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Mon Feb 23, 2009 at 05:38 PM CST
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(This is probably the most awesome post by a candidate I've seen on BOR in some time. Lee Leffingwell is running for Mayor, and if you know his humor, it's evident in this post. I encourage those interested and undecided in the Austin Mayor's race to read it to get a sense of him and his campaign. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
Hello BOR community.
I want to start my way-too-lengthy-I-know inaugural Burnt Orange Report post with a heartfelt salute to KT, Matt, Phillip, the BOR staff writers, and the whole BOR community for creating a fascinating and exciting place online.
In my view, BOR has proven itself to be a superb source of news and insightful, colorful (sometimes extremely colorful) commentary about Texas politics, life in Austin, and life in general. It’s also a great place to keep up with the political career of Tom Musselman. Bottom line: It’s a heck of a good read.
The most exciting thing about BOR to me is the opportunity it gives us to talk with each other about what’s going on in the world around us every day, and sometimes to actually organize ourselves to work for positive change.
As it was for many BOR readers, 2008 was an exhilarating year for me. After eight long years of mostly reprehensible behavior in Washington, America finally chose to embrace hope and change. While I began 2008 as a Hillary Clinton supporter, in the end Barack Obama genuinely inspired me – as he did so many other people in every part of America – to re-think what it means to be an active citizen in a democracy.
In fact, it was the night Barack Obama won the presidency – surrounded by thousands of my fellow joyous Democrats at the Driskell Hotel downtown – that I made the decision to run for Austin mayor.
WHY I’M RUNNING FOR MAYOR
After many months of consideration, the reason that I finally decided to run is pretty simple. I’m running because I believe I know the direction Austin needs to go at this critical crossroads, and I feel confident that I can help lead us in that direction.
As of now, most of Austin hasn’t yet experienced the full impact of the national recession. But times are already very tough for lots of people in our community, and they seem likely to get worse before they get better.
For City Hall – just like for any struggling Austin family – that means having less money to spend, but just as many basic expenses to cover. And like any family, City Hall now faces some very hard choices – choices that could help determine if Austin moves steadily in the direction of a healthy recovery, or swiftly in the direction of a deepening recession.
I believe that right now we need a new leader in the mayor’s office who can and will stay focused on the fundamentals of our quality of life: jobs, traffic, public safety, social services, environmental protection, and effective, efficient basic services and infrastructure.
I also believe our next mayor must be committed to building renewed trust between City Hall and the citizens of Austin. Austin city government should be more inclusive, more transparent, and more accountable, and there is some real work to do in the years ahead to make it so.
I’ve said many times since announcing my candidacy for mayor last month that this race should be a contest of ideas for a city of ideas. That’s why I’ve laid out what I believe is the broadest and most specific platform of any candidate in the race to help us get through the tough times ahead and get back on track to a better future.
WHAT I’ll DO IF ELECTED
To help save and create jobs, my platform includes creating a “Green Collar Jobs Council” to coordinate the training initiatives of all local workforce development groups, educational institutions, and major local employers, to best prepare Austin workers to take advantage of new job opportunities in our changing economy.
I also believe that we should continue and expand our efforts to recruit targeted, desirable new employers to Austin, including clean energy companies, digital media companies, and medical technology companies. I’m especially enthusiastic about the ongoing efforts to attract a medical school to Austin, and will make it a major focus of Austin’s economic development strategy if elected.
To help solve our traffic problems, my platform also includes a proposal to hold a transit election by 2010. If approved by voters, this bond package would help us make investments in roads, sidewalks, and bike lanes. I believe the package should also include funding for expanding our rail system, and if elected I’ll work with Capital Metro and potential funding partners like UT and Travis County to craft a viable plan to present to voters. (Capital Metro would actually have to hold the election to win approval to expand our rail system.)
Another idea to fight traffic congestion that I’ll pursue if elected mayor is to convene a working group of our largest local employers and ask them to examine the possibility of adopting “flextime” work schedules. If even a few of Austin’s big employers adopted flextime policies that allowed for variable work schedules, we might be able to accomplish a meaningful reduction in rush-hour traffic congestion.
