in our first term working to keep Austin safe.  

We protected funding for front-line public safety personnel in every budget.  And, we successfully passed a plan to add new first responders in the most recent budget.

Our investment in public safety is paying dividends. Austin is one of the safest large cities in America, and as long as I'm mayor, I'll work to keep it that way.

Finally, environmental issues have been a top priority for me for a long time - beginning with my days serving as Chair of the city's Environmental Board.

As mayor, I've been meeting regularly with Austin's environmental leaders, and we've worked hard to make progress on a several fronts.

For example, we passed a new generation plan for Austin Energy that makes major new commitments to utilizing renewable sources of energy, while also ensuring affordability for ratepayers.

We made Austin the first major city in America to power 100% of its facilities with renewable energy.

We also passed a plan to expand single-stream recycling to multi-family and commercial buildings across the city.

And we took another step toward banning plastic bags in Austin, which will be good for the environment, and will save taxpayers a lot of money every year.

So I'm proud of our environmental record, and I will continue to make it a top concern.

There are so many other things, some big and some small, that we accomplished - from the "Serve Austin" volunteerism plan, to the "Let's Move Austin" childhood obesity initiative, to helping bring a planned new convention center sized hotel to downtown, to creating a cell phone waiting area at the airport.

But that's enough about the past for now - I want to turn to our focus to a second term, if the voters give us that opportunity.

Obviously we're going to continue to make jobs and the economy our number one priority.

We need to continue to keep our unemployment rate low, and keep our focus on our most promising industry sectors, as well as supporting our small local businesses.

We're also going to continue efforts on improving traffic, and diversifying our mass transit network.

As I said before, it will take more than new and better roads to fix our traffic mess.  So we're continuing to target November 2012 for our urban rail election.

Just like in the first term, we'll also continue working to keep Austin safe, and to keep our air, water and energy clean.

In each of these areas, I expect us to make significant progress in the form of our next comprehensive bond package.

That bond package - also planned for the November 2012 ballot - should include major new investments in transportation, public safety, open space acquisition, affordable housing, parks and libraries, and infrastructure.

Over the next nine months, we'll work hard to create an effective, affordable package - and then work to pass it.

But there's something else important that we intend to accomplish in a second term, which - once again - is about leaving Austin better than we found it.

It's time to get Austin, Texas off of coal energy.

So, starting immediately, I'm going to begin a dialogue with the community, with Austin Energy, with the LCRA, and with state officials, about how to make Austin coal-free - and fix a date to achieve that goal.

The global energy market is changing and we need to change with it.  Right now wind prices are competitive with fossil fuels, and that is critical.  

Because, as we begin the work to make Austin a coal-free city, we absolutely must, and will, do it in a way that keeps electric rates competitive and low for our customers.

Finally - we are going to continue to pursue big changes in the way City Hall works.

Over the past few decades, I believe that our political process in Austin has become increasingly - and dangerously - disconnected from the vast majority of our citizens.

In the May 2011 election, for example, we had a pathetic 7.4% voter turnout - and frankly, there's little reason to believe that this election will be significantly different.

So at the beginning of this year, I laid out a proposal to try to turn around a 20-year trend of increasing voter apathy in Austin.

My proposal was - and is - to introduce geographic representation on the City Council; to move our city elections from May to November; to reform our campaign finance laws; and to increase the length of terms in order to have fewer elections - which would increase voter turnout and save money.

Ultimately, voters will make the decision on whether to accept any or all of these proposals.

Having been around City Hall for nearly a decade now, and having spent most of my life in Austin, I'm determined to take what I've seen and learned, and use it to try to help revitalize Austin's democracy.

Today we are one of America's truly great, and most unique cities.

You can hardly open up a newspaper or magazine these days without seeing Austin on top of somebody's list.

And there's a reason for that:  It's the people.  Austin is full of smart, driven, creative, courageous, and compassionate people.  

People who make things happen.  People who aren't afraid of big issues.  People who keep moving forward, no matter what.

In a second term, I'll to continue to lead a team effort that focuses on harnessing Austin's "People Power."

It's our greatest natural resource, and the one that will continue to propel us into a future of prosperity and opportunity - if we capitalize on it.

That's really the reason I wanted to kick off this campaign here in this school today.  

Because the kids here in this school - and in every school in Austin - are our future.  

I want them to be able to look back on this time and say that we made the right decisions for them - that we did what was right to help keep Austin special for them, and for the generations to come.

I want them to say that we left Austin better than we found it - and inspired them to do the same.

It has truly been the greatest honor of my life to serve as the mayor of Austin, my hometown, over the last 2 ½ years.

And I hope that the voters of this great city will see fit to keep me on the job, for them, and for the Austinites of the future.

Thank you all for being here today.