Jo Clifton

A lot of Austinites apparently woke up on Thursday morning and decided it was time to vote. With 14,660 voters casting ballots on Thursday, the early vote total stands at 121,077, or 18.56 percent of those registered in Travis County. The number will probably be even higher today, which is the final day to vote […]

Former Austin Mayor Frank Cooksey (1985-88) has endorsed Sheryl Cole to lead the new 10-1 Council. Cooksey is just the latest in a series of mayors to endorse in this hard-fought race. Mayor Lee Leffingwell endorsed Steve Adler on Monday, and former mayors Gus Garcia and Will Wynn have endorsed Mike Martinez. Cooksey will join […]

Place 4 candidate Marco Mancillas suspended his campaign Wednesday and endorsed one of the better known candidates in the race, Laura Pressley. In a news release entitled “Collaboration is more powerful than competition,” Pressley said Mancillas had “made the decision to halt his campaign” and support Pressley. In the release, Mancillas told Pressley that out […]

Mayoral candidate Sheryl Cole has won support from the national political action committee EMILY’s List. The group supports pro-choice Democratic women running for office. Cole is currently serving as mayor pro tem and hopes to take over as mayor of the new 10-1 City Council in January. Denise Feriozzi, political director of EMILY’s List, released the […]

Austin now has a new billboard, advertising the fact that many grocery stores have polling places. The billboard, which is on Oltorf Street, just east of South Lamar, was donated by Reagan National Advertising and sponsored by the Texas Campaign for the Environment Fund. Executive Director Robin Schneider said, “This billboard makes it clear how […]

District 10 candidate Robert Thomas is getting a big boost from the Austin Board of Realtors PAC. According to a report of independent expenditures filed with the Austin city clerk’s office this week, ABoR PAC has invested $50,000 on a mailer, online ads and robocalls for Thomas. That is considerably more than the group spent […]

An unusually high number of voters showed up at various early voting locations Tuesday, apparently eager to cast ballots in Austin’s first-ever single-member district election or other races. Whatever the reason, the total Tuesday was 10,022. The two-day total now stands at 27,203, or 4.17 percent of Travis County’s registered voters. Compare that to the second […]

Mayoral candidate Mike Martinez reported last week that he had loaned his campaign an additional $25,000, bringing to $50,000 the total he has put into the race. Of course, contender Steve Adler has reported giving his own campaign $296,000. There is no sign that the other major contender, Sheryl Cole, has made any loans to […]

On Monday, more than 10,000 Travis County voters showed up in person to vote and almost 7,000 cast ballots by mail for the first day of Early Voting for a total of 17,186.  Not only are Austin voters being asked to pick a new Mayor and Council from districts for the first time, they are […]

At today’s City Council work session, Council Member Laura Morrison plans to ask some pointed questions about a proposal to allow construction workers to pour concrete overnight in the Central Business District, downtown Mixed Use district and in areas zoned Public. The idea is to give contractors the option to pour concrete between the hours […]