The Early Vote is in and Laura Morrison won it 60/40 but the margin is only 2,000 votes. While it's unexpected that the dynamic of the race changed much from this Tuesday to today's election day- low turnout could always result in surprises. BOR is not projecting a win at this time until the first E-Day results are released.
Results from Travis County ElectionsFINAL 207 of 207 Precincts Reporting
EVote EVote% EDay EDay% TOTAL TOTAL%
Laura Morrison 6,064 60.19% 7,767 69.73% 13,831 65.20%
Cid Galindo 4,010 39.81% 3,371 30.27% 7,381 34.80%
7:25- A couple of notes as I look at the precinct by precinct votes. The perfect storm of a) it being a runoff, b) a June election, and c) a Saturday election is clearly shown in that there are only 5 total early votes cast in the University of Texas campus box. Morrison won Pct. 148 3-2 (actual votes). Morrison won the other low turnout West Campus boxes... Pct 277 was 75%-25% (16 total voters) and my home Pct 266 was 70%-30% (60 total voters).
8:20- The first 10% of Election Day precincts have reported. Morrison's margin widened from 20 points in early vote to 50 points on election day.
Based upon this and commentary from the campaigns, Burnt Orange Report is calling the race for Laura Morrsion. We will continue to update the results as they come in.
8:45- Over half reporting now and Morrison continues to rack up the election day margin.
8:50- More regular updates coming out now with another 25 precinct reporting, this time, even more favorably for Morrison.
9:00- Cid Galindo managed to win both of the votes cast the University of Texas campus precinct today. As a result, he has reversed Morrison's 1-vote lead there and won the UT Campus by a 4-3 vote.
9:05- Cid Galindo has conceded and is talking to his supporters. I have to personally say that I did appreciate him running. At some point I'd like to go back to school and do my master's work in urban studies and geography (my undergrad minor) so I have a real appreciate for the perspective he brought to the table in this race.
10:05- Final report is in. Morrison wins 65-35 with almost exactly 5% total turnout for the election for a grand total of 21,212 votes cast.
By the end of the night, we will have a new councilmember for Place 4. While the last month of the campaign has been dominated by negative mailings and robocalls, we should remember that both candidates are actually well-qualified candidates and that neither is half as bad as their opponent would have you believe, as the Statesman's editorial this morning pointed out .
Both are good candidates, experienced in city government and possessing a long list of civic involvement. Morrison has been president of the Austin Neighborhoods Council, and Galindo has been a member of the city Planning Commission.
Despite their considerable achievements, the runoff campaign has been bitter, with charges, countercharges and repeated phone calls to voters’ homes. The candidates have attacked each other in advertisements for a month.
This page has endorsed Morrison in the runoff. We believe she has a broader grasp of city issues, and her years working out neighborhood disputes should give her good experience in resolving conflicting viewpoints on the council. Also, Morrison’s background in engineering and business should serve her well.
What are your thoughts on today's election?
While endorsements and her nine point lead in round one probably make Morrison the favorite, with turnout estimated to be at 25,000, Galindo certainly has a chance to pull an upset.
(Disclosure: I work for Laura Morrison and support her candidacy 100%. Because of my involvement in her campaign, I present these ads for you with no commentary.)
(Cross-posted from my crackplog with some new introductory text)
The McMansion ordinance specifies a limit of 0.4 FAR (floor to area ratio) for single-family-zoned property in Austin. This means if you have a 6000 square foot lot, like I do, your total living space must be 2400 square feet or less, with a few exemptions (this is a big change from the prior rules which allowed an unlimited FAR; 2.5 to 3 stories; but 40% maximum impervious cover). A few exemptions apply, such as habitable attic space and basements (both too expensive or too impractical for most folks) and for detached garage space (but not garage apartments - and I'd like to have one of those on top of my detached garage someday too). I worked hard against this ordinance in 2006 and 2007; even partially succeeded in getting the Planning Commission to approve a 0.5 FAR where garage apartments and duplexes were present to mitigate the drastic impact this would have on affordable housing; but in the end the City Council passed the ordinance as-is (0.4 FAR).
My next-door neighbors (family of 5 in about 1100 square feet with a garage apartment which is currently being used by the kids' aunt) were left with about 300 square feet with which to expand, thanks to this ordinance. They've decided to build back rather than up, so they can fully utilize that 300 square feet rather than having any of it obstructed/unusable due to stairs; so despite being rammed through in response to a "drainage emergency", there's pretty strong anectdotal evidence that the ordinance will actually increase impervious cover!
FAR isn't the only thing in the ordinance, but it's the one that hurts the most. Laura Morrison was the chairwoman of the task force that wrote the ordinance.
Laura Morrison chaired this task force - and lives in a home which, according to TravisCAD, is worth $1.4 million and has 8,537 square feet. Pretty big, but I had previously assumed it fit well within the 0.4 FAR required by McMansion. Yes, this is a big old historic house, but that's not the metric of the ordinance (it doesn't say "big houses are OK if they are stunners", after all).
