City to hold District 4 forum … somewhere

Early voting for the District 4 special election starts in less than a month, and the tight timeline and upcoming holidays has the city scrambling to put together a candidate forum, as evidenced by the recent discussion at the Ethics Review Commission.

Currently, the forum is tentatively scheduled at City Hall on Thursday, Jan. 6, at 6:00 p.m. Though the commission does not have the power to determine the location of the forum, commissioners voted unanimously to recommend the forum be held in (or close to) District 4 instead, at the Asian American Resource Center if possible.

“I think it’s most important that we do not ask this district to drive into downtown at 6 o’clock on a work evening,” said Carol Eckelkamp, who is the candidate forum chair for the Austin Area League of Women Voters. She explained that she had already heard from a number of neighborhood associations that the special election offers a “unique opportunity” to work together and consolidate forums. “It could be one of the only forums, because of the holidays and the time,” she noted. The short turnaround on the special election also means that there may not be time to include notice of the forum in Austin Energy bills, as has been standard for City Council forums, observed commissioners. The District 4 election is January 25. Early voting begins on January 10, 2022.