After losing to incumbent Margaret Gómez by just 219 votes out of 21,677 cast in the Travis County Commissioner Precinct 4 race, challenger Susanna Ledesma-Woody announced Wednesday that she would seek a recount. During most of Tuesday night’s ballot counting, it appeared that Ledesma-Woody would defeat Gómez and end her county career after more than […]
Jo Clifton
Jo Clifton is the Politics Editor for the Austin Monitor.
Posted inWhispers
Casar handily wins congressional nomination
Progressives claimed several victories in Democratic primary races Tuesday night, with former Austin City Council Member Greg Casar leading the pack. Casar easily defeated his rivals for the 35th Congressional District nomination, with a 40-point lead in early voting. Casar received 59.5 percent of the early vote in the district, which includes East Austin and […]
Posted inElections
Gómez wins tight race against Ledesma-Woody
Margaret Gómez, who has been the Travis County Precinct 4 commissioner for more than 27 years, was widely expected to win reelection by defeating opponent Susanna Ledesma-Woody in the Democratic primary on Tuesday. Ledesma-Woody and Gómez battled over this seat on the Travis County Commissioners Court in 2018. At that time, Gómez defeated Ledesma-Woody with […]
Posted inWhispers
Bradley sues ‘Statesman’ publisher
Austin developer Gary Bradley has filed suit against Gatehouse Media Holdings, owner of the Austin American-Statesman. Although the newspaper featured Bradley in numerous stories about development battles while Bradley was pushing for the development of Circle C and Rob Roy residential neighborhoods, he is not suing over editorial coverage, but because of the paper’s alleged […]
Posted inWhispers
Finally it’s primary election day
We at the Austin Monitor know that our readers are extremely busy and maybe didn’t get around to voting early. Only 9.59 percent of Travis County’s registered voters cast their primary ballots early. With only 58,865 Democrats and 23,511 Republicans marking their ballots either by mail or in person during the early voting period, it […]
Posted inRoads
Street cut follow-up audit shows progress on repairs
When a team from the Office of the City Auditor examined street cuts in 2017, they found a significant backlog in repairing the damaged areas left behind on streets when utility work is done by the city. Those damaged streets have been a concern both for city management and the general public. Last week, a new report […]
Posted inEnergy
Auditors find few faults with utility bill assistance program
Austin Energy, which manages billings for city utility customers, provides reduced utility bills for more than 35,000 electric, water and wastewater customers with low incomes. The Customer Assistance Program offers discounts that average about $650 a year for residential customers who participate in a variety of programs, including Medicaid, food stamps, the Children’s Health Insurance […]
Posted inZoning
Zoning for east side brewery wins final approval
City Council gave final approval Thursday for zoning to allow construction of a huge development, including a new brewery and 275-foot-tall building at 6705 and 6501 Regiene Road on the city’s east side. The plan for the 16-acre site includes 1 million square feet of office, retail and restaurant space, artist workshops and up to […]
Posted inTransportation
Who will help Austin enforce its traffic laws?
Although Austin continues to address dangerous driving behaviors through engineering and educational efforts, traffic fatalities continue to happen. The issue “remains a critical one for the city to analyze and address moving forward,” according to a follow-up audit presented to the City Council Audit & Finance Committee on Wednesday. Despite the city’s efforts, the number […]
Posted inWhispers
Tourism Commission off the chopping block
Until its meeting earlier this month, the city’s Tourism Commission had not met since May 10, 2021, which meant it was in violation of the city ordinance that requires regular meetings. Stephanie Hall of the city clerk’s office told the Audit and Finance Committee at Wednesday’s meeting that they could vote to disband the commission, […]
Posted inElections
Ledesma-Woody says she’s still in county commissioner race
Susanna Ledesma-Woody, who is running to unseat Margaret Gómez, the incumbent Travis County commissioner for Precinct 4, has erroneously filed a form indicating she does not intend to accept any future political contributions or make any expenditures. Ledesma-Woody told the Austin Monitor that the form was filed in error last week and would be corrected […]
Posted inWhispers
Early voting continues slowly
Voters in Travis and Williamson counties continue to trickle into early voting locations. As of Sunday night, just 8,967, or 1.04 percent, of Travis County’s registered voters had cast ballots in the Republican primary and 21,126 had voted in the Democratic primary. Total turnout so far is 30,093, or 3.5 percent of registered voters. Both […]