35 candidates are vying for a piece of the power to govern Austin
The deadline for filing an application to be on the November 8th ballot was 5pm tonight. Thirty-five ballot applications have been filed, processed, and published on the City Clerk’s website.
The field is now set. We know who’s running for mayor and competing for the five City Council positions. (See chart below.) One caveat: Candidates who have filed ballot applications but get cold feet have until 5pm August 29th to withdraw and have their names struck from the ballot.
Candidates could have filed a ballot application starting July 23rd. Most did so in coming weeks. But nine candidates waited until the last day to file a ballot application. The very last of the last to file was District 9 candidate Kym Olson, 50. She had three whole minutes to spare when she was clocked in at 4:57pm.
Only two incumbent council members will be on the ballot: Natasha Harper-Madison, 44, in District 1 and Paige Ellis, 38, in District 8. Each incumbent faces three challengers.
The mayor’s race and three other council districts on the ballot are wide open.
Two candidates who had appointed campaign treasurers did not follow through by applying for a place on the ballot: Craig Allan Blanchard, 37, in the mayor’s race, and Jason Hyde, 52, in District 9.
As reported by the Bulldog August 19th, Bertha Rendon Delgado, 42, wanted to run in District 3. She tried to overcome the restrictions placed on convicted felons that bar them from running for elected office but was unable to do so.
City Clerk Myrna Rios is scheduled to conduct a drawing at 2pm Tuesday at City Hall that will determine the order of names on the ballot for each of the six races. The drawing will be televised on ATXN.tv, Grande and Spectrum Channel 6 or the ATXN channel on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire or Google Play. Only the candidate or one representative may attend the drawing in person
Trust indicators: Ken Martin has been doing investigative reporting in the three-county Austin metro area since 1981. His aggressive reporting twice garnered first-place national awards for investigative reporting. Both of those projects resulted in successful criminal prosecutions. His 2011 investigation of the Austin City Council’s open meetings violations triggered a 20-month investigation by the Travis County attorney that resulted in the mayor and council members signing deferred prosecution agreements to avoid being charged, tried, and if convicted serving one to six months in jail and forfeiting their elective offices. See more on Ken on the About page. Email [email protected].
Related Bulldog coverage:
Delgado will not be on the District 3 ballot, August 18, 2022
Half the mayor and council candidates haven’t file for a place on the ballot, August 18, 2022
Cosmetic executive runs for mayor on message of unity, ‘cooperation’, August 18, 2022
D3 candidate Delgado disqualified but seeks reinstatement, August 12, 2022
Candidates have voting records too, August 11, 2022
Do you have the list of donors? I’m thinking of donating. Thank You!
I would not say this has informed me much beyond a book cover. Why not include links to their bios revealing any prior civil service or other experience that reveals their qualifications for office?