Close elections both- the ACC candidates tied saw Reiter ahead by 2 votes in Williamson Conuty. In AISD, Barksdale did noticeably better on election day in the first round and if that continues to the runoff she may pull through. Student vote was non-existent. Barksdale cleaned up on the east side but Cowan won big in some of the higher turnout boxes. Turnout was 1.21% in the early vote for AISD and .83% for ACC.
NOTE- As far as I can tell, the ACC results reported by Travis County do include the Williamson numbers, but do not include the Bastrop numbers (which joined ACC in last month's election). It would be pretty wild if this election comes down to being decided by new Bastrop voters who could vote in the runoff by not the first round. They petitioned this spring but will vote to join in November- so no worries.
8:00 PM: In the AISD election, there was 628 more votes cast early in the runoff than in the initial round in May. Conversely, in the ACC election, there was 1,126 fewer votes in the runoff early vote than the initial round.
8:15 PM: Of the people voting in the AISD race, only 34 didn't cast a ballot. Of the people voting in the ACC race, 712 skipped casting a ballot. Since the jurisdictions overlap, it's pretty clear the AISD race drove the turnout.
9:15 PM: With over 80% reporting I'm calling the AISD race for Tamala Barksdale. With 58% reporting in the ACC race, it's a pretty sure bet that Villarreal is the winner.
9:45 PM: All in for AISD. Barksdale pulls down a solid win with the support of Election Day voters. Final turnout is 2.52%. There was 497 more voters in the runoff than the initial election in May.
There are municipal races scattered across Texas tonight and while we won't be reporting on all of them here, below are some select results from races of interest or that we have covered here previously on Burnt Orange Report. In the Central Texas area I'd turn to the News 8 Austin compilation of all area races for results. Results from the Rio Grande Valley can be found here.
ACC: All precincts reporting.
AISD: All precincts reporting.
NOTE: The display below is formated with the Early Vote % first, and the Total Vote % second where applicable.
Austin Community College Place 5
39.18% | 39.88% Vic Villarreal - RUNOFF 17.96% | 16.80% Davis Jones
24.14% | 24.81% David S. Reiter - RUNOFF 18.72% | 18.50% Fred L. McGhee
Austin Community College Place 6
19.13% | 18.23% Michael Perrine
30.24% | 28.23% Raymond Hartfield
50.64% | 53.53% Guadalupe (Lupe) Sosa - ELECTED
AISD Place 6
29.42% | 23.67% Glen P. Mayes
70.58% | 76.33% Lori Moya - ELECTED
AISD Place 7
46.33% | 47.05% Warren Faulkner
53.67% | 52.95% Robert Ray Schneider
52.13% Tom Musselman - ELECTED 45.94% Walter Moldenhauer
1.93% Richard Bartholomee
Fredericksburg- City Council
29.53% Tim Dooley - ELECTED 28.57% Graham Pearson - ELECTED 23.24% Tommy Segner
9.46% John Detmar
9.20% Scott Jones
Statement from County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir on possible runoff election
Responding to questions from the media and the public about a possible runoff election, County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir said that the only races in which a runoff appears possible include:
= Austin Community College Trustee, Place 5
= Austin Community College Trustee, Place 6
= Austin Independent School District, Position 9
= City of Cedar Park Council, Place 6
DeBeauvoir said her office had provided cost estimates to both ACC and AISD for a potential June runoff election. Initial estimates for a runoff involving both ACC and AISD total $496,910, with the share being split proportionately by district size.
ACC estimated cost: $286,044 (additional costs for Williamson County precincts)
AISD estimated cost: $210,866
Total runoff estimate for ACC and AISD: $496,910
Should the City of Cedar Park election result in a runoff, DeBeauvoir said that election would be conducted by Williamson County.
It appears that in the AISD Place 9 runoff, Barksdale has received the endorsements of 1 of the 3 losing candidates as well as the endorsement of the retiring incumbent.
Statesman: Already on Saturday, Barksdale said she had received new endorsements from Enoch Brown, who got 5 percent of the vote, and Dulaney Smith.
The Place 5 race for the Austin Community College board of trustees is shaping up to be a competitive one. Four candidates are vying to replace Raul Alvarez on the board: Vic Villarreal, a 37 year old ACC adjunct professor of business and former Leander city council member, Davis Jones, a 26 year old ACC student, David Reiter, a lawyer and board member of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, and myself.
All four candidates possess at least some democratic party credentials. Club endorsements are split, with numerous close votes, although my campaign boasts the greatest number of endorsements to date with four (South Austin Democrats, Capital Area Asian American Democrats, Black Austin Democrats, Capital Area Progressive Democrats). This election coincides with the school board elections. Election Day is on May 8th. The early voting period starts on Monday, April 26th.
For those interested in what Tim Mahoney has to say about Keller's withdrawal from the race for ACC, here you go.
"I have told Mr. Keller that I appreciate his difficult decision to withdraw from the Runoff. The Runoff would have cost ACC hundreds of thousands of dollars, and Mr. Keller's challenging choice was for the benefit of ACC and the community at large. I look forward, not only to working with Mr. Keller in the future, but to begin my term with the two other new Board members beginning June 2. Mr. Keller has indicated that he wishes ACC the best in the future and will continue his long-time interest in educational matters," Mahoney said after hearing that the runoff election had been cancelled last Thursday.
"The goal of improving educational outcomes across Central Texas is something I have been working on for the last number of years, including helping to organize citizen-based planning conferences. (See www.neighboraustin.com.) I have the demonstrated skills to continue ACC's efforts to outreach to the community, business and citizen groups, and work on the growth that is a part of ACC's master plan," Mahoney said. "I see my job, as one of the 9 people who are members of the ACC Board of Trustees, to help ACC shape its future in the direction that we all want to go.
