Regular readers of BOR will know that I have a fascination with the oddballs of Texas politics (in some counties this is called the Democratic Party). This includes Rhett Smith, Jennifer Gale, Treaty Oak, and the like.
Which brings me to James "Patriot" Dillon. If you didn't notice, he was the only Patriot on the ballot last Tuesday. A self-described "craftsman and freedom fighter", Patriot got just over 1000 write-in votes for Governor. So for your enjoyment, I bring you the "Patriots of Texas" list.
The following are the Top 10 Counties for Patriot in terms of raw votes.
DALLAS
224
BEXAR
83
WILLIAMSON
80
COLLIN
71
VICTORIA
36
EL PASO
35
BELL
29
ELLIS
22
HARRIS
20
COMAL
17
That's 62% of his total vote right there alone! Now for the Top 5 Most Patriotic Counties by % vote share.
...
W-I
% of Vote
Votes
JONES
8
0.21%
3,817
TERRELL
1
0.19%
517
VICTORIA
36
0.19%
18,747
KARNES
6
0.19%
3,191
BEE
13
0.18%
7,040
And to point out one last important fact. Even though they have one million registered voters combined, three particular counties refused to cast a single vote for Patriot. Nueces and Hidalgo I can understand. They are probably just afraid that Dillon is going to marshal his armies of justice against them.
The most populous of the 3 though? None other than Travis County. Just as I expected, not a single Patriot among the residents of the People's Republic of Austin. Not one.
Actually, it was a machine error. The Travis e-Slates by default cast all votes for James "Patriot" Dillon for Charles E. Waterbury.
I live in Precinct 277, the second best precinct for Jennifer Gale when she ran for Major of Austin this spring. The best was 148, the eastern half of the UT campus.
Oh where, oh where, could the ordinance be?
Oh where, oh where could it be?
The City of Austin has yet to release a draft or final version of a proposed change to the existing bicycle helmet ordinance that would purportedly make it illegal for adults to ride bikes anywhere without a helmet. The council voted to hold a public hearing on the mystery ordinance on Aug. 24, a mere two days from today.
Current Austin law requires anyone age 17 or under to wear a bicycle helmet.
"All we know is that council is looking at something that makes it mandatory for adults to wear helmets when riding a bicycle," said Rob D'Amico, spokesperson for the League of Bicycling Voters (LOBV), the organization leading the campaign against the proposal. "Beyond that, we can just guess at what we're supposed to comment on when it comes time for a public hearing. What will the penalties be for not having a helmet on? Will this apply to people riding in the "pedicabs" pulled by bicyclists downtown? Can they haul someone off to jail for not wearing a helmet? Inquiring minds, helmeted and non-helmeted, want to know."
Apparently, LOBV was told in July that the ordinance was not public and therefore could not be released. But there is one person that should know what is being crafted- former Mayor Bruce Todd who is on a holy quest to helmet the heads of Austinites whether they like it or not. As D'Amico said in a press statement,
"I guess that means Todd is privy to what's going on, so now we're looking for another former mayor out there with connections who might be able to help us figure it out."
Paging Kirk Watson...Gus Garcia? Heck, I bet Jennifer Gale might have the best information for as much time as she spends at City Council. (Does anyone else find that somewhat sad?)
There are other alternatives of course. The city's Urban Transportation Commission had the issue brought up on it's docket which resulted in (shockingly) not a recommendation for speedy passage of Bruce's Bike Law, but a "18-month comprehensive study on bicycle injuries and safety issues" which might, you know, provide some real statistics to base policy on for the City of Austin.
Also, (shockingly) the Austin Cycling Association, the largest bicycle organization in the Austin area with 1,500 members, is also recommending that the city not address an ordinance change next week, so that the city and ACA have time to review alternative recommendations for bicycle safety measures. The ACA leadership and membership voted in May to not support the proposed ordinance.
The public hearing on the yet to be circulated ordinance will be this Thursday, August 24, starting at 6pm down at City Hall.
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%
Jennifer Gale goes on the attack against Mayor Will Wynn! Check out her updated website. Not sure about you, but those are some pretty convincing arguements.
The New York Times has a great image of gas prices since 1960, indexed for inflation.
The chief electoins officer in Williamson County resigns abruptly. Cliff Borofsky used to hold a similar position in Bexar County where he resigned as well. And it would have nothing to do with election irregularities.
