Austin City Council Election 1997

The 1997 mayoral election pitted two-term Council Member Ronney Reynolds against attorney Kirk Watson, a former chairman of both the Texas Air Control Board and the Travis County Democratic Party, and six other candidates. Watson got 48.47 percent of the votes on election day and Reynolds was runner-up with 39.89 percent of the vote. Reynolds, however, immediately withdrew from the runoff election he was entitled to and Watson was declared the winner.

Incumbent Council Member Eric Mitchell was forced into a runoff with Willie Lewis and lost.

Council Member Gus Garcia easily won reelection to his third term. With the hope of making way for a second Latino on the council, Garcia switched from Place 5, the traditional Latino seat he occupied in his first two terms, to Place 2 in this election.

Manuel Zuniga, Bill Spelman and three other candidates vied for the Place 5 seat vacated by Garcia. Spelman bested Zuniga in the runoff (only to find out later that as a professor at the University of Texas, and therefore a state employee, he was barred by the Texas Constitution from drawing a salary for his council service). Spelman’s victory over Zuniga did, however, spoil Gus Garcia’s hopes of gaining a second Latino council member.