Elections

Travis County Democrats Upbeat

Pep rally revs crowd to achieve
the dream of turning Texas blue

by Ken Martin
© The Austin Bulldog 2014
Posted Tuesday July 22, 2014 1:59pm
Updated Wednesday July 23, 2014 1:24pm to link recording of speeches

Well you can’t blame the Democrats for wanting what they haven’t won in the last two decades, and that’s the election of the governor who will succeed Rick Perry.

The year 1994 marked the end of an era for Democrats. Governor Ann Richards lost her reelection bid to George W. Bush, but, in a last hurrah, Democrats Bob Bullock, Dan Morales, John Sharp, Martha Whitehead, and Garry Mauro all won another term. Ever since then every statewide race on the ballot has been won by Republicans.

Yet hope springs eternal in eternally deep-blue Travis County, the scene for a Saturday evening Democratic Party rally featuring the tried-and-true combination of barbecue, beer, and stump speeches, all emceed by State Senator Kirk Watson of Austin. A crowd estimated at more than 400 sprawled out over the grounds of the new party headquarters on East Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

In introducing U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-Austin), Watson said, “Here we are in the heart of Travis County, the heart of the city of Austin, but we ain’t in his congressional district, because we’re sitting in the congressional district of somebody from Fort Worth.” (This is the result of the last legislative redistricting that left Central Austin in the congressional district of Representative Roger Williams, a Republican whose district stretches from almost to Cowtown all the way to Wimberley and includes the State Capitol.)

“This is really a place of hope, right here,” Doggett said. “And every time we walk another block, we call another person who might not otherwise have voted, you write a check, you put up a sign, you expand that hope for Texas. But it’s not just hope for Texas. It's hope for our entire country.”

Scruggs Runs for District 8

The man who organized Circle C Democrats
loves to knock on doors and meet voters

by Ken Martin
© The Austin Bulldog 2014
Posted Thursday July 10, 2014 2:14pm
Updated 10:10am Monday, July 14, 2014

It would have been impossible to pack more people or more energy into the side room of the Santa Rita Tex Mex Cantina on Slaughter Lane in southwest Austin when on June 24 Edward Scott “Ed” Scruggs launched his bid for the District 8 seat on the Austin City Council.

Being in the heart of the Circle C Ranch development in Southwest Austin, Scruggs, 49, started his talk by recalling that he and Steve Urban, who co-chairs Scruggs’ council campaign, led the charge to convert the homeowners association from developer control to homeowner control “and it was a tough job,” he said.

“We had a slate of five of us that ran, walking door to door and we managed to all come into the board at the same time and it’s never been the same since.”

Just as Circle C’s governance changed, so has the City of Austin’s. This election will put control in the hands of council members from 10 geographic districts in which they live.

Circle C Ranch was not part of the City of Austin until annexed December 18, 1997. Circle C is among most populous parts of District 8’s south end. The district stretches west nearly to the Village of Bee Cave and north to Lady Bird Lake and includes Barton Springs Pool. Yet all five candidates who have appointed campaign treasurers for the District 8 race live south and west of Loop 360 (Ben White Boulevard).

The candidate’s speech

Undoing Racism Forum Confronts Candidates

Speakers provided tough talk to some
two-thirds of declared council candidates

by Joseph Caterine
© The Austin Bulldog 2014
Posted Tuesday, July 8, 2014 3:00pm

Citizens and City Council candidates alike filled the small conference room in the Westminster Branch Library June 24 for Undoing Racism Austin’s City Council Candidate Forum on Racism. About 40 candidates attended, with future voters making up the rest of the crowd

Marisa Perales, a lawyer with Frederick Perales Allmon & Rockwell PC, who serves on the City's Environmental Board, opened the briefing, expressing her gratitude for the number of people who showed up and emphasizing that the presentations were intended for the candidates. She asked the audience to defer to the candidates during the question-and-answer session at the end, adding, “this is a safe space. There are no stupid questions.”

Despite this assurance, tension began to build as presentation after presentation confronted the would-be city leaders with hard facts about Austin's history of institutional racism.

Anika Fassia, a program associate from the nonprofit Public Works, set the stage for the other speakers, defining the “racism” being discussed as not necessarily the prejudice imposed by one individual upon another, but rather intentional policies that disproportionately exclude or negatively affect people of color. “Intentional policies do define opportunity in the United States.” she said.

Meeker Enters District 10 Race

Second try for City Council seat energizes
Zoning and Platting Commission member

by Ken Martin
© The Austin Bulldog 2014
Posted Wednesday July 2, 2014 10:02am

Jason Warren Meeker launched his bid for the District 10 City Council seat Sunday June 22 at the Waterloo Ice House in northwest Austin with some 16 adult well-wishers on hand and a total of 26 who signed in at some point during his two-hour appearance.

Meeker, who heads marketing communication firm Meeker Marcom, roused his backers with a stump speech that quoted Abraham Lincoln quoting the Bible, saying, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

“Here in Austin we’ve been divided politically for far too long and even today the power is too concentrated, it’s too deaf and too blind to the concerns of the people of Austin,” Meeker said. That changed in 2012, he said, when 60 percent of Austin voters approved the election of city council members from 10 geographic districts, a new system that will take effect in January, after the November 4 general election and December 16 runoffs.

“We’re about to witness a new experiment in democracy that will unite our city. Not just 10 different districts, but one city united, represented equally, a house united—and that’s why I’m running.”

Kitchen Launches District 5 Bid

Former state representative packs the
house at the iconic Broken Spoke

by Ken Martin
© The Austin Bulldog 2014
Posted Friday, June 20, 2014 10:59am
Updated Friday, June 20, 2014 12:09pm (to add other District 5 candidates)

The dance floor was far too crowded for boot scooting at the legendary South Austin honky-tonk as City Council Candidate Ann Elizabeth Kitchen stepped to the mic for a speech Tuesday night, June 17.

“In the 20-plus years that I’ve lived in South Austin, I have dedicated my life to taking an active role in improving our community,” Kitchen said. “As a former state legislator and as an advocate I’ve represented much of District 5 in the past. I do know how to effectively work with, listen to, and advocate, fight for the people of South Austin.”

She said she moved to Austin in 1973 to attend the University of Texas. “After graduating I worked with special needs kids and their parents. That was important to me. It taught me a very important lesson. That lesson was that if we’re going to make real progress sometimes we have to roll up our sleeves and change the system.

“That’s one reason I went back to school to study law at UT. I wanted to use my energy to help reform government, to find some real solutions for tough issues and work towards giving people the chance to create a better life for themselves. I’ve been trying to do that for the past 20 years,” Kitchen said.