These are our 2006 endorsements.Click here for our current 2009 endorsements.
Halfway through Early Voting for municipal elections here in Travis County, I've finally gotten around to getting things together for some BOR endorsements. So we'll start with the big races and then hit the Propositions and ACC/AISD candidates after that in separate posts. Keep in mind that these are all fairly low turnout (and low interest) elections and I only received input from 2 other writers for endorsements. Let's get started.
This is easy. While Austin's Mayor may have been elected in a whirlwind of moderation and mediocrity three years ago, there is a certain charm about him that has shown through in past couple of years. A hard worker, believer in downtown density (of which I'm a big fan since I'll probably live there soon enough), and tireless promoter for the City of Austin, its industries, and its people, Wynn should not only be re-elected, but fully deserves a second term. And considering his competition this year, there is no question in our eyes that Wynn has earned our endorsement and votes. We want Wynn, again.
If you feel that you want to keep Austin weird, you could always vote for perennial candidate Jennifer Gale. We understand. But please don't vote for outgoing councilman and candidate Danny Thomas, as we're not even sure if he knows why he's running. Austin doesn't need to be that weird.
While more contentious earlier in the race, this one has become clearer to us as time has gone on. Martinez, after winning most every local endorsement, recently picked up the Statesman and Chronicle nods. A native of East Austin and president of the Austin Firefighters Association, Martinez led the successful public campaign to win collective bargaining rights for Austin firefighters which we also supported.
This is not to say that his opponent Eliza May is unqualified- far from it. She has received support from the West Austin groups as well as the local Spanish papers and would certainly be an active voice on the council. But we feel that Martinez has proven leadership skills and will not back down for his community on the council while being the most able to work to bind people east and west of I-35. Libertarian Wes Benedict is also running.
The endorsement for incumbent McCracken is not as enthusiastic as for incumbent Wynn but the two are similar in style, ideology, and we won't be surprised when McCracken announces for Mayor in 3 years. His opposition is mostly token, but certain interests have spurred them into the race, partly on the issue of Tolls. While we're no fan of them, what we find even more annoying is it used as a single issue interest group. In fact, I find it as the singlemostannoying one in Austin. (I have to laugh that their only acceptable single issue option in the Mayor's race is Jennifer Gale, ha!)
Cole, like Martinez, is the frontrunner for their respective places for City Council. If elected, she would be the first African American female ever to serve on the Austin Council. Endorsed by the Chronicle (the Statesman endorsed Darrell Pierce), Cole has racked up most all the local endorsements, save the few that DeWayne Lofton has picked up. Each of the three candidates is worthy of a seat on the council in their own right, but Austin's "gentleman's agreement" to reserve one black and one Hispanic seat in order to keep free of federal Voting Rights Act interference has also more or less made these 'reservations' caps as well.
As the seat considered to be the most likely to go to a runoff if one should, the real battle will be between Lofton and Pierce to claim the 2nd spot. Personally, I voted for Pierce, but an argument has been made for Lofton in the journals.
Paul Ferguson says he had an easy ride to work this morning because of today being a "Day Without Immigrants".
In Austin, that means you can't eat at Kerbey Lane. Any of them. Though from my experience, that should mean today is "Day Without Emo College Students Who Haven't Bathed". But on a serious note in Austin...
Day Without Immigrants schedule
3 p.m. Rally at State Capitol
4 p.m. March down Congress Avenue to Cesar Chavez
5 p.m. Rally at Cantu Park - 2100 E. Third Street
How were your precinct conventions last week? Are you a delegate? Is this your first time or 20th? Tales of conventions past?
My only story is that perpetual homeless transgender candidate and now candidate for Austin Mayor Jennifer Gale is a fellow delegate in my precinct (147-Campus). Homeless voters can register at any location, so long as they can receive their card at a physical address (shelters, PO Box, etc.)
The AISD school board seat that Jennifer Gale forced an election in last spring when she decided to challenge President Doyle Valdez (and cost the city a quarter of a million dollars) will now become open as the AISD President announces his resignation.
Austin School Board President Doyle Valdez announced today that he will resign, after eight years on the job, when his successor is elected and sworn in later this spring.
With two years remaining on his term, Valdez said his announcement was timed to allow a special election for his at-large seat to coincide with the school board elections for five other open trustee positions that have already been scheduled for May 13. Any necessary runoff election would be held in June.
