I recently emailed all the city council candidates (except the two with no email address). There are four positions, three of of which seems to even have enough candidates for an election. I did not identify myself as a blogger for KevinsView.com because I wanted to get the most accurate responses from each of them. I only heard from four of them. Below is the results.
Hello. My wife and I moved to Austin in August yet we haven't seen anyone at our door or a single campaign flyer in our mailbox. Why isn't the candidates like yourself campaigning for our votes? Do you and the other candidates consider the city residents who happen to be in Williamson County to be 2nd class citizens?
As a political activist I want to know the people I am voting for. I do not want to go to the polls and vote blindly. Should I vote for Donald Duck as a write in candidate? That would be a mockery of the election system. Please explain to me why we are being ignored? I want to vote for those who think similar to me. What are you campaigning for? Why are you running for Council?
Position 1
Roger Chan
info@rogerchanforaustin.com
http://www.rogerchanforaustin.com
No response - as a result a lost vote.
Josiah James Ingalls
josiah@josiahingalls.com
http://www.josiahingalls.com
No response - as a result a lost vote.
Norman Jacobson
normanjacobson4citycouncil@clear.net
http://funds.gofundme.com/35xes
No response - as a result a lost vote.
Chris Riley (incumbent)
info@chrisforaustin.com
http://www.chrisforaustin.com
his response is below:
Hey there Mr. Surbaugh: Welcome to Austin! I’ve been doing my best to campaign for your votes – I’ve done about 40 candidate forums all over the city, and been to dozens of meetings – but it’s a challenge to reach all 800,000 constituents. The reasons I’m running, and highlights of my work over the past two years, are set out on my website, http://www.chrisforaustin.com/ . Thanks for your interest in the race!Since he was the only one in position 1 to respond, I guess he will be the one to get my vote.
Position 2
Kris Baily
kris@bailyforchange.com
http://www.bailyforchange.com
his response is below:
Welcome to Austin! I used to live up off Anderson Mill and 183 myself, now I'm down in South West Austin.I am grateful that he replied to me and I look a lot of what he had to say. I do, however; have concerns about his position on drugs when he says, "pointlessness of the war on drugs." As dangerous as drugs are to our youth I cannot support someone who takes that lightly.
Honestly, I wish I could have been knocking on more doors but it is next to impossible to campaign to the entire city! I have been working on your area with yard signs and through the neighborhood associations forums and debates.
I have had to campaign mainly on facebook where I answer every single question asked on my wall personally.
I have had to run a fairly low budget campaign, you can see the finance reports at:
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/election/ce_2011.htm
For my race, one of my primary issues has been the complete pointlessness of the war on drugs and how we allocate our public safety dollars. I have openly advocated for ending the policy of arresting people for possession of marijuana and instead using that money to pursue real crimes like burglary, rape, assault, etc.... See this article in the Statesman for information on why this is absolutely vital for our city.
http://www.statesman.com/news/local/austin-police-solving-fewer-burglaries-1348026.html
I have been campaigning about relaxing the sound ordinances on a lot of the bars downtown (currently they are getting tickets for exceeding 85 decibels after 10pm).
I have been advocating lowering taxes on homeowners by ending the policy of giving subsidies to private companies with our public funds. This is quite popular with the city council.
I'm not sure what issues are important to you, but my cell #512-351-1323 is available if you would like to talk to me.
I am the only candidate that has stood up in front of every single group at every meeting and stated that I will not increase funding for their projects. This has happened repeatedly. I have gotten votes for doing this.
Well, please call me, but more than anything post questions to my facebook page about whatever issues are important to you. I would rather respond publicly so that everyone can see how I feel on each issue. Also, by going through older posts you will find out a lot of information about me.
Thank you for taking the time to contact me. :)
Michael "Max" Nofziger
no email
http://www.maxformayor.org
a visit to his website appears to be more of a promotion of Spanish tourism then a candidates website. As a result a lost vote.
Randi Shade (incumbant)
info@randishade.com
http://www.randishade.com
No response - as a result a lost vote.
Kathie Tovo
info@kathieforaustin.com
http://www.kathieforaustin.com
No response - as a result a lost vote.
Place 4
Laura Morrison (incumbent)
info@lauraforaustin.com
http://www.lauraforaustin.com
No response - as a result a lost vote.
Toby Ryan
info@tobyforaustin.com
http://www.tobyforaustin.com
His response is below:
If you live in Williamson Co you cant vote in Austin City elections. I would love your support, but unfortunately you have to have an Austin address.What? When I responded back and pointed out that Austin's city limits stretched into Williamson County, he responded with this email:
Well, thanks for all of the information. You did not explain to me exactly where u lived, you just said Williamson Co. In any event, you wouldnt recieve a flyer from me because my campaign cant afford it. You see, the system here is set up to benefit the incumbents. I am unable to raise the $140,000 my incumbant opponent raised. I am very limited in my resources. I dont have the call banks or money to hire the staff to run them. Just a few thousand dollars and a volunteer staff. I apologize if my camp hasnt reached out to you individually. Any information you need on me you can find at www.Tobyforaustin.com.What? I didn't tell him? Rather he didn't read.
As everyone can see in the original email above (as I now have it in bold), I did in fact say "city residents who happen to be in Williamson County".
You Toby lost my vote when you didn't know where the city limits were and you sealed that decision when you responded the way you did. (Yes, those were real spelling errors he made, but he was on his Iphone when he responded).
Eric J. Rangel
info@voterangl.com
http://www.voterangel.com
His response is below:
hank you for your concern in local politics. The truth is that since there are no districts or precincts, it becomes very difficult to reach all of the Austin area. This is something that I am fighting for. I don’t have the financial capacity to fight against the incumbents. However, I am going out to meet the people as much as I can. But again, it being an at-large race, it becomes very daunting to reach everyone. I don’t want you to feel that I don’t care or that you’re irrelevant. Its just that since we are running an at-large system, it become very tough on a financial level to reach everyone.He looks to be a candidate the I can strongly support. I will therefore be endorsing him. Thank you Mr. Rangel for taking the time to respond.
I hope that if elected, I will push for single member-districts and in doing so can increase political involvement for the Austin area and I‘m also running for an improvement in economic development and fixing our transportation problems. I’m running cause I want to bring change to the seat of City Council and provide a positive influence to the community I serve.
I hope I have answered your questions. If you have any further questions, please feel free to e-mail me. Or below you will find some videos about who I am, where I stand on the issues, and what I see for the future of our great city.
http://www.kvue.com/news/local/Eric-Rangel-City-Council-Place-4-candidate-shares-his-views-and-platform-119560969.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rlka6svjqE
http://austin.ynn.com/content/austin_city_council/decision_2011/278053/your-decision-2011--place-4-candidates-face-off
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My name is Kevin, and that's what I think. What do you think? Agree? Disagree?
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