A few days ago, though, I was alerted by a reader that Morrison's lot is actually too small -- but she's not subject to the ordinance anyways, because according to said reader, her lot is zoned MF-4 (the McMansion ordinance only applies to single-family zoning). A little history here: the Old West Austin neighborhood plan (which I worked on in a transportation capacity) allowed landowners to choose to downzone their lots from multi-family (most of the area was zoned that way after WWII even though existing uses were houses) to single-family (SF-3) if the property was still being used that way. Apparently Morrison passed on this opportunity (many others took it up; I remember seeing dozens of zoning cases come up before City Council on the matter).
So let's check it out. Unfortunately, TravisCAD doesn't have the lot size, but Zillow does.
Home size: 8537 square feet
Lot size: 20,305 square feet
FAR (before loopholes): 0.42
Caveats: I do not know if Morrison is using the property in ways which would be comforming with SF-3, but I found it very interesting that her ads are attacking Galindo for building duplexes which actually comply with her ordinance yet the home she herself lives in would be non-compliant in a similar scenario, or require loopholes to comply. It's often referred to as a "converted four-plex", and the owners' address is "Apt 9", which may suggest continuing multi-family use, which would also be evidence of hypocrisy given her stand against any and all multi-family development in the area except for a few cases where that plan mentioned above quite effectively tied her hands. Either way, Morrison clearly broke the spirit of her own ordinance and her own activism against multi-family housing, and anyways when you write the ordinance, as she did, it's really easy to make sure your own property is just barely compliant. You notice that you're right over the edge; so you exempt attached carports, for instance, which, oops, you just happen to have!
Again, I can't believe I missed her the first time around - her hypocrisy on this ordinance is more odious than that of McGraw and Maxwell combined. I apologize for my lack of diligence on this matter.
(Hey, BATPAC: yes, your latest cowardly anonymous attack on me did indeed motivate me to finally take the time to write this! Good show!)
In a new e-mail, Laura Morrison accuses her opponent Cid Galindo of "harassing voters" with "deceptive phone calls."
Here's an excerpt from the e-mail, the full text of which can be found after the jump.
Today I called on my opponent – Cid Galindo – and groups supporting him to stop the telephone harassment of voters, especially seniors, during the runoff election for Austin City Council, Place 4. While we have only placed one automated call to refute false charges made by her opponent and one live call, voters have been assaulted by repeated phone calls on behalf of Cid Galindo – with some voters complaining of receiving upwards of 30 calls.
Laura Morrison has been endorsed by Burnt Orange Report, the Austin Chronicle, the Austin American-Statesman and every endorsing Democratic club.
Early voting ends tomorrow (pdf list of locations) and Election Day is Saturday, June 14.
Cid Galindo is having a rough week. After spending 7 days trying to deceive voters on issue known as point of sale, Galindo is now being taken to task for repeatedly misleading Austin voters on issues like affordable housing and even his Democratic credentials.
On Tuesday, the Austin Chronicle fact checked one of Galindo's recent hit pieces and it looks like the piece was heavy political rhetoric and light on facts.
Galindo Mailer: "Pay a big tax just to sell your home."
Facts: No tax is proposed, or has ever been considered by the city. Home sellers would not be required to pay for any upgrades. Homeowners would be investing in their own house, not paying monies to the city.
Galindo Mailer: "Every home in Austin would have to pass a city energy efficiency inspection before it can be sold."
Facts: The task force is considering a voluntary program only, initially. Homes would not have to pass an energy efficiency inspection. Sellers would be required to have an energy audit, and to provide that data to prospective buyers. Homes built in the last decade would be exempt.
Galindo Mailer: "Homeowners could be forced to spend thousands of dollars on new air conditioners and appliances."
Facts: Expensive items like HVAC units and new windows would not be required. The program would prioritize low-cost improvements such as weather stripping and duct sealing. A spending cap of 1?2 of 1 percent of the sales price has been proposed ($923 for a median-priced home). A home buyer's up-front investment would be offset by subsequent utility bill savings. Long-term, the upgrades would provide homeowners with continued monthly savings, reducing the cost of homeownership.
Galindo Mailer: "Waiting for the city to get around to inspecting a home would cost homeowners even more."
Facts: As directed by city council, the task force is developing a program that would not hold up property closings. City inspections would not be required.
The week got worse when yesterday, FOX and KVUE both ran stories questioning Galindo's commitment to affordable housing.
The KVUE story highlights the community outrage as half million dollar homes pop up in traditional, historic east Austin neighborhoods. The FOX story goes one step further discussing his failure to disclose the development projects in East Austin while Galindo sat on the Austin Planning Commission. A mistake he didn't disclose at all on the planning commission and didn't fix until March for his city council race (three months after he started running). Galindo even admits this was a mistake. We of course agree.
Both stories show local Austin residents questioning Galindo's commitment to affordable housing, when he is jacking up property values and displacing east Austin residents.
One story that hasn't been told yet is the fact that Cid has deep ties to the Republican Party.
