Debate Over Austin City Council Election Plans Heats Up at City Hall

by: Michael Hurta

Thu Jun 28, 2012 at 07:35 PM CDT

At this point, every council member and almost all the politicos claim that they favor change. Two factions have formed, however, in what has turned into an intense battle for what kind of change we want. The current iteration of this decades-long battle began when City Council formed a Charter Review Commission, whose inability to come to a clear consensus on a single proposal has invited the competing proposals up for a vote tonight.

Follow the debate as it occurs below, and continue reading below the fold to see who the key players are along with the basic outlines of arguments being made for the competing proposals.

2012 Austin City Council Elections Results, Plus Other Elections

by: Katherine Haenschen

Sat May 12, 2012 at 06:30 PM CDT

Here in Austin we've got four City Council races on the ballot: Mayor, Place 2, Place 5, and Place 6. Only the municipals are on the ballot since the AISD and ACC boards voted to move their elections to November to save costs and enjoy higher turnout. The Austin City Council voted against such a move. (Leffingwell and Martinez voted to move the elections; Spelman and Cole voted to keep it the same. We'll see how that works out tonight.)

Polls are open until 7:00 p.m. tonight in Austin. Just after 7:00 p.m. the Early Voting and mail ballot numbers will be released and we'll update the chart below. We'll then begin updating as the E-Day results come in throughout the night, noting our time of update so you can keep track.

Don't forget, primary early voting begins Monday!

Morning-After Analysis:

* Huge thanks to Karl-Thomas Musselman who updated the GoogleDoc above throughout the night. This was totally a team effort in terms of data analysis. We look forward to doing this again for the primary! (KH)

* All incumbents win. The similar percentages for Lee, Mike, and Bill suggest that while there's still frustration and some anti-incumbent angst in the electorate, it wasn't strong or deep enough this year to knock any of them out. (KH)

* In out-of-Austin news, Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski is in a run-off against a retired businessman. (KH)

Update 9:34 p.m.

* We've decided to call Place 5 and Place 2 for the incumbent. Spelman is only increasing his margin and Dr. Flouride Laura Pressley is not doing much better either. (KH)

* As we wait for the 4th and potentially final update, several big boxes are still out, including Tarrytown, Cherrywoods / Wilshire Woods, Barton Hills, Hyde Park. and Travis Heights. Tarrytown should go big for Lee. Most of the others went for Lee narrowly in the Early Vote. It's hard to see how Shea guts it out given that boxes that went HUGE for Kathie Tovo last year over Randi Shade aren't going big for Shea tonight, if at all. (KH)

Update 9:05 p.m.

* With this latest update, Leffingwell pulls back into the lead in the E-Day vote! This update includes some of the Northwest Hills boxes that factor heavily in Austin Council elections. (KH)

* Meanwhile, Martinez, Spelman and Cole are only increasing their margins. Bad news for people who want to take flouride out of the water or vote all minorities off the City Council! (KH)

::

Update 8:44 p.m.

* The first E-Day boxes to come in slightly favor Shea, but they're predominantly African-American precincts, where she was expected to do better. This also includes the UT Campus box with a whopping .29% turnout. Yes, that's point-two-nine percent. 14 students voted today. Precinct 277, aka West Campus, had a total turnout of 1%. Expect it to get lower in the primary since they'll all be home. (KT)

* It's neck and neck to be Council Member in Lakeway! Related: no one cares. (KH)

* Precinct 275, southern Hyde Park, only narrowly went for Shea on E-Day. That was a box that went huge for Tovo, so it's hard to see how Shea's E-Day margins can overcome Lee's Early Vote lead. (KH)

::

7:51 p.m. Update:

* It would appear that in the Early Vote, a core of about 10K voters voted for all of the incumbents and are keeping them afloat. It is likely the same 10K voters (with some variation) that is voting for all four. Sheryl Cole has the highest percentage, as she did 3 years ago. (KT)

* In Williamson County, Laura Pressley is leading Mike Martinez 58%-42% in Early Voting. Only 400 votes cast, however. Also, another reason not to move to Williamson County. Heck, that's a reason to boycott the IKEA. (KH)

::

On the Ballot Elsewhere:

Dallas County: Elections in Addison, Balch Springs, Carrollton, Mesquite and other municipalities; various ISD trustee elections; etc.
Hays County: Kyle, Wimberley, Dripping Springs municipal elections; various ISD's.
Fredericksburg: Mayor Tom Musselman is up for re-election.
Travis County: Lakeway council members and propositions, Manor council elections, Rollingwood council and bond elections, Webberville mayoral and commissioner elections, etc.
Houston Area: Spring Branch and Katy board members; Spring Branch and Katy ISD elections; Brazosport ISD bond (that's southern Brazoria Co. if you're curious); Sugar Land City Council; Fort Bend ISD; etc.
Galveston Co.: Mayor Joe Jaworski up for re-election.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department is monitoring elections in Irving today, where they are electing council members and school board trustees. DOJ is there to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act.

