Hello and welcome back to the Austin, Texas “progressive” voter guide! This highlights progressive and lesser-evil candidates that I will be voting for this fall. Remember: Texas ain’t red! We just don’t vote! Our voter turnout is consistently ranked below 45/50 because for many of us, we have lived our ENTIRE lives in a Republican trifecta. We are closer than ever to changing that reality, but we need all hands on deck. Make sure you show up to the polls, and get at least 10 of your people to show up too. Tinder dates, strangers at the grocery store, it doesn’t matter. We are lucky to have the ability to vote, however meaningful those votes may be, so please show up and make your voice heard.
Many of the federal and state offices are just Rep. vs. Dem. Where there is a green party candidate, their name and website are linked. I mention this because there are more than a handful of candidates on this list that I don’t love at all. But we have so much momentum on the Democratic side of the party this time, that I think a down ballot blue vote is warranted and needed. There is more nuance in the city races. In he State Representative for District 49 race, I’m voting green as this district is green vs democrat. Garibay (D) was not who I chose in the primary, and I appreciate Papari’s (G) demonstrable progressive values.
Candidates running unopposed have been omitted from this list.
View your personalized sample ballot at votetravis.gov or votetexas.gov.
FEDERAL
SENATOR: JAMES TALARICO
US REP, D10: CAITLIN ROURK
US REP, D11: CLAIRE REYNOLDS
US REP, D27: TANYA LLOYD
US REP, D37: GREG CASAR
STATE
GOVERNOR: GINA HINOJOSA
L. GOVERNOR: VIKKI GOODWIN Green candidate: KEVIN MCCORMICK
ATT. GENERAL: NATHAN JOHNSON
COMP. PA: SARAH ECKHARDT Green candidate: SHEHLA FAIZI
COMM. GLO: BENJAMIN FLORES
COMM. AGRI: CLAYTON TUCKER
RR COMM: JON ROSENTHAL
C. JUSTICE, SC: MAGGIE ELLIS
JUSTICE, SC, PL2: CHARI KELLY
JUSTICE, SC, PL7: KRISTEN HAWKINS
JUSTICE, SC, PL8: GISELA D. TRIANA
JUDGE, CCA, PL3: OKEY ANYIAM
JUDGE, CCA, PL4: AUDRA RILEY
JUDGE, CCA, PL9: HOLLY TAYLOR
MEM, SBOE, D5: ALLISON BUSH
STATE SEN, D21: JUDITH ZAFFIRINI
STATE REP, D19: TOM LUCK
STATE REP, D46: SHERYL COLE
STATE REP, D47: POOJA SETHI
STATE REP, D48: DONNA HOWARD
STATE REP, D49: ARSHIA PAPARI Democratic Candidate: Montserrat Garibay
STATE REP, D50: SAMANTHA LOPEZ-RESENDEZ
STATE REP, D51: MARIA LUISA “LULU” FLORES
C. JUSTICE, 15 COA: JERRY ZIMMERER
JUSTICE, 15 COA, PL 2: TOM BAKER
JUSTICE, 15 COA, PL 3: MARC M. MEYER
C. JUSTICE 3 COA: DARLENE BYRNE
COUNTY
TC BOD, PL3: YVONNE MUÑOZ
CITY
CITY COUNCIL, D1: MISAEL RAMOS
CITY COUNCIL, D3: NEHA SHAH
CITY COUNCIL, D5: DAVID WEINBERG
CITY COUNCIL, D8: SELENA XIE
CITY COUNCIL, D9: ZOHAIB “ZO” QADRI, RICH HEYMAN
PROPOSITION A: FOR
PROPOSITION B: FOR
PROPOSITION C: FOR
PROPOSITION D: FOR
PROPOSITION E: AGAINST
PROPOSITION F: FOR
PROPOSITION G: FOR
PROPOSITION H: FOR
PROPOSITION I: AGAINST
PROPOSITION J: AGAINST
ACC TRUSTEE 1: GLORIA GONZALES-DHOLAKIA
ACC TRUSTEE 3: NAN MCRAVEN
ACC PROP A: FOR
AISD TRUSTEE 1: CANDACE HUNTER
AISD TRUSTEE 4: JESSICA NEUFELD
AISD TRUSTEE 6: SARAH DILLE
AISD TRUSTEE 7: LAURIE SOLIS
AISD TRUSTEE 9: PAMELA MATHAI
ADDITIONAL LINKS:
Endorsements:
Meet the Candidates:
KXAN Meet the Candidates – All Races
Travis Central Appraisal District, Travis County, Board of Directors, Place 3
Candidates:
City Council District 1:
Candidates:
Steven Brown: Steven Brown is the “democratic co-chair” of Save Austin Now, a Republican action group in Austin with a history of unsavory political behavior that has earned them a negative reputation across liberal and progressive circles in Austin.