After a little research it appears that Governor Rick Perry is a long time family friend. Cid's father and business partner is a "Bush Pioneer" who raised over $100,000 for George Bush. Cid himself is on record as donating $1000 to Senator Phil Gramm during his doomed presidential bid.
Cid is president of the Galindo Group, which says on its company website that it is a strong supporter of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the James Leininger funded radical right wing "think tank" in Texas. The Foundation, which is closely connected to the Texas state GOP, supports vouchers, opposes environmental laws and recently crusaded against pre-kindergarten programs in public schools.
In February he began to deceive Austin Democrats when he sent out blatantly partisan e-mails to Democrats announcing:
"This week I cast my ballot in the Democratic Presidential Primary that has captured the imagination of our nation and imbued us with a determination to turn the page and set a new course for our country."
Galindo's constant deception is one of many reasons Burnt Orange Report endorsed Laura Morrison. Don't forget to vote early voting lasts until Tuesday June 10 and Election Day is June 14.
Budget issues will dominate City Hall for the immediate future, and both candidates speak of fiscal restraint. But neither has had to wrestle a city budget hemorrhaging red ink. However, Morrison's experience on the Community Action Network Council and bringing together disparate views from the city's neighborhoods should serve her well in budget discussions.
Galindo has more to offer than the urban plan that has dominated his campaign, but planning is his expertise and his passion, which makes him seem like a single-issue candidate.
Galindo has definite ideas about how Austin should grow. He sees limiting sprawl and improving mass transit as the best answers for Austin's growth headaches and traffic congestion. Galindo's knowledge of urban planning and his service on the city's Planning Commission are impressive. He's also on the board of Envision Central Texas, a bold effort begun several years ago to institute a regional plan for growth in the Austin area and beyond.
Morrison and Galindo differ on several important points. He opposes the November vote rolling back the city's subsidies for the Domain development in North Austin. She supports it as long as the issue is confined to the Domain only. He voted against the McMansion ordinance that limits the size of homes on smaller lots in certain city neighborhoods. She helped draft the ordinance and supports it.
This came via email yesterday. Given that Robin Cravey declined to endorse, a low turnout runoff means getting out your existing base and trying to draw in votes from your opponents. There's not much to be gained from Jennifer Gale/Sam Osemene/Ken Vasseau voters but Cravey had an active based that makes sense to woo.
While I expect them to be somewhat more in line with Morrison traditionally, there are elements of Galindo's vision that may appeal to this set of voters as well. In either case, both campaigns would be wise to solicit their support.
Dear Friends and Fellow Austinites,
Thanks to your votes, hard work, generosity and encouragement, I am in the run-off for Place 4 on the City Council.
I want to congratulate Robin Cravey on running an outstanding campaign. On the campaign trail, Robin and I found that we had much in common. Like me, Robin wants a plan that will finally solve the problems and answer the questions that have vexed this city for more than 20 years.
I urge all of my supporters to reach out to your friends and neighbors who supported Robin and tell them my ideas for Austin's future. I hope Robin's supporters will study the Galindo Plan and all my other positions on the issues. I think they will find much to like.
Over the next five weeks, the people of Austin will see two directions for our city. One path is the same path we've been on -- more talking, more divisions, and no solutions. The other is a bold plan to reduce traffic congestion, curb urban sprawl and protect our environment.
I think you know by now which course I want to take. The time for talk is over. It's time to break the stalemate. It's time for real solutions.
To have a chance to put my plan into action, I am going to need even more help from each of you. In particular, we need volunteers for our phone bank. And, of course, I need more of your much-appreciated campaign contributions.
We must move fast. Early voting starts May 28th and election day is June 14.
Again, thank you for that you've done and will do. Working hard and working together, we will win.
(BOR has endorsed Robin Cravey, but this is an interesting discussion. - promoted by Burnt Orange Report)
As Cid Galindo tries to sell himself to Austin voters as an environmentalist with a plan, it's important to take a closer look at what he offers before heading to the ballot box. If you study what Cid calls "the Galindo Plan," and look at what he has actually said and done, it's pretty clear that he is yet another developer-backed candidate masquerading as an environmentalist. We already have enough of those on city council.
Let's not be fooled. Everyone who cares about Austin's future, and in particular protecting our environment, should vote for Laura Morrison. Let me explain.
The following is intended to be a one-stop post for all of the information you could want for the Austin City Council races. Please let us know if we are missing any information, and feel free to share this post with any and all friends and neighbors who want to get more informed on Austin City Council races. Thanks for reading Burnt Orange Report.
ABOUT CITY COUNCIL ELECTIONS - Explanation, Endorsements, Polls, Election History
"There are seven members on the Austin City Council: one Mayor and six Council Members. The entire Council is elected at large by the voters of the City. Each member serves a staggered three-year term. Thus, three of the members are voted on one year, with the remaining members, including the Mayor, elected the following year. Term limits are now in place, which means the Mayor and Council Members may serve in their respective seat for a maximum of six years, or two consecutive terms."