Of course, at a time like this, some people might be happy to be stuck in the traffic if it meant they were on their way to work. When the economic challenges are as big as they are right now, I believe City Hall must reaffirm our commitment to maintaining a strong safety net. That’s why my platform includes a pledge to not only oppose budget cuts that impact public safety services or social services, but also a pledge to expand funding for mental health care services as soon as possible.
I can’t overstate the importance of this, in my view. Already, there are people in Austin who are losing their jobs, their insurance, their cars, and in some cases their homes. What we can’t afford to let them lose is their dignity, their health, or their sense of safety. More than anything, Austin is a caring, compassionate community. Now is exactly the time to reaffirm our commitment to those core values. |
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Another core Austin value is to protect of our natural resources, and most folks who know me know that this has been a lifelong priority of mine. While protecting the quality of our water has always been central to Austin’s brand of environmentalism and must remain so, I believe that climate change has become the most pressing environmental concern of all. To ignore climate change while professing environmentalism is something akin to fighting over deck chairs on the Titanic.
So if elected mayor, I’ll be especially concerned with finding new ways to conserve energy and reduce our carbon emissions. My platform includes at least one proposal intended to accomplish just that – creating a new, voluntary "Green Choice"-style program at Austin Energy to sell carbon credits to utility customers. The resulting funds could be used to help support all kinds of local energy conservation projects, such as weatherizing thousands of low-income homes.
Indeed, the citizens’ ownership of Austin Energy is key asset in our local fight against climate change, and as mayor I’ll continue to push as hard as I have on the Council to expand our utility’s commitment to buy and sell energy from renewable sources. As mayor, I’ll oppose increasing our dependence on coal or nuclear power, and support increasing our use of wind and solar power whenever possible.
I believe that the economic downturn presents several opportunities in disguise for Austin, and one is the opportunity to rebuild trust between the citizens and their city government. I know some people feel that City Hall doesn’t share information particularly well, doesn’t listen particularly well, and doesn’t engage the community in decision-making particularly well. I want to try to change that.
To give folks better information, and to give it to them sooner, I’m proposing several initiatives. First, I want to extend the time between finalizing City Council meeting agendas and holding the meetings, so everyone – even Council Members – can have more lead time to see big issues coming. As a starting place, I’ve suggested that we double the time between finalizing Council agendas and holding Council meetings.
Another idea to promote more participation in city government – one that I’ve already gotten lots of positive feedback about – is to begin holding regular Council meetings outside of City Hall. While it’s a logistical challenge, I believe it will pay big dividends to occasionally bring City Hall to the people instead of always requiring the people to come to City Hall. We should have meetings every year in north, south, east and west Austin, and I’d like to see the Council meet on campus at UT, as well.
I also believe that it’s time for us to put all of the city’s finances online in a searchable format, and to post all revenue and expenses on the city website in real time, or as close as we can get. After all, it’s your money; you should be able to see how it’s being spent. I’m convinced that this initiative will ultimately save Austin taxpayers money by shining a brighter light on city spending.
Last, but certainly not least, if elected mayor I want to create two new groups that I believe will help foster more community involvement in City Hall. First, I want to create the Mayor’s Community Cabinet – a new standing advisory body of leaders representing diverse community interests. The group should be large enough to represent a broad cross-section of Austin, but small enough to fit in a conference room and have a conversation about what’s happening across our community.
Perhaps the one idea I’m most excited to pursue as mayor is creating a new citywide civic internship program, primarily for high school and college students, called AustinCorps. AustinCorps will be a place where citizens can learn how local government really works, and experience first-hand the rewards of community involvement and volunteerism. If we can use AustinCorps to harness and channel our civic energy - and especially the energy of our youngest citizens - I know we can make a big difference for Austin’s future.
This is, no doubt, an ambitious vision and agenda, and I’m certainly not going to pretend that we can accomplish all of it, or do everything better, in the short term. It’s clear that we are all facing tough times. Most folks know that city government is highly dependant on sales tax revenue, and it comes as no surprise that we’ve seen a steep drop in revenue over the last year. This means City Hall will be pinching pennies to balance its budget next year, as our City Charter requires. Many city services will be under the microscope, and some cuts are simply unavoidable.
