West side District 10 candidates do not agree on much

There are just two candidates running for the District 10 City Council seat: Marc Duchen and Ashika Ganguly.

While both have lived in West Austin for a number of years, Duchen, 46, has a longer track record. Duchen has an MBA and has served on the board of his homeowners’ association as well as the Austin Neighborhoods Council executive committee and the Community Not Commodity board of directors.

Ganguly, 29, who is a former grade-school teacher, has spent the last few years at the Texas Capitol working as a legislative aide to Democratic Rep. John Bucy. Like Duchen, she has a master’s degree, but unlike Duchen, she has not spent much time at City Hall. When asked whether she had attended any Council meetings, Ganguly explained, “I stream almost every City Council meeting.” She said she was “balancing my job at the Capitol and the campaign.”

Duchen got his first taste of Austin politics when he ran former Council Member Betty Dunkerley’s reelection campaign in 2005. The following year, Duchen managed a successful House race for a Democrat in a normally Republican district in Corpus Christi. He returned to Austin to work for the Texas Progress Council and served as the research director for the Texas Democratic Party. After that, he started a technology engagement company, and six years ago he returned to consulting.

Ganguly told the Austin Monitor she decided to run for the Council seat in May 2023. Her website notes that, “During the 88th legislative session, Ashika found herself fighting for equitable legislation amidst attacks on inclusion efforts, LGBTQ+ rights, school finance, voting rights, local control, and much more. These experiences propelled her towards her new mission: advocating for her community at City Hall.”

As noted on his website, Duchen “became active in neighborhood issues and local politics” in 2015. He joined his local homeowners’ association volunteer board of directors, got involved with the fight over how to redevelop the Austin Oaks PUD and then the 2016 District 10 Council race, helping Council Member Alison Alter beat Sheri Gallo in the runoff.

Now, Alter has endorsed Duchen. In an email to her supporters, Alter wrote, “Marc has demonstrated that he will consistently show up, ask questions and listen….He has worked to improve our city. For years, Marc has spoken at Council meetings, voted consistently in runoffs and May elections, served as a local leader and collaborated to solve problems. On the campaign trail, I have seen Marc put in the time to truly hear voters from across the district.”

Duchen recently told a neighborhood group gathered at the Highland Elementary School that the city’s HOME initiative does “not have enough guardrails” to protect trees and infrastructure, among other things. “Going forward, that’s something we need to address.” Those distressed by those changes should “make a collective case to figure out how do we get that changed.”

Duchen has a lengthy critique of city policies on his website, including the following: “Austin is a city full of potential, but we’re currently facing some significant challenges related to affordability, housing, transit, public safety, and parkland. … The H.O.M.E. amendments to the Land Development Code were passed despite serious public concerns about displacement, increased property taxes, adequate infrastructure, emergency vehicle access, and loss of trees and green space.”

During an interview with the Monitor, Ganguly was asked whether she had ever advocated at City Hall. She said she had not, “but every minute of my adult life has been spent working to serve my community. My work … my person is centered around building things up. My opponent has advocated at City Hall many times, but it’s always about something he’s upset about … I feel that my opponent wants to take us backward and is a bomb thrower and he doesn’t want to work with others to deliver real results for the district.”

Ganguly concluded that she can be a bridge builder between different factions just as she has at the Legislature.

When the Monitor asked Duchen for a response to Ganguly’s comment, he said via email, “When you lack experience and have no record of service to stand on, the only thing you can do is attack and misrepresent, which she has done in virtually every forum. Experience and willingness to question decisions is part of what responsible public servants do. Leadership does not mean being a ‘yes’ person. Our job is to represent the public’s interest.”

Ganguly expressed optimism about the city’s forward progress in making housing more affordable and said she was “optimistic” about the HOME initiative. As for the recent addition of the DB90 category, which has displeased many neighborhood advocates, she said, “I believe policy is a living process,” and noted that staff is charged with providing a yearly report so citizens can see the impact of the policy on affordable housing units. “I do believe that at its core it’s a supply-and-demand issue, and the prices will come down.”

Both Ganguly and Duchen said public safety was their No. 1 issue. However, the problem of not enough officers in a growing city is not one that can be solved by one ordinance or a series of them. Ganguly is hoping to add more police by starting a program at Austin Community College to get students on the path toward becoming officers. She also noted that Austin is not affordable for many police officers who could work in a suburb and make the same amount without having to drive into Austin.

Duchen has said the city should “create a civilian response unit, instead of police, for minor vehicle collisions,” and model it after TxDOT’s Highway Emergency Response Operators, or HERO.

Ganguly has been endorsed by Council members Zo Qadri, José Velásquez, Paige Ellis and Ryan Alter. She won the endorsement of the Central Labor Council and the Austin-Travis County EMS Association as well as several members of the Legislature. The urbanist group AURA has also endorsed her.

In addition to Alter, Duchen has been endorsed by the Austin Sierra Club, Austin Environmental Democrats and Central Austin Democrats, as well as Travis County Commissioner Brigid Shea and former Council members Laura Morrison and Brewster McCracken and Travis County Constable Pct. 3 Stacy Suits.

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Posted In: Elections, District 10