2014 Local Election Help Guide

If you are feeling like this election cycle is a bit overwhelming there are good reasons why.
  1. All the local elections are being consolidated with the State elections in November so the media noise, mailers and fundraising appeals are all on top of each other.
  2. We have a whole new system of representation being invented as we go along.
  3. We have not three or four simultaneous City Council and Mayoral elections (as happened where there were only six total seats in addition to Mayor in staggered term elections) but ELEVEN, all at once. No wonder even seasoned politicos feel their heads spinning. 
We at the Austin EcoNetwork are committed to making sure we do our part to advance civic participation, contribute to a functioning democracy, and generate awareness and issue expertise around all things green for local candidates and voters. As a first step toward this we have done our best to round up everything we can find, so far, that is available to help candidates and voters get briefed on issues and candidates and make sure we are electing leaders who will protect the precious natural resources and quality of life that makes Austin so great, while furthering our economic and social well being.  Here's what we have found:
 
Election Logistics
Candidate Profiles

  • The Hall Monitor, a web page maintained by KUT and the Monitor, has a simple, graphic interface with each of the districts highlighted and a list of everyone running for each seat, including links to the candidates' web sites and facebook pages. They also have links to find your new district and to register to vote. 
  • Ken Martin of the The Austin Bulldog is doing in-depth background checks and analysis on as many candidates as they can get to. Since Mayoral Candidates Sheryl Cole and Mike Martinez have extensive public records by which they can be evaluated, editor Ken Martin has spent much of his energy shedding light on Steve Adler as a candidate. He has also attended, recorded, transcribed and published the candidates' scripted notes whenever he could get them for the campaign kick-off events that he has been able to attend.
  • Michael King at the Austin Chronicle is their de facto Elections Page guy. The Chronicle will be doing more in-depth stories about races, and endorsements, as they get closer.
  • The Austin League of Women voters will again collaborate with The Statesman to publish the LWV's famously informative non-partisan Voter's Guide which includes basic info and answers to a uniform set of questions asked of each candidate.   If you have nominations for city-wide questions that might be asked in the Voter's Guide you may send them to Frances McIntyre for consideration mcintyre.frances@gmail.com.
District info 

A few districts have set up sites for their area featuring more in-depth information and links about the issues and candidates in their district. Those that we know of are:

Endorsements
In addition to the local newspapers' endorsements, Austin EcoNetwork usually publicizes any endorsements made by environmental groups.
This generally includes Sierra Club, Clean Water Action, Austin Environmental Democrats, and occasionally others, though each one does not necessarily endorse in all the races. It seems that CWA will do select races this year and AED will do all of them. Waiting to hear from Sierra Club about their plans. 
 
Candidate Forums
If you have nominations for city-wide or district specific questions that might be asked in the Candidate Forums, you may send them to Frances McIntyre for consideration mcintyre.frances@gmail.com 
  • Austin Environmental Democrats will host a series of candidate endorsement meetings to make their choice for mayor and for the council members from all the districts. You must have joined or renewed your $10 membership 30 days prior to any of the meetings in which you wish to vote. So July 7th is the deadline if you want to participate in the first one, which includes the Mayor's race. You can join or renew your membership to the Austin Environmental Democrats online, or you can mail a check to: Austin Environmental Democrats, 604 West 11th Street, Austin TX 78701. 
    • Wednesday, August 6th – Mayor and District 9
    • Wednesday, August 20 – Districts 1, 2, 3
    • Wednesday, September 3 – Districts 4, 7, 10
    • Wednesday, September 17 – Districts 5, 6, 8
  • Since many, if not all of the races will end up in run-off elections, there will be a series of candidate forums focused on their leadership vision hosted by the same consortium  of groups collaborating on the not yet live ImagineOneAustin.org
Questionnaires
  • Clean Water Action plans to release their proposed questions to the public for feedback and then will send the questionnaires out to all the candidates in August.
  • We are waiting to hear back from Sierra Club. 
Note: We will link to any other groups with submitting questionnaires with even one environmental topic if you send links or documents to brandi@austineconetwork.com
 
Issues and Briefings 
Note: Austin EcoNetwork will publicize all such briefing events and materials as we are able to get ahold of them.

  • There has already been a candidate briefing on waste hosted by the Austin Zero Waste Alliance in June.  There is also a video of this briefing forthcoming. 
  • In past elections Solar Austin, Bike Austin, and others have hosted candidate briefings. 
  • For the first time ever, a collaboration of KLRU, KUT, Leadership Austin and the Annette Strauss Center for Civic Life are pooling resources to develop a resource website that will showcase briefings on all relevant city topics, even host pages for any district that doesn't yet have their own. It's not live yet but it will be at ImagineOneAustin.org. Keep checking back for developments!
  • In service of helping create an informed slate of candidates for Mayor and City Council, an impressive group of neutral organizations* are hosting a series of eight Imagine One Austin educational sessions geared toward candidates and their staffs needing to learn what the key issues are facing the City, but they are also open to the public. The series started Monday June 30th and continues for seven Mondays from 6-8pm on a wide variety of issues. They all take place at the LCRA Dalchau Service Cetner on Montopolis. http://leadershipaustin.org/2014/06/13/the-imagine-one-austin-information-series/
    • Session I (June 30) – Demographics and Existing Plans (Session I Resources)
    • Session II (July 7) – City Utilities, Budget, and Capital Planning (Session II Agenda/Presenters)
    • Session III (July 14) – Economy (Session III Agenda/Presenters)
    • Session IV (July 21) – Conservation, Environment, and Recreation (Session IV Agenda/Presenters)
    • Session V (July 28) – Land Use and Transportation
    • Session VI (August 4) – Housing, Neighborhoods, and Public Safety
    • Session VII (August 11) – Health and Human Services
Note: Local organizations that wish to set up a display at the Environmental night or at any or all of the sessions will be provided a table and two chairs, for free, at the optional 8-9pm hour following each of the Imagine One Austin briefing sessions. Just email ckennedy@leadershipaustin.com to RSVP and save a space for your group. 
 
* Leadership Austin, KLRU, Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life, The Austin League of Women Voters, Community Impact Newspaper and the Center for Politics and Governance at the LBJ School of Public Affairs

Hope that was helpful! Please send us any corrections, missing info or updates to brandi@austineconetwork.com

No Comments

Post A Comment