I know that our next mayor must take a steady, balanced approach to maintaining fiscal discipline while pursuing good new ideas to help maintain and improve our quality of life. If elected, I’ll approach the difficult budget decisions ahead with a clear set of priorities. For me, reliable basic services will always come first – water, electricity, trash, roads, public safety, public health, parks, libraries. Once we’ve done what we must to ensure that our basic needs are met today, we should do everything we can to advance an agenda that makes Austin even better tomorrow.
By pursuing a clear, ambitious vision and doing a better job of working more closely together as a community, I’m shamelessly optimistic that we can make incredible progress over the years ahead, and I hope very much that you will be part of it. As a native son, I know I have a bias, but I believe wholeheartedly that Austin, Texas is the greatest city in America. And I know that if we make the right choices now, we can make it even better for future generations.
HOW THE RACE IS GOING SO FAR
While the road to Saturday, May 9th is long and likely treacherous, I’m very proud of the campaign that we’ve run so far, and pleased with the support we’ve earned.
We launched our campaign just over a month ago from the steps of my childhood home in the Bouldin neighborhood, and had a large, enthusiastic crowd. Since then we’ve put up our campaign website at AustinLeadership.com and opened our campaign headquarters at 7th and Lamar, just north of Whole Foods. Two weeks ago we had a campaign kick-off event at the HQ (beer and bbq!), and I’m guessing that I’ve campaigned at 50 or more different community events over the last month. We’ve also had some great roundtable discussions with various groups at our HQ.
As of today, our supporter list is nearly 1,000 people strong, and we’ve won (by unanimous vote in each case) every group endorsement that’s been given so far – the Austin Police Association, the Austin Firefighters Association, the Austin / Travis County EMS Employees Association, and the Austin Central Labor Council. (I’m also proud to announce here for the first time that Representative Eddie Rodriguez has joined our list of endorsers – I’m really honored to have Eddie’s backing in this race.)
We’ve also got a long list of upcoming house parties, fundraisers, volunteer days, and other events, so I hope that we will see you very soon on the campaign trail.
I’ll readily admit that most of our success so far has had much less to do with me than with my excellent campaign team. I’m very lucky to have the help of a great group of people, many of whom I believe are well known to the BOR community.
My campaign manager is JD Gins, who served as Texas Field Director for the Barack Obama campaign last year and is a long-time community organizer and activist. My political director is Susan Shelton, a local Democratic precinct chair and a member of the State Democratic Executive Committee. My fundraising director is funnyman Matt Parkerson, who managed my Council re-election campaign last year.
Helping us with outreach to the African-American community is my friend Eleanor “Cookie” Thompson, who’s well known to anyone involved in Austin politics over the last two decades. Heading up our Hispanic outreach effort is Crystal Viagran, who works at UT and is a leader of the Latinos for Texas club. Both Eleanor and Crystal played key roles on the Travis County Democratic Coordinated Campaign last year.
I’ve also got a great team of consultants helping out, including BOR’s own Matt Glazer, who is leading our web and social media strategy. Amy Everhart, who has helped lead several Council candidates to victory in recent years, is providing daily guidance to our campaign staff while managing her day job at the Sierra Club. And Dean Rindy is our famous media consultant.
Last on the list, but first in our hearts, is the deadly duo of Mark Nathan and David Butts, who have together elected every current Austin City Council member (but one), as well as most other local elected officials in Travis County. Mark and David have helped lead me to victory in both my campaigns for City Council, and I’m obviously hoping that they can work their magic again this year.
I also want to acknowledge my great Council staff – Nancy Williams, Larry Schooler, and Janet Jackson (her wardrobe is functioning perfectly well, thank you) – for everything they do to keep our office running smoothly.
