Candidates signing up for 2024 City Council races

Although City Council elections are nearly a year away, two incumbents and eight contenders have already indicated their intention to run by filing paperwork appointing campaign treasurers. Another has also told the Austin Monitor that he plans to run again.

District 2 Council Member Vanessa Fuentes and District 6 Council Member Mackenzie Kelly filed new appointment documents this month. So far, there are no other candidates for the District 2 seat, but Krista Laine filed for the District 6 seat on Monday. Laine is listed as president of the Canyon Vista Middle School STEM Parent Association.

Numerous candidates will compete for the District 7 seat and the District 10 seat because incumbents Leslie Pool and Alison Alter will have served for two terms at the end of 2024. Either or both of them could decide to run for reelection but they would have to gather signatures from 5 percent of the voters in their district to earn a place on the ballot. Neither has indicated any interest in doing that.

Candidates for District 7 include Mike Siegel, a civil rights attorney who has worked as an assistant city attorney. He ran unsuccessfully against U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul in 2020. Two other lesser-known candidates for the District 7 seat are Pierre Nguyễn and Edwin Bautista. In addition to his experience in the military and as a first responder, Nguyễn currently serves on both the city’s Public Safety  and Asian American Quality of Life commissions. His filing indicates that he does not intend to accept or spend more than $1,010 in political expenditures.

Those filing to run for District 10 include Marc Duchen, Ashika Ganguly and Idona Griffith. However, Griffith’s designated campaign treasurer, Heidi Gibbons, told the Monitor on Tuesday that Griffith had decided not to run.

Duchen serves on the board of Community Not Commodity, which instigated the filing of the lawsuit that killed CodeNEXT, the rewrite of the city’s Land Development Code, and a recent successful lawsuit seeking to undo more land use ordinances.

Jack Craver recently featured Ganguly in his Austin Politics Newsletter. A former teacher, she serves as legislative director for state Rep. John Bucy, D-Cedar Park.

Chito Vela won his District 4 seat on Jan. 25, 2022, filling the seat being vacated by Greg Casar, who was elected to Congress shortly thereafter. Monica Guzmán was the runner-up in the race, and Jade Lovera came in third. Vela told the Monitor this week that he intends to run for reelection in 2024. Lovera filed paperwork in May, indicating that she also plans to run for the seat next year. Guzmán told the Monitor that she is considering the race but has not yet made up her mind.

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