Thanks Terry!
While I’m loathe to implicitly endorse negative campaigning by repeating it, I guess there is value in at least documenting it for others to see all sides of both candidates. So far there are a few things that have stood out as dubious:
“Tovo would leave us dry and dangerous” – not really related. Having a water treatment plant is defensible and Shade did get endorsed by the Fire Department, but it doesn’t make it rain.
Ethical violations – Tovo followed the letter of the law, if not necessarily the spirit of it in regards to public financing. Randi Shade did not break any rules by removing a “Shady the Clown” sign at a polling location on election day.
Push polling – It’s frequently a charge in nasty campaigns, but I don’t think this qualified. It also might have been poorly done since people thought it was the Shade campaign until financial disclosures came out and it turned out to be Tovo. You can read more here (
http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/ ... o-campaign)
Reported vandalism – this happens every year when you have signs up in public for 3+ months. No reputable campaign organizes this, but unfortunately supporters on both sides are at times childish.
“Shade is a Republican” – probably the biggest one going around right now. City elections are non-partisan for good reason because the distinctions that play out at a state/national level become largely meaningless when played out on most local level issues. Regardless, them’s fightin’ words in Austin…and it’s interesting in this case because it’s being applied to a Harvard educated lesbian, jewish, former aide to Ann Richards and founding leader of Americorps Texas. She also has a long history in the party and got most of the local democratic club support. You can read about it here (
http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/ ... athie-tovo). What Shade
has done is hired some campaign staff normally associated with Republicans…perhaps in a smart bid to reach those audiences for the run-off.
And here is the latest/last salvo from both campaigns for folks to at least see some of the claims above:
Shade arguing against Tovo about Water Treatment Plant 4 (and stretching the case by using images of the Oak Hill fires)
[youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of1uO1K4FA8[/youtube]
And Tovo’s ad using the all development=bad meme. I'm not actually sure who the contractor is that they're referencing, but I know Shade's campaign director, Katherine, and her last gig was the coordinated campaign for the Travis County Democratic party in November. Lastly, and as previously noted, the case on F1 is a bit of a stretch. It’s still an evolving story and I haven’t heard much distinction in the two candidates real underlying positions.
[youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHHhspKMr5M[/youtube]
Most every endorsement is already out there from the general election, but I thought this recent little sit down with the two candidates by AMP (Austin Music People) was enlightening for those that consider that one of their main issues (also, their founder, Paul Oveisi, owner of MoMo's is a Shade supporter):
http://austinmusicpeople.org/2011/06/am ... ndi-shade/
I also found the recent post by Bicycle Austin to be interesting in how they distinguish the candidates, if biking is more your main focus:
http://bicycleaustin.info/council/2011-06-answers.html
Lastly, Robin Cravey recently gave his endorsement. Robin is a respected old-school austinite, attorney, environmentalist, former council aide, former president of Zilker Neighborhood Association and Founder of the Friends of Barton Springs:
[youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icf8SapLrzs[/youtube]
If you haven't voted yet - Election Day is Saturday. Polls are open 7am-7pm. If you don't know if you're registered or where to go, just type your name in here:
http://www.traviscountytax.org/showVoterNameSearch.do