Amber K. Goodwin: endorsed by Greg Casar, Wendy Davis, Sheryl Cole, Jose Garza, Zo Qadri, AFL-CIO Austin, Equity Action, Workers Defense
Misael Ramos: endorsed by Austin DSA, Austin Sierra Club
Meet the Candidates:
Community Impact Meet the Candidates D1
Austin Chronicle Meet the Candidates D1
Austin Current Meet the Candidates D1 – I found this one to me the most informative
City Council District 3:
Candidates:
Eduardo “Lalito” Romero – has run for city council numerous times, however is often absent from voter engagement opportunities and not easy to get a read on.
Brock Skinner – wants to enforce the camping ban and fund police
José Velásquez – incumbent. voted for a police contract that guarantees a police budget increase every year. did not vote against dogs head until he received large public pressure. did not respond to community impact questions, did not attend kxan forum.
Neha Shah – a welcome breath of fresh air focused on affordability and retaining austin’s soul. She defends Prop I a bit, but I’m okay with her statement.
Meet the Candidates:
City Council District 5:
Candidates:
Liz Brink, wants to enforce camping ban, supports prop I
David Weinberg, he supports prop I….he seems exactly fine. i am not enthusiastic about this choice
Ryan Alter, incumbent. dog’s head disaster. (we hate dogs head.) tone deaf attempted tax increases. voted for police contract that increases APD budget annually.
Meet the Candidates:
Thoughts:
Ryan Alter failed too many times. He’s distant, and it’s hard to believe he’s working for his community when his votes are drastically against them. His constituents claim he’s simply absent, disengaged to the people he represents. However Weinberg doesn’t inspire confidence either – his support of Prop I and desire to tackle the corrupt city council felt like he was trying to appeal to conservative voters to me-that’s just what it feels like. I didn’t get the vibe he would do anything about the ever-rising police budget when I read the public safety portion of his website. He seems…fine, I guess. Liz Brink had conservative vibes. Farrah Abraham, I think I love her, but I don’t think I love her in office. Godspeed district 5.
City Council District 8:
Candidates:
Meet the Candidates:
City Council District 9:
Candidates:
Dave Thadani
Kai Huang
Meet the Candidates:
Thoughts
This one was difficult for me. Zo has been a great council member in a lot of ways, and has worked with my neighbors on challenges situations. He was the only council member to vote against the police contract which raises the police budget every year. I am troubled by how much money he’s taken from developers, and he’s unfettering support for developer’s rezoning applications. My logical brain understands that we need more housing to increase affordability, but my emotional brain, seeing all these beautiful historic neighborhoods get trampled by soulless, expensive sky rises, has trouble with a lot of these urbanist policies in practice. I am waiting for a candidate that can prioritize community centered, actually affordable development that centers local businesses, musicians, and artists without sacrificing historic neighborhoods, homes, and businesses. Rich Heyman seems promising in that more of this charm and community would be protected, however it’s hard to know if he can actually put the ideas in practice, and I don’t think we should drastically reduce development either. Overall, I think Zo has been great on council and could do another term. I also think Heyman could bring a breath of fresh air and could implement creative policies that help protect low income people.
PROPOSITIONS:
KVUE Ballot Measures Explained
PROP A AND PROP B:
These are bonds that would raises taxes about $40-$55/year for homeowners to support our parks and libraries.
Prop A Ballot Language:
“THIS IS A TAX INCREASE; the insurance of bonds in the among of $260,000,000 for citywide park, recreation, aquatic, and open space improvements, and the levy of taxes sufficient to pay the principle of and interest in bonds.”
Here’s how the city would break up that $260 million:
- $65.5 million for renovations, replacements and improvements at existing Parks and Recreation Department facilities, recreation and senior centers
- $29.5 million for improvements to playscapes, trails, roadways, parking lots, athletic fields and facilities, city cemeteries, and park “electrification infrastructure”
- $65 million for improvements to neighborhood parks, metro parks, greenbelts and community gardens
- $65 million for renovations or replacements of existing city pools
- $35 million to purchase new parkland, with priority given to infill parks in “park-deficient” areas, greenbelts and greenways”
Prop B BallotLanguage:
“THIS IS A TAX INCREASE; the insurance of bonds in the amount of $35,000,000 for library facilities and the levy of taxes sufficient to pay the principal of and interest on bonds.”
