PAC active in several Council races

Political action committees both supporting and opposing District 9 candidate Chris Riley have been busy. For example, a PAC called Vote ’em In Vote ’em Out PAC paid the Austin Chronicle $972 last week for an ad chastising Riley for voting against limiting surge pricing for Uber, the alternative ride service. This is apparently the only ad this PAC has bought for this campaign. The PAC lists its treasurer as Jane L. Marshall, who prefers to be called Lynn. According to campaign finance reports filed with the city clerk’s office late Thursday, the group received contributions of $1,250 each from Ronald and Keri Aladeniyi and $2,500 from Kathleen Connolly of Georgetown. Keri Aladeniyi is a real estate agent. Both she and Ronald have also contributed to the Better Austin Today PAC recently. On the other hand, the Real Estate Council of Austin Good Government PAC reported donating $3,500 on Thursday to the Austin Firefighters PAC to fund phone banks in support of Riley. Another committee that hasn’t participated in the past called Keep Austin Livable for Everyone paid Kelly Graphics nearly $4,000 to produce a mailer on behalf of District 7 candidate Ed English last week. It is not clear who is behind this committee. There is one city ordinance that all PACs doing advertising seem to be violating. Under Section 2—2-33a of the City Code, “a political advertisement … paid for in whole or in part by an independent expenditure, must conspicuously display on the communication the names of the five biggest donors in the preceding 12 months to the person making the independent expenditure.” (Thanks to attorneys Jim Cousar and Bill Aleshire for their assistance in finding some of this information.)