Austin City Council Endorsements

And now the first quasi-annual A Site To Be Named Later Endorsements for the upcoming Austin city council elections.

We begin with the process of elimination. First, I automatically remove from consideration any incumbents, unless they have specifically done something positive to prove to me they aren't an idiot. I generally just assume any person who makes it to the city council immediately loses 20 IQ points upon taking the oath, and then gets another 10-20 points drummed out of them over the course of their first term. I don't particularly remember any positive Lee Leffingwell stories, and that plucky little Jennifer Kim has proven to be a moron on a number of occasions, so they are both out. Betty Dunkerley is not running in Place 4.

Second, I remove anyone endorsed by the Austin Chronicle. The Comical is a pretty fair distillation of the local moonbattery, so anyone they think would be a good choice has got to be looked at with suspicion. Anyone they discount for pro-business or pro-sanity reasons gets an upgrade. This year, they have endorsed Lee Leffingwell, and have positive things to say about the other two candidates. One of them is the former spokesman for the drooling moonbats at Responsible Growth [sic] for Northcross, the group that tried to levitate Northcross Mall and the Austin City Hall. With their minds.

So basically, no endorsement for Place 1.

For Place 3, they endorse...no one. Hey, that's my shtick! No help there.

For Place 4, they endorse Laura Morrison, so she's out. Robin Cravey is described by the Comical as an "attorney-poet" and "environmental activist" - oooh, that's what I want looking after my taxes. They have some lukewarm things to say about Cid Galindo, but not enough to automatically mark him off.

So now, I have to actually look at the remaining candidates.

For Place 3, we have left Randi Shade and Ken Weiss. Ken Weiss appears to be the newcomer here, with National Guard and small business experience; while Shade is the more politico of the two. Not a big fan of Shade's moratorium on nuclear power, but she does claim (at least claim) to oppose conversion of existing roads to toll roads. I'm going to give it to Shade here, but just by a Shade.

For Place 4, we have left Cid Galindo, Ken Vasseau, Sam Osemene, and the human enigma that is Jennifer [sic] Gale. Ken Vasseau and Sam Osemene essentially have no web presence, so I can't particularly tell anything about their positions. By contrast, I know more about Jennifer Gale than I want to - please make it go away. Cid Galindo's main proposal seems to be to encourage development in specific "town centers", many of which are located in East Austin. This is, at least on the surface, a great idea - there's so much open space out east that just isn't being used. So wow, I may actually have a candidate I can be a little optimistic about.

So there you are:

Place 1 - no endorsement
Place 3 - Randi Shade
Place 4 - Cid Galindo

Oh, and by the way, I'm opposed to all of the school bond propositions. Although AISD is finally doing something I can get behind - namely, talking about closing down low-performing schools -I'm not quite prepared to reward them with more money. I have no illusions, though - in this tax-happy city, all proposals will easily pass.