Council candidates begin looking for cash

Although the election to replace District 4 Council Member Greg Casar, who is running for a seat in Congress, is likely to occur at the end of January, only one candidate, Jose “Chito” Vela, has begun campaigning for the Council seat. And Vela is the only person who has filed an appointment of campaign treasurer for that job. The Council members in districts 1, 3, 5, 8, and 9 will be ending their terms next November. Members who have served one term – which includes Council Member Paige Ellis and Mayor Pro Tem Natasha Harper-Madison – are eligible to run again in 2022 without collecting signatures within their districts. The race to fill the spot currently held by Council Member Kathie Tovo in District 9 is likely to draw an array of candidates. Zohaib Qadri and Ben Leffler have filed their treasurer appointments. Attorney Jason Hyde, whose office is in that district, has designated Judith Creason of Des Peres, Missouri, as his campaign treasurer. The appointment form did not indicate what seat Hyde might be running for and he declined to tell the Austin Monitor. Richard Smith, a member of the city Board of Adjustment, designated a campaign treasurer in July, indicating he would seek the District 8 seat currently held by Ellis. In District 5, Stephanie Bazan has designated Amanda Eldridge as her treasurer for the seat currently held by Ann Kitchen, who has already served two four-year terms and seems unlikely to take on the arduous task of collecting signatures to run again in November 2022. So far, no new candidates have indicated an interest in running for the district 1 or 3 seats. Council Member Pio Renteria is in his second term in the District 3 seat and seems unlikely to run again. Bertha Rendon Delgado announced her candidacy for the seat on Facebook, but has not designated a treasurer. Finally, Jennifer Virden, who lost a race for City Council District 10, filed a treasurer designation in June to run for mayor next year.

This whisper has been corrected to remove a statement that those elected will serve two-year terms. They will serve four-year terms.