As the Austin Independent and several other local media outlets have reported, the two City Council runoffs are breaking down along partisan lines. In the latest from that front, a coalition of Young Republican groups is calling for a “Statewide Deployment” of...
The District 6 City Council race has taken a particularly ugly turn in recent weeks. That peaked in a Saturday November 21 altercation in northwest Austin after a Jimmy Flannigan campaign volunteer event at an Anderson Mill park. For the record, it was a volunteer...
It has been a few weeks since the City Council and rail elections, but the Independent has been busy covering other issues. So here we will give a quick review of the Council election results followed by a look at the two upcoming runoffs. We’ll discuss the rail...
In election contests between a Democrat and a Republican it is usually a given that the Democrat has the stronger social justice position. It is very arguable, however, which candidate in the District 6 City Council runoff occupies the social justice high ground when...
Here in Austin, we have a number of local races on the ballot. As covered here extensively, five City Council races are on the ballot. Four feature incumbents running for reelection and District 2 in southeast and south Austin is an open seat. Also on the City ballot...
Today, we continue our coverage of campaign financing in the City Council races. We focus both on the total amount candidates raised and in particular on the amount candidates raised from development and real estate interests. Before moving into the numbers though,...
District 6 in Northwest Austin is one of the most hotly contested of the five City Council elections. Local media have tended to portray the District 6 race as dark forces of the right wing seeking to unseat “progressive” Jimmy Flannigan. As the Austin...
Those of us who focus on and care about government generally do so because we want the government to do a good job. Especially on the Democratic side, we want government to work. And, when we see it working well, the view here is that we should say so. With that...
Like its neighbor, District 6, the District 10 race is a humdinger. Incumbent Alison Alter drew six challengers. The bevy of candidates may more reflect overall discontent with Council policies as a whole than with Alter herself; although, like in other races, some of...
In District 7 Leslie Pool drew only one opponent, Morgan Witt, a self described “newcomer to the Austin political scene.” According to her campaign website, Witt is an educator whose career and philosophy flowed from “a life-changing class called ‘Educational...