Any predictions? Any other elections you're watching? Tell us in the comments!

Austin Environmental Democrats Endorse Mayor Lee Leffingwell, And All Other Council Incumbents

by: Adam Schwitters

Fri May 11, 2012 at 01:00 PM CDT

AED is a local chapter of the Texas Environmental Democrats (TED) which was almost pushed out of the State Democratic Executive Committee (SDEC) recently.  SDEC members thought that TED did not represent a population demographic (the way Non-Urban/Ag Caucus or the Texas Young Democrats do).  Thankfully, the vote to expel TED was unsuccessful, and there will continue to be a voice for environmental, as well as social, justice within the SDEC.  AED is holding its endorsement forum for primary candidates on Monday.  If you want to vote, the deadline for paying membership dues is today.  You can pay dues here.

In Austin’s council election, AED is backing Leffingwell, Mike Martinez, Bill Spelman, and Sheryl Cole, because, as Ted Siff, President of AED, said, they “believe that Austin has an enviable environmental record,” and “re-electing the current Mayor and Council incumbents is the best way to continue Austin’s environmental leadership.”

The endorsement sites several examples of Austin’s environmental leadership:

• Austin Energy (the municipal owned power company) is the #1 seller of green power in the country.
• The Webberville solar array, which opened in Decemeber, is one of the largest solar projects in the US.
• All city buildings in Austin are powered by 100% clean energy.
• Austin will be the largest city in the country to divest completely from coal power, after the council unanimously “pledged” to sell the aging Fayette coal plant.

To be clear, there are a couple lingering issues with clean power in Austin.  For one, the council’s pledge to shutter the Fayette plant is just a pledge, and has not come to a vote, nor has a timetable for closing Fayette been formulated.  Also, Austin Energy’s voluntary green power program, GreenChoice, has some of the highest rates for energy of any utility program in the state.  If Austin is to maintain its environmental leadership, while also maintaining a diverse population, these rates are unsustainable.

Siff and AED, however, believe that the city under the current council has a “strong environmental record to merit the Clean Energy title today, and it will also forever be an aspirational brand that should motivate us to continue to year after year to further green our city.”

Austin City Council: Endorsements and Early Voting Locations!

by: Katherine Haenschen

Mon Apr 30, 2012 at 09:30 AM CDT

Wrapping up endorsement season, Austin's print publications weighted in, endorsing as follows:

Austin Chronicle: Mayor: Lee Leffingwell and Brigid Shea Place 2: Mike Martinez Place 5: Bill Spelman Place 6: Sheryl Cole Read them here.

Austin American-Statesman Mayor: Lee Leffingwell Place 2: Mike Martinez Place 5: Bill Spelman Place 6: Sheryl Cole Read them here and here.

The Daily Texan Mayor: Lee Leffingwell Place 2: Mike Martinez Place 5: Bill Spelman Place 6: Sheryl Cole Read them here.

Before you vote, catch up on Burnt Orange Report's coverage of the 2012 Austin City Council elections:

• For a recap of the labor, public safety, and Democratic club endorsements, my colleague Karl-Thomas Musselman has done the work of compiling them here, here, here, and here.
  
  
• Catch up on the controversy surrounding Brigid Shea's bid on a 2002 Water Treatment Plant 4 contract, and information that she may have been acting as a lobbyist without registering as one. Read those stories here and here.
  
  
• Want to see the BOR PAC / CAAAD poll on the Mayor's race? Find that here. How about our BOR reader poll? Find out who won that here.
  
  
• Want to read the candidates' answers to the 2012 Democratic multi-club questionnaire? (Seriously worth a read before you vote, if you haven't already made up your mind, and even if you have, for the sheer entertainment value.) Find those here.
  

Want to vote? Great! Early Voting locations are listed below the jump.

Austin City Council Place 6: No Endorsement

by: Burnt Orange Report

Mon Apr 23, 2012 at 03:00 PM CDT

Cole has focused her work in the past three years on what she would describe as her biggest accomplishment -- the Waller Creek Redevelopment project. While currently under construction, it is not without its critics, though the end result will ultimately speak for itself. A member of Mayor Leffingwell's coalition for most of her past term, Cole has taken a more mixed approach in the past year, including some rather tortured legal reasoning as the basis for opposing moving Austin's municipal elections to November.

If this election were simply about Cole's total voting record, we could see ourselves supporting her. After all, her opponent Shaun Ireland has ties to the same libertarian sources backing Laura Pressley, which in Austin elections does not a majority make. But an important theme this election cycle is about where the candidates stand about the future of our local democracy and on that front, Cole has been uneven and uninspiring. We find it difficult to believe (and a reflection of our broken system) that there were no other more qualified candidates who could have run for Place 6 this year, African-American or otherwise. We cannot in good conscience endorse Cole when the best candidate in the race is likely one who never filed.

