Kathie Tovo kicks off mayoral campaign criticizing Kirk Watson

Kathie Tovo, who served on City Council from 2012 to 2023, including four years as mayor pro tem, is running for mayor – and she’s not shy about explaining why she wants to replace Mayor Kirk Watson.

At her campaign kickoff party Wednesday night at a crowded El Mercado Restaurant in South Austin, Tovo told the Austin Monitor, “I believe we need new leadership. We need a mayor at City Hall who is focused on working with the community, a mayor who is committed to open and transparent government, who will be a fighter for working families.”

And, she said, the incumbent mayor does not fit that description.

She criticized Watson for the Council’s handling of the recently passed HOME initiative, as well as HOME 2, saying the ordinance was not written to protect vulnerable east side neighborhoods or to prevent use of additional housing as short-term rentals.

Tovo also criticized Watson for making a deal with the Department of Public Safety to patrol Austin streets, a short-lived arrangement because minority communities – and several of his colleagues – complained that Black and brown citizens were being targeted disproportionately. The arrangement lasted less than two months but still angers some in the community. Clearly, the issue resonated with those in attendance at Tovo’s party who applauded her criticism of it.

NAACP President Nelson Linder was first on the stage at Tovo’s gathering, and he urged the crowd to get involved in electing Tovo. He was among those speaking against HOME 2 at a press conference outside City Hall when it was adopted last month.

Linder told the crowd that if the city would enforce the federal Fair Housing Law, then there would be equity in housing and Austinites would not be losing their homes to zoning and gentrification.

Also pushing for Tovo’s election was former Council Member Ora Houston. Houston noted that she served with Tovo on City Council, where Tovo helped her navigate its procedures even when she did not agree with what Houston was trying to do. Houston painted Tovo as a public servant, as opposed to a politician. The difference, she said, “is that a politician focuses on himself or herself, and a public servant focuses on the public … especially individuals whose voices have not been heard” in the past.

Houston is part of a lawsuit that seeks to stop the city of Austin and Austin Transit Partnership from validating bonds needed to build Project Connect because the transit project does not mirror what residents voted for when they approved the bonds.

Bobby Levinski, onetime aide to Tovo, said he was devastated two years ago when Tovo decided not to run for mayor. “She was the vote you could count without calling. That was because you knew where she stood.” When she was on Council, he said, she led on creation of the Water Forward Task Force, which has provided a road map on water conservation and reuse.

Council Member Alison Alter, who has made it clear that she is not a fan of Watson’s, attended the party but did not speak publicly. A majority of Council have already endorsed Watson for reelection, excluding Council Member Mackenzie Kelly and District 10’s Alter.

Singers Bill Oliver and Virginia Palmer reminded the audience of threats to Austin’s environment as they sang about iconic endangered species, Barton Springs and the threat to Austin’s water supply. Needless to say, they’re voting for Tovo.

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