Burnt Orange Report

Leffingwell Stays in Race for Place 1

By Karl-Thomas Musselman

Lee Leffingwell, frontrunner for Austin City Council Place 1, is staying in the race as announced at his press conference this afternoon. His wife had passed on last week.

"My wife was a wonderful woman who cared for people and who cared about her community. Losing her is a great tragedy in my life," Leffingwell said at a Thursday morning press conference. "But it cannot and will not be the end of my life . . . I know that is not what she would have wanted.

"If I am fortunate enough to be elected by the voters, I will serve in honor of her memory," Leffingwell said.

I think that every Democratic group in town is also breathing a collective sigh of relief. Partly because if he had dropped out of the race, it would have made it wide open very late in the game, forcing people to re-endorse or actually have to look at the rest of the field again. My best wishes to Lee, and I hope to see him happy on election night when gets elected to the council.