Austin City Council Elections: Wither the Gentleman's Agreement?

by: Katherine Haenschen

Sun Apr 22, 2012 at 02:30 PM CDT

Wither the Gentleman's Agreement?

Traditionally, Austin has avoided geographical representation on our council via the "Gentleman's Agreement," which "designates" one council seat for a Hispanic member and another for an African-American member. It's a potentially patronizing system that seemingly suggests that one seat is "enough" for each community (and does not include other ethnic or identity categories), and requires the minority candidate to be chosen by a citywide electorate that is itself majority Caucasian. To date, the Gentleman's Agreement has prevented the Department of Justice from forcing Austin to adopt geographic representation, since minority seats are essentially "guaranteed."

However, this is the first cycle in the last decade in which all of the challengers to the Hispanic and African-American council members are not themselves members of these respective groups. Dr. Laura Pressley is running against Place 2 council member Mike Martinez, while Shaun Ireland is squaring off against Place 6 council member Sheryl Cole. Both challengers appear to be Caucasian and have given no indication of having Hispanic or African-American heritage. Last cycle, Cole and Martinez also faced token challengers, however in that cycle both were the same ethnicity of the incumbents.

It's highly likely that Martinez and Cole will prevail. So by and large, Austin isn't really at risk of having zero minority city council members. And arguably the two challengers distinguish themselves as not being "serious" candidates in the world of city politics since by running they're not "abiding" by the Gentleman's Agreement. Yet the hypothetical end result that two candidates who seemingly support diverse representation would, by winning, decrease diversity is odd.

More about the Gentleman's Agreement below the jump.  

Results of the Austin City Council BOR Reader Poll Are In

by: Katherine Haenschen

Sat Apr 21, 2012 at 06:00 PM CDT

Please note: this does not amount to an official Burnt Orange Report endorsement in these races and should not be characterized as such. This is a straw poll conducted to gauge what our readers think about who the best candidates are in these races.

Anyways, the winners of the 2012 Austin City Council BOR Reader Poll are...

Mayor: Lee Leffingwell
Leffingwell romped to a 67% win in the reader poll, which saw over 330 total votes cast in the contest. (Don't dismiss the low number -- that should exceed the number of votes cast in about 75% of voting precincts in the actual election.) Amusingly, Clay Dafoe narrowly edged Brigid Shea by one vote, though both received 15% of votes cast. The remaining 3% of voters inserted a range of comments in to the "other" category.

We're not too surprised that Leffingwell's supporters participated more enthusiastically in our poll, as they have largely seemed more eager to show up for Democratic club endorsements and Leffingwell's campaign events this cycle. Additionally, Brigid Shea's charming comments about our staff and our site probably didn't win over too many undecided BOR readers. Still, we're somewhat surprised that Dafoe was able to turn out more support in the poll than Shea naturally enjoys in our readership.

Place 2: Mike Martinez
Martinez rolled to an easy 77% victory over Dr. Laura Pressley. Given that we are a partisan Democratic site and Pressley is a known supporter of Ron Paul -- she's got a bumper sticker for him on her car, and has taken heat for it in Democratic club endorsements -- it's not a shocker that our readers prefer the staunchly Democratic Martinez to his challenger.

Place 5: Bill Spelman
Spelman received 49% of the votes cast in our reader poll. Tina Cannon came in second with 22% of the vote, Dominic Chavez came in third with 15%, and anarchist John Duffy rang up 9% of the vote. Amusingly, "Other" outpaced the other three candidates combined. Thankfully for Spelman, there are no run-offs in our reader poll.

Place 6: Sheryl Cole
BOR readers chose Sheryl Cole over her opponent Shaun Ireland, by a margin of 69% to 25%. ("Other" received the remaining votes.) Notably, Place 6 received 30% fewer votes than the other races. Note that all four polls were on the same page, and it literally required about 20 keystrokes worth of extra effort to vote in all four.

The voting largely mirrors what I've seen at the various forums and endorsement meetings this cycle. There's strong support in the Democratic activist community for Leffingwell and Martinez -- as evidenced by their endorsements from the Democratic club community -- and that's reflected in the poll. Additionally, while both Spelman and Cole won, there was significantly less enthusiasm for both -- and, to be fair, no major effort by either campaign to gin up votes in the poll. Ironically, both appear to have benefited from the eager efforts of Leffingwell and Martinez supporters to turn out votes in the polls for Mayor and Place 2. respectively. Whether the same will be true in the actual election -- and what the undervote will look like in Place 6 -- remains to be seen.  