Tim Mahoney will be sworn in as new Board member with others on June 2, 2008.
Craddick Republican, Harrison Keller, has decided to withdraw from the runoff for ACC Board of Trustee. Keller who has been financed by David Dewhurst, TRMPAC donors, and other Republican leadership has exited the race after Democrat Tim Mahoney received an outstanding 48.5% of the vote on May 10th.
In an odd twist, the Republican's have inadvertently done more for community colleges trying to get Keller elected than they did throughout the entire 80th legislature. Keller's statement outlines, he has decided to withdraw from the runoff election and to donate the balance of his campaign funds to the Austin Community College Foundation."
Ironic given the fact the Republican Party gutted funding to Community College's last session.
Regardless, congrats to Tim Mahoney and we hope you will take the next few weeks to relax.
Last night, Thursday, April 03, the Capital City Young Democrats (CCYD) held its endorsement election for the upcoming Austin municipal election on May 10, 2008.
CCYD endorsed the following candidates:
Austin Community College Board of Trustees, Place 1 Tim Mahoney
Austin Independent School District Board of Trustees, District 3 Jerry Garcia
Now available online here. You can also check out the News 8 Austin results online. The following are the early votes for selected races.
update1: The first update is now up (pdf). The main things to watch tonight will be if Martinez gained enough votes to avoid a runoff, if Ahardt picked up enough to overcome McGuffee's lead for ACC place 8, and the race between Annette LoVoi and Ed Leo for AISD 8.
update2: So it looks like the final results are just about in. Congratulations to Mayor Will Wynn and Councilman McCracken on their re-elections as well as to new councilmembers Mike Martinez and Sheryl Cole.
James McGuffee prevailed for his ACC seat though incumbent Allen Kaplan defeated Ana Mejia-Dietche and AISD incumbent Schneider prevailed as well. Karen Dulaney Smith crushed her opponents garnering 72% of the vote for an AISD seat while Annette LoVoi edged out Ed Leo by about 2,500 votes to win the unexpired AISD place 8 term.
Austin Props 1 & 2 went down in blazing defeat while 3-7 all passed.
Mayor
Will Wynn 75.84%
Danny Thomas 16.73%
Jennifer Gale 7.42%
City Council Place 2
Eliza May 28.24%
Mike Martinez 49.79%
Wes Benedict 21.97%
City Council Place 5
Kedron Jerome Touvell 9.78%
Mark Hopkins 14.73%
Brewster McCracken 69.44%
Colin Kalmbacher 6.05%
City Council Place 6
DeWayne W. Lofton 9.77%
Sheryl Cole 60.68%
Darrell Pierce 29.55%
Prop 1: Open Government
Yes 25.43%
No 74.57%
Prop 2: Save Our Springs
Yes 32.91%
No 67.09%
Prop 6: Health Care / Domestic Partners
Yes 67.96%
No 32.04%
Now that BOR has endorsed in the City Council races, we'll move to the far less known AISD and ACC races, heading into Election Day this Saturday. So for those of you who have not yet voted, feel free to take this into account.
We endorse the incumbent Robert Schneider over challenger Mel Fuller. He was also endorsed by the Chronicle. We care so little about this race, no BOR writers even mentioned in their responses to me, and I flipped the endorsement from Mel Fuller to Schneider in the process of writing this post.
Though both well qualified, Annette LoVoi receives our endorsement and considering that she also has the support of former Gov. Ann Richards, that is more than enough for us in a local race like this. We wish we could link to Ed Leo's website, but it tend to take forever to open and crashes some browsers.
Running against Alberto Gonzales (whose website also won't open in all cases so we won't link to it), Karen received a unanimous endorsement from those BOR writers that responded. She was also endorsed by the Chronicle.
This is a difficult race as both candidates are very likable. I wish both could be elected and the BOR crew was somewhat split. But James McGuffee reminds us of politicians like Bruce Elfant and Herb Evans, people who do a great job in office and have not expressed higher ambitions, allowing them to become badasses in the offices they hold. The ACC Board is all McGuffee wants. Rodney Ahardt would be a great candidate for other offices which we feel he may run for at some point anyways, including Dawna Dukes seat after she retires among others. We very well would support him in those efforts, but we support McGuffee for Place 8.
Running against incumbent Allen Kaplan, we support challenger Ana Mejia-Dietche. A favorite quote?
At its best, ACC is like my grandmothers living room. It gives students what they need, when they need it. By doing so, it changes lives. I want to continue my grandmother’s work.
Plus, and we are sure it is of no relation, those Kaplan test prep people are really annoying.
I am Billy D. Stallings, a student at Austin Community college and Director of Communications for ACC's Student Government. In my direct experience at ACC, Dr. James McGuffee is the one candidate for the Board of Trustees who has taken the time to reach out to the student body and ask for input directly from those to whom the school is most valuable. Dr. McGuffee is the one candidate who really "gets it" when it comes to what is needed to achieve the college's mission of making higher education accessible to people across the socioeconomic spectrum, facilitating that opportunity for people of all ages and incomes. ACC is an institution which represents not only an opportunity for a better future for thousands of people in central Texas, but the culmination of decades of hard work for the college's establishment and perpetuation by the faculty, administration, and concerned citizenry. Unlike other candidates, James McGuffee has background, experience and knowledge specific to Austin Community College which uniquely qualifies him to serve on the board. It is for these reasons that I will be voting for Dr. James McGuffee for place 8 on the ACC Board of Trustees, and that I implore you to do the same. ACC has given me a future that I would never have had access to otherwise, and I believe Dr. McGuffee is the right person to protect that opportunity for the future.