According to the city, $20 million would be used to renovate, rehabilitate and expand the Hampton Branch of Oak Hill library. The other $15 million would go toward a future Colony Park Branch Library.
City staff said improvements may include additional library space, facility renovations and other building upgrades.”
PROP C:
Clarifies that the independent commission that draws Austin’s districts is independent from city council.
Prop C Ballot Language:
“Shall the City Charter be amended to clarify that the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (ICRC) is independent of City Council control, allow the ICRC to review City districts after changes to the City’s boundary lines, create voter registration and residency duration exemptions for student members, provide an effective date for the redistricting plan adopted by the ICRC, increase the potential appointees to the ICRC, clarify the method and timing of filing vacancies on the ICRC, and allow City staff to communicate with the ICRC outside of meeting as long as such communication is in compliance with the Texas Open Meetings Act?”
PROP D:
Removes the requirement that council meets once a week. Council already doesn’t meet once a week. This is updated the local charter to match reality.
Prop D Ballot Language:
“Shall the City Charter be amended to delete language providing that the City Council shall meet at least once each week?”
PROP E:
Removes the requirement that city council only changes meeting rules via ordinance. Requiring an ordinance to change small things like which order to address meeting agendas is too much. But I worry about them making last minute changes that maybe aren’t so small.
Prop E Ballot Language:
“Shall the City Charter be amended to delete language requiring the City Council to determine its rules and order of business by ordinance?”
PROP F:
Campaign finance limits would stay the same, but the date candidates know them would be consistent.
Prop F Ballot Language:
“Shall the City Charter be amended to clarify the meaning of the term ‘election’ and to provide that the campaign contribution and expenditure limits shall be modified each year by January 1st instead of with the adoption of the budget?”
PROP G:
Petition ordinances-ones that are brought to a vote by citizens-would be on the ballot on election years to boost voter turnout. When elections are held in off years, less than 10% of the voting population participates. The opponents to this prop are largely Save Austin Now. This would be good for slowing Save Austin Now, but could be bad for other citizen-initiatives.
Prop G Ballot Language:
“Shall the City Charter be amended to provide that initiative elections and petitioned charter amendment elections must be held on the next available November election date that occurs in an even-numbered year and that allows sufficient time to comply with other requirements of law?”
PROP H:
City council would appoint the city attorney instead of the city manager. Gives more power to elected officials.
Prop H Ballot Language:
“Shall the City Charter be amended to provide that the City Council appoints and removes the City Attorney?”
PROP I:
Requires city council to have an external audit every year. The city already has an external audit every year. This prop is by Save Austin Now, no one’s favorite local Republican task force.
Prop I Ballot Language:
“Shall the City Charter be amended to require an Independent Affordability and Efficiency Initiative on a regular basis and before any tax rate increase election and requiring the independent contractor to identify annual and multi-year savings that exceed the cost of the contractor’s service?”
Prop J:
Fixes grammar and typos in the city charter. It also changes or removes language that no longer has affect because the state’s policy overrid it. There are quite a few things we passed locally, that could not be implemented because of state override: ranked choice voting is one example. I would like to see what’s being changed before approving the change.
Prop J language:
“Shall the City Charter be amended to make non-substantive corrections of typographical errors, punctuation, and sentence structure, and to change or remove language that is moot or unenforceable because it has been superseded by state law or by a final court order?”
ACC Trustees:
ACC Trustee 1:
Candidates:
Community Impact Meet the Candidates
ACC Trustee 3:
Candidates:
Community Impact Meet the Candidates
Austin Community College District Proposition A
“THIS IS A TAX INCREASE.
Approving the annexation by the
Austin Community College District
of the following territory: the territory
in the Pflugerville Independent
School District that is not already
within the Austin Community
College taxing district, and
authorizing the imposition of an ad
valorem tax for junior college
purposes, which is currently set at a
rate of $0.1034, per $100 valuation
of taxable property.”
AISD:
Austin American Statesman Meet the Candidates
Podcasts (i didn’t listen to these but maybe you will)
AISD Trustee 1:
Candidates:
Cheryl Bradley
Candace L. Hunter
Community Impact Meet the Candidates
AISD Trustee 4:
Candidates:
Edward M. Bradfield
Tricia Mitchell Kim
Jessica Neufeld
Community Impact Meet the Candidates
AISD Trustee 6:
Candidates:
Community Impact Meet the Candidates
AISD Trustee 7:
Candidates:
Community Impact Meet the Candidates
AISD Trustee 9:
Candidates:
Community Impact Meet the Candidates
Leave a Reply