Fresh off the heels of a decisive reelection win, City Council Member Paige Ellis is ready to hit the ground running in 2023 with initiatives related to housing, transportation and workforce retention. Ellis won reelection with 58 percent of the vote in November, avoiding a runoff. She told the Austin Monitor that the margin of […]
District 8
District 8 contains three distinct neighborhoods, Oak Hill, Circle C and Travis Country. The district is bounded on the east by Brodie Lane, on the south by the Travis-Hays county line, on the north by Bee Cave road and on the west by the winding Austin city limits line. It also has the city’s biggest and most infamous traffic bottleneck – the Oak Hill Y, the convergence of US 290 and SH 71, squeezing traffic heading to and from South MoPac Boulevard and out into the Hill Country.
Posted inElections
Ellis and Harper-Madison easily win reelection to Council
In some of the least-surprising news Tuesday night had to offer, City Council incumbents Natasha Harper-Madison and Paige Ellis both held on to their seats in decisive victories over their opponents. In District 1, Harper-Madison, who has served on Council since 2019 and was mayor pro tem in 2021, ended the night with almost 54 […]
Posted inElections
Reports show wide disparities in fundraising among candidates
Last week, candidates running for City Council submitted their final campaign finance reports before Tuesday’s election, revealing a wide array of funds across campaigns and districts. DISTRICT 9 With Council Member Kathie Tovo stepping down, numerous people are vying to take the downtown seat. The major contenders seem to be Linda Guerrero, Tom Wald and […]
Posted inElections
Ethics commission notifies D8 candidate of campaign materials violation
The Ethics Review Commission will file a letter of notification for a City Council candidate who neglected to put required disclaimers on some of his campaign materials. At last week’s meeting, the commission held the preliminary hearing for the complaint by one-time Texas House candidate Julie Oliver against Richard Smith, who is running for the […]
Posted inElections
Watch our District 8 forum
On Thursday, three of the four candidates running for City Council in District 8 participated in a forum hosted by KUT and the Austin Monitor. You can watch the forum, which was hosted by KUT’s Jerry Quijano, below. Joining Quijano were incumbent Paige Ellis and candidates Richard Smith and Kimberly P. Hawkins. Antonio D. Ross […]
Posted inElections
District 8 City Council candidates chat with the ‘Monitor’
Four years ago, Southwest Austin’s District 8 selected the progressive yet pragmatic Paige Ellis as its City Council representative. In November, voters will decide whether to continue Ellis’ leadership on the dais. The incumbent faces three community advocates who each have their own ideas about how to tackle the affordability and homelessness crises facing the […]
Posted inCity Council
Ellis sees opportunity for growth amidst 2021’s challenges
Despite a year that brought both public health and environmental disasters, District 8 City Council Member Paige Ellis has pushed forward in her efforts to rethink transportation, parks and affordability solutions in our rapidly growing city. While the Covid-19 pandemic has been a historic challenge, Ellis says it has opened up unexpected opportunities to rethink […]
Posted inCity Council
Paige Ellis: Preparing for climate change resilience
Despite enduring a year of trials, Austin City Council Member Paige Ellis is determined to continue getting work done for her constituents and for the city. Two of Ellis’ most significant accomplishments this year with Council include the Healthy Streets initiative and the success of Proposition B, a voter-approved active mobility bond. “These two initiatives […]
Posted inCity Council
Ellis looks at District 8’s place in transit, homelessness issues in reviewing 2019
Ask Paige Ellis about one of the first lessons she learned as a new City Council member and her answer is immediate: patience. The old adage that the wheels of government turn slowly takes on a whole new meaning for someone stepping into public service for the first time. Budgets, workload and the priorities of […]
Posted inCity Council
Troxclair looks forward to new adventures
After four years in office as the first Council member from Southwest Austin’s District 8, Ellen Troxclair is stepping down. But her departure from Council doesn’t mean we won’t see her at City Hall, she told the Austin Monitor during a recent interview. Troxclair, who was the last conservative on Council, said, “I ran to […]
Posted inCity Charter
Paige Ellis represents sharp political shift for Southwest Austin’s District 8
Paige Ellis, the incoming City Council member for District 8, has very different political views from her predecessor, Ellen Troxclair, who spent the last two years as the only Republican on Council. Ellis, who made her affiliation with the Democratic Party central to her campaign, triumphed over Republican Frank Ward in the Dec. 11 runoff […]
Posted inElections
Ellis handily wins District 8 election
Paige Ellis won the runoff for Southwest Austin’s District 8 City Council seat Tuesday night, defeating Frank Ward with 56 percent of the vote in a race that drew considerably fewer voters than the Nov. 6 election. Ellis received 6,115 votes and Ward received 4,799, for a total of 10,914 votes cast in District 8 […]