Final Endorsements Reported in Austin Municipal Races

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Thu Apr 19, 2012 at 03:27 PM CDT

The non-mayoral incumbents have all stepped up their game and avoided getting any additional "no endorsements" from this set of groups. While Leffingwell and Shea split these four clubs, the combined total of endorsements is a bit more lopsided with Leffingwell now having received 21 to Shea's 8 and Dafoe's 1. Martinez has 22 to Pressley's 4. Spelman has earned 18 to John Duffy & Dominic Chavez's 1 with 6 official "no endorsements" issued. Cole is in a similar situation with 18 to Shaun Ireleand's 2 and 5 "no endorsements."

Early voting begins Monday, April 30th.

This post has been updated to reflect the addition of NXNW Democrats, the Austin Board of Realtors, and Mexican American Democrats.

City of Austin 30-Day Fundraising Report Round-Up

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Wed Apr 18, 2012 at 01:21 PM CDT

We've entered the beginning of the campaign finance file-a-palooza in Central Texas. First up, with their 30-Day reports, are the Austin municipal candidates for whom early voting begins in just 12 days. I have bolded the incumbents who in each case are also the fundraising leaders.

Time is running out for these campaigns with less than a month to go before Election Day on May 12th. This report gives a good sense of who is in and who is out (as Project Runway would say) at this stage of the election. 

Mayor:  Incumbent Lee Leffingwell out raised, outspent, and still has twice the cash on hand as his nearest opponent Brigid Shea. His campaign notes that his total fundraising to date now exceeds $236,000; Brigid Shea reported a few thousand on her prior report as she had just entered the race. In a press release, Leffingwell's campaign claims to have received 650 contributions, 35% of which were less than $100 with less than half being "max out" donors of $350. The average contribution size is $229 with donations coming from 48 different Austin zip codes. While we have not received a press release from Brigid Shea, she has raised enough funds to remain competitive. Notable donors include Roger Beasley, Jeff Jack, Bill Bunch, Brian Rodgers, Dave Shapiro, former State Rep. Ann Kitchen & Mark Yznaga. Former Leffingwell (Place 1) opponent Jason Meeker contributed to Shea's campaign along with current Place 6 candidate Shaun Ireland. Rachel Van Os, a candidate for Texas Democratic Party chair, and former Attorney General nominee David Van Os are also contributors. Shea loaned her campaign $25,000 on April 2nd, which represents close to half of her current cash on hand; Leffingwell's outstanding loans are carried over from prior reports. Clay Dafoe reported five donations, three of which were fellow Dafoes. 

Place 2: The big news here is that incumbent Mike Martinez has 22 times as much available cash on hand as his opponent Laura Pressley. With nearly $100,000 left to spend, nearly as much as the Mayor, it is unlikely that Pressley will have the resources to compete in these final weeks. Laura Pressley admitted to accepting two illegal corporate contributions from U.S. Foods and the People's Pharmacy which she has pledged to return. Notable Pressley donors include Vik Vad and Don Zimmerman, the current and former Republican nominees for Travis County Tax Assessor.

Place 5: This seven-way race has had a good chance of heading to a sleepy summer run-off and the finance reports indicate that incumbent Bill Spelman still has a fight on his hands to get to 50%. Spelman's fundraising does comes from a diverse array of donors including former Leffingwell Chief of Staff Matt Curtis, Kevin Cole, husband of Councilwoman Sheryl Cole, as well as Shea/Tovo donors Ann Kitchen & Mark Yznaga. Additional notable contributions came from former city council candidates Margot Clarke and Jennifer Kim, former Travis County Attorney Ken Oden, Shudde Fath, and Tim League. Behind Spelman is Dominic Chavez whose donors included former Republican County Commissioner Gerald Daugherty, anti-rail activist Jim Skaggs, and former Texas Monthly Publisher Mike Levy. Tina Cannon has a couple thousand dollars on hand befitting her low-cost campaign. The four remaining challengers have raised no money, with John Rubine not having filed any report, confirming our prior comments that this is essentially a 3 person race. Spelman's job is to stay above 50%. Chavez and Cannon's job is to come in second and hope for a runoff. 

Place 6: Incumbent Sheryl Cole, while weak on endorsements, is not lacking for cash. She out raised Spelman and should have more than enough money to complete her campaign. Her opponent Shaun Ireland has just two donors, excluding himself.  

BOR Reader Poll: 2012 Austin City Council Elections

by: Burnt Orange Report

Mon Apr 16, 2012 at 02:00 PM CDT

This poll will be open from 2:00 p.m. today until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. It's short and sweet, and intended to provide a snapshot of what City voters are thinking. As with previous polls, duplicate votes from the same email address will be disregarded.

The results of the poll, as well as Burnt Orange Report's endorsements, will be announced at the end of this week, after this poll is concluded.