Today the University Democrats and the Central Austin Democrats, together the Austin Progressive Coalition, held their joint endorsement meeting. The results go as followed.
Central Austin Democrats
Mayor: Lee Leffingwell
Place 1: Chris Riley
Place 2: Mike Martinez
Place 5: Bill Spelman
Place 6: Sheryl Cole
University Democrats
Mayor: Lee Leffingwell
Place 1: Chris Riley
Place 2: Mike Martinez
Place 5: Bill Spelman
Place 6: No Endorsement
A few comments.
For every position except Place 6, the endorsements will be placed on thousands of yellow flyers that will be distributed door-to-door. Beyond claiming CAD and UDems endorsements, the candidates will be able to claim the endorsements of the Austin Progressive Coalition.
Second, Strayhorn was a no-show as was Mike Martinez's opponent.
Next, although Chris and Perla have been splitting the two endorsements, Chris managed to pull the entire coalition to his side. As Riley's extensive Austin experience is heavily concentrated in Central Austin, it comes as no surprise he won the CAD endorsement, but the UDems endorsement was no certainty; Perla still has a lot of strong support in the club.
Finally, the UDems' No Endorsement for Place 6 might come as a surprise to outside observers, mainly because the most active Democratic clubs haven given her an endorsement. She lost an endorsement from the activist students because, in my mind, she 1. had a mediocre performance today and 2. Even the most veteran University Democrats claimed that this was the first time they had ever seen her (anywhere, not just at club meetings). She'll still most likely win reelection, but that's simply due to the dearth of the competition. But hopefully she'll take the various No-Endorsements to heart and amp up her work on the council.
Update by KT: Indeed this is a big win for Riley in Place 1. Most observers rated it as a toss up (more so in UDems than CAD) but it could have gone either way for either candidate and most of us expected a split endorsement (which would have resulted in being knocked off the thousands of yellow doorhangers). On top of that, the UDems endorsements match those of the Capital City Young Democrats which opens up the door to a second year of a joint youth mail piece which makes today's results even more meaningful for co-endorsed campaigns.
While Leffingwell was like 10-1 over McCracken in CAD, it was closer in UDems. Closer in fact than Place 1 ended up being! I've posted the UDems numbers in the extended entry, which are publicly requestable via a transparency clause we added into the constitution back when I was a member (mainly because everyone always asked anyways or tried to leak it and this way it just makes it fairer).
The Place 6 No Endorsement was a solid margin. I owe Mr. Suits an apology for cautioning his hope that UDems would wind up doing this. Color me surprised and maybe even a bit impressed. |
