| Let's do this point by point: If Lee Leffingwell proves as effective at running the city as he did running for mayor, the people of Austin will be well served.
What a nice back-handed compliment to start us off! Having endorsed McCracken, we were disappointed and, frankly, surprised he did not run a better campaign. On election day, he put out an e-mail that said "the mayor's race will be very, very close." But it wasn't close at all.
Really? You were surprised? How is that even possible? I mean -- I was one of the only supporters of McCracken on this site (I even voted for him when we were deciding who to endorse as a site). I wrote a huge solar energy piece that raised McCracken's #1 issue to the front of our site; I wrote about the tech-related stuff a lot; and I never touched the transportation contrasts between Leffingwell and McCracken. But even I knew he had a major uphill battle ahead of him -- and I'm not even living in the city right now. Former mayor Carole Keeton Strayhorn's campaign was far more visible on television, while Leffingwell succeeded in mobilizing the Austin Democratic machine
I'd be more impressed with the "machine" talk if I had any evidence that the Statesman wasn't just repeating lines from Brewster (and myself) about the Austin political machine. Brewster was exactly the kind of candidate that could have re-shaped the electorate and done things differently, but (for whatever reason) never got quick enough traction in his campaign. But one thing that is way worse than any machine -- and I never saw the Statesman editorial board write about this -- are anonymous leaflets, anonymous websites, and last-minute robocalls. I was fine with my support of the McCracken campaign until the Brewster Nation parking ticket fliers came out -- after which the Brewster Nation website was "mysteriously" pulled down and no one from the McCracken campaign really addressed if they were behind it or not. After that, and the robocalls, it became pretty clear that there are things far worse than political machines in our City Council races. Anonymous leafets from an anonymous website is probably against the law (which is why, I'm sure, the Brewster Nation site was taken down), and even if it's not, it violates so many principles of freedom of speech that we at BOR (and the Statesman, for that matter) should hold above other issues. But it seems the Statesman just put buried their head in the sand on that one, preferring to talk about other made-up, fictionalized issuess: Leffingwell, 69, is a retired commercial airline pilot, and he showed the public a studied cockpit calm in his campaign that, he suggested, was just the ticket for the storms beating on the city's financial wings. It's important, though, that he not rely too heavily for advice on the unions, particularly the police and firefighters' unions, that supported him.
First of all, that first sentence about "cockpit calm" is just offensive to me as an English major. Second of all -- STILL WITH THE UNIONS? I guess one should never pick a fight with someone that buys ink by the barrel (even if they will only be able to afford that ink for a few more years). Again, for anyone that cares to learn any truth about the Lee/union saga the Statesman ed board fictionalized entirely on its own, read here. For now, Leffingwell has earned our congratulations for his victory and best wishes for a successful term as mayor of a city we all love.
A city the editorial board loves so much that they are surprised by its election outcomes, promote ridiculous statements about the Mayor-elect's ties to unions, and decided twice that George Bush would be the best person to represent the city's interest. Brewster McCracken was graceful in his congratulations for Leffingwell. It is too bad the Statesman couldn't muster the same respect for our new Mayor. |
