An update in advance of the May 10th election

[Miggy]

Oh the small dramas...

The election is Saturday and in the lead up to it, the campaigns are showing their true colors. With particular dirt on their faces are Morrison, Kim and Meeker (kindly re-affirming my endorsements of Leffingwell, Shade and Galindo).

Meeker:
Plumbing new depths, he went to the home of his opponent's political consultant (Mark Nathan referenced in a separate post) and planted a bunch of "Meeker for Austin" campaign signs on his front lawn. While Nathan was removing it, he noticed that Meeker didn't have the proper campaign disclosures. Make that two major legal missteps in this campaign (one felony and one misdemeanor) to say nothing of the juvenile nature of the prank. In his (possible) defense - he may just be the victim of a fanatic supporter and ex-treasurer of his campaign that's using his name. Strange stuff. After Saturday, no one will care.

Kim:
She's been busy conducting robo-calls with a smear campaign. It alleges a sneaky and explicit agreement with the Police/Fire/EMS folks which seems unlikely. The City Manager is the lead negotiator anyway and he's doing it in a far more public way this year. More to the point, Kim's Robo-calls didn't bear the correct campaign identifiers....she denied it was her...and then later admitted it. Here's the News 8 story on it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di8dqM8e ... re=related

Weiss
It's not so much dirty campaigning, but just an odd quote from this Place 3 candidate: "We should allow weapons where they're needed most, like government buildings, schools, churches, hospitals, financial institutions and other places." Churches? Schools? Really?

Morrison:
Her campaign ad is apparently getting a lot of people anxious - people that normally don't care about local politics are coming up and asking about the "plans for the big ugly towers on town lake". Ahh...scare tactics. So effective even when they're bold face lies.

Here's the ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM-w4Fcn6z0

What's wrong with this ad? Where to start. First of all, the site in question is the Tom Green Water Treatment Plant on Caesar Chavez and San Antonio St. which is being decomissioned and re-developed and will be getting public input over the next couple of months. It is public land downtown that is being returned to the grid and will serve as a connection to the Seaholm Redevelopment, also on Caesar Chavez. It is the site of the planned Central Library that recieved bond funding in the last election.

Anyways, the rest of the land is currently being eyed for mixed use development with a heavy affordable housing component. Want to learn more about the supposed 'back room dealing and lack of public scrutiny'? Look no further than today's newspaper:
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/n ... green.html
Second, with regards to general affordability in Austin - two things need to happen. First is that you need to create more of it so their isn't a constrained supply driving up prices for owner-occupied housing. And the 'more of it' should be in downtown locations with minimum footprints like that one to create density hubs and lower the high cost of commuting and avoid sprawl. Second, you need to get it on the tax rolls so it can go towards subsidizing lower-income rental housing. The Tom Green project does just that and looks nothing like the three towers-of-death in her completely fictitious proposal.

The ad is particularly poor because it also doesn't suggest what she would do with the site or how she would address affordable housing in Austin or why we should vote for her. It's pure fearmongering, plain and simple.

Oh...and she's also been endorsed by a Political Action Comittee (PAC) specifically formed to support her and Meeker (shocker!). Here's the cringe-worthy queue-card reading ad of the BAT PAC:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBVnrsboMas&NR=1

(incidentally, if you don't recognize the people in the video, they're not exactly the ones you want to take advice from)

On an unsubstatianted note....the Galindo campaign that I'm working on interestingly keeps getting its signs stolen. It has coincided with the day that BAT PAC signs went up. Hmmm... petty thuggery on the part of the dominant candidate. Whatever. It'll all be over soon (one hopes).

[Miggy]

Also, judging by the recent turnout at early voting - your vote counts more than you might think it does:

Eight-day results:
Total early voting: 14,285
Percentage of registered voters: 2.53%
Early voting in person votes: 14,056
Mail ballots received: 229

If you want to see the other political ads (this interests me for comparisons because I never see them - but maybe they're playing on TV all the time and it's like posting a Southpoint Nissan commercial or something...if so I apologize in advance for my dorkiness):

Kim:
"I'm sure not perfect"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjB1PdBET7s

Shade:
"We need an attitude change / I'll stand in line with you"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQZamnC1iuE

Galindo:
"Safer, Greener, More Prosperous"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Sx1Uu6 ... re=related

Cravey:
"I shaved and don't look as old anymore"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS-ioXFQZUA

Leffingwell:
"Don't leave it to chance"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc5P75H_k04