More important than any of our staff or consultants, though, are the many volunteers who have already played a major role in this campaign. I want to say a quick special thanks to Mary Pat, DT, Aaron, Dave, Mohammad, Donna Beth, Tory, Laura, Shawn, Jim, Deena, and many others who have given lots of volunteer hours already, and who I know will be giving more over the months ahead. Thanks guys.
Finally, no good campaign is ever without a campaign dog. Ours is Smokey.
As those (few) of you have who have been following this race closely so far know, there have already been some minor controversies and emerging policy distinctions between the candidates, and I’ll just touch on a few of them briefly (ha-ha) here.
First there was the non-controversy initiated by one of my opponents over whether my announcement for mayor in January should trigger a separate special election before May 9th at taxpayer expense. Ultimately the Council voted unanimously that the election be held on May 9th at no additional taxpayer expense. Obviously, I never would have exposed Austin taxpayers to that kind of risk if I was not 100% certain of the law. I was.
Then, the day after I announced my candidacy, one of my opponents went on a conservative talk radio show and characterized my platform as “socking people’s pocketbooks.” My opponent also said that I was “in favor of prohibiting homeowners from selling their homes until they got a government-approved energy upgrade” – an unfortunate revival of a scare tactic we saw play out in last year’s Council races.
Just a few days later, one of my opponents compared me to Senator John McCain. While it’s true that Senator McCain and I both served our country as pilots in Vietnam, the accuracy of the comparison ends there. I’m a proud, lifelong progressive Democrat. Frankly, it was hard not to take some exception to being compared to the Republican who chose Sarah Palin as his running mate.
As I said, I view these attacks as minor campaign controversies at best, but they did actually serve to help make plain at least two meaningful policy distinctions between myself and Brewster McCracken, the candidate behind them.
Namely, they helped make clear that I favor letting Austin voters decide whether to invest in transportation infrastructure and an expanded rail system by 2010, while Brewster McCracken does not. And they also helped make clear that I favor a specific new proposal to promote energy conservation and improve residential energy efficiency citywide, while Brewster McCracken does not (or else doesn’t understand the proposal).
In fact, over the first month of this campaign, it’s become clear that there are other policy distinctions between Brewster McCracken and myself that provide voters with a clear choice. For example, I favor putting a proposal for single-member districts in front of Austin voters; Brewster McCracken does not. I oppose public safety and social services budget cuts, and oppose a wage freeze for city employees; Brewster McCracken does not.
As the race progresses over the next 2-½ months, I feel certain more policy distinctions will emerge. I also feel pretty certain that more attacks will come. I want to be clear, though, that I respect Brewster McCracken’s enthusiasm for specific issues, especially for promoting clean energy and digital media. I also think his signature issue, the Pecan Street Project, could be a real asset to Austin once the cost is made clear.
But it’s becoming plain that Brewster McCracken and I do offer a different set of priorities on key policies – again, differences that will give Austin voters a clear choice on May 9th. I’d like to believe we can keep the race focused on those policy priorities, and move away from political attacks. We’ll see.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
If you are still reading at this point, you’ve got some spare time on your hands, which indicates to me that perhaps you’ve got enough time to help our campaign!
If you like what you’ve read so far about my ideas and priorities, I invite you to visit our campaign website to learn more about my personal history and my record on the City Council. If you are ready to engage to help us win on May 9th, you can take the first step by filing out this short form and letting us know what you are willing to do. Most of all we need your volunteer help and your financial support.
If you have any specific questions you would like to ask me, please feel free to do so by emailing me at info@austinleadership.com. I’ll do my best to respond quickly. I’ll also do my best to respond in short order to any comments on this post, or to any comments left in response to the posts on our own campaign blog.
Thanks again BOR friends. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts, and I look forward to hearing yours – hopefully not only for the next 2-½ months as a candidate, but also for the next 3 years as Austin’s 51st mayor.
Sincerely,
Lee Leffingwell
PS – I know, it’s incredible that there would be a PS on a post this long, but I also wanted to say thanks to BOR readers for your support in the mayoral poll last month. In many years of reading BOR, I can’t remember many instances where the winner of a BOR poll didn’t actually win the race. Let’s hope that trend holds… |
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