Daily News - The Austin Chronicle (2024)

Fact Checking the Galindo Mailers (UPDATED)

"Stop the Green Home Tax!" screams an new campaign slogan from Cid Galindo, a run-off candidate for city council place 4.Galindo's weekend campaign mailer led with this inflammatory headline: "Pay a big tax just to sell your home?" The mailer states his opponent Laura Morrison is "for it" and Galindo is "against it." The only problem: No such municipal tax has ever been proposed.What's actually going on? A broad-based city task force is meeting to work out a structure for a program that would encourage, and possibly in the future mandate, energy efficiency upgrades to existing homes, as an initiative of the Austin Climate Protection Plan. Council's goals: Reduce needless energy consumption, while lowering monthly homeowner utility bills. Within a few years, the up-front investment would pay for itself, then keep producing homeowner savings. A worthy, in-progress initiative – being sensationalized for campaign grist.Below are the statements made on the Galindo mailer, and – based on data obtained through city staff – the actual current facts on the program.Galindo Mailer: "Pay a big tax just to sell your home."Facts: No tax is proposed, or has ever been considered by the city. Home sellers would not be required to pay for any upgrades. Homeowners would be investing in their own house, not paying monies to the city.Galindo Mailer: “Every home in Austin would have to pass a city energy efficiency inspection before it can be sold.”Facts: The task force is considering a voluntary program only, initially. Homes would not have to pass an energy efficiency inspection. Sellers would be required to have an energy audit, and to provide that data to prospective buyers. Homes built in the last decade would be exempt.

The City Tackles E.D.

Early Voting Begins Today

Early voting for the June 14 city council run-off between Cid Galindo and Laura Morrison begins today and runs through June 10. Click here for a list of early voting locations.And please, please, please: GO VOTE! What happened to all that wild enthusiasm that jammed the polls for the Clinton/Obama primary? Granted, Morrison is not Clinton and Galindo is no Obama, but what happens in local politics arguably will have an even greater effect on your life than most decisions emanating from the White House. Are you sick of urban sprawl? Are you worried that yuppie newcomers are driving up your property taxes? Do you think rail is a boondoggle? How do you feel about Austin crime? Garbage collection? Traffic? Whatever your position, this is where you make your voice heard on those serious issues.Or not. While 227,493 Travis County voters showed up for that May primary, only 35,830 Austinites returned to select their city council last month. That's a pathetic 8.45% turnout. History indicates the run-off turnout will be even lower. In a city of about three-quarters of a million people, it's shameful that only 10,000 or 20,000 may decide who gets to lead us. Go study up on the candidates and participate in your democracy!

Vermont Votes Hemp

On May 29, Vermont became the second state to legalize industrial hemp farming when Republican Gov. Jim Douglas allowed H.267 to become law without his signature. The bill creates a regulatory scheme similar to that enacted in North Dakota, the first state to reauthorize agricultural production of the non-narcotic cousin of marijuana.Under the new law, farmers must be licensed by Vermont's Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets; hemp must be grown from seeds provided by the ag secretary, on land the secretary has approved for hemp production. And farmers must agree to submit to random inspection by the ag department and/or state police.

Texas and the Numbers Game

While the eyes of the politerati are set on next week's primary states for settling the Democratic presidential nomination, there's a statistical possibility (read "long-shot") that the whole shooting match could come down to the Texas Democratic Party Convention next weekend.Howso? Well, according to CNN's latest estimates, Obama still needs 42 delegates to clinch the nomination. Out of next Tuesday's primary states, Montana only has 16 pledged delegates and South Dakota 15, while non-state Puerto Rico (living in the political equivalent of 'good enough to date, not good enough to marry') which goes to the polls Sunday only has 55. Texas, however, has 67 pledged delegates (and four supers) yet to be locked down: they'll be apportioned on the day of the convention, following the preferences of delegates when they sign in.Depending on how the remaining primaries break, and whichever way the party's rules committee settles the whole Florida and Michigan (aka the "party rules are for other people" states), and which super-delegate wants to be the one that puts the candidate over the top, that could mean it gets settled next weekend at the Austin Convention Center. And in this campaign season, stranger things have happened.

Richies for Obama

Big news (and bad for the Clinton crowd): Texas Democratic Party chair Boyd Richie and his wife Betty Richie, both superdelegates, have officially endorsed Sen. Barack Obama.But why is this latest paired announcement so important? Because, with a week to go before the state convention, the party head honcho has made a definite statement, and tied the two presidential candidates in declared Texas superdelegates (14-14, with 4 hold-outs.) While he talked about his "great respect for Senator Clinton and her Texas supporters," Boyd reiterated what many other observers have said: that Obama has a better grass-roots campaign that can be turned into the essential get-out-the-vote operation, and that benefits other Democrats running in November.Which is something the Clintons might have a difficult time arguing against. After all, having a Clinton in the White House didn't have such a great down-ballot effect in the Congressional elections in 1994. Or 1996. Or 1998.So, the question now is whether the Clinton campaign and its proxies will accuse the Richies of being traitors or of driving away the Hispanic vote.See below the jump for Boyd's full statement.

Cravey Goes Camping

It ain't exactly Al Gore's beard, but check out Place 4 City Council candidate Robin Cravey's thoughts on his unsuccessful run. His biggest regret? "The many hours I spent in meetings, when I could've been out hiking!" Uhh, has he seen how long your average council meeting lasts nowadays?

Meet the Candidates. Again.

For anyone who missed any of the slew of candidate forums during the first round of council elections: Never fear, the run-off is here! The City of Austin Ethics Review Commission will be hosting a Place 4 run-off candidate forum tonight (Thursday, May 29) at 6:15pm, in the Council Chambers. Expect special guest appearances by Laura Morrison and Cid Galindo.The public is "encouraged to attend" the event, which will be moderated by the League of Women Voters of the Austin Area. For anyone without the time or inclination to hunt for downtown parking, the whole thing will be carried on Channel 6.Further info on the election can be found at the city's election pages, and, of course, our own elections page.

Democrats and Abbott Settle in Voter Suppression/Fraud Case

Don't you love it when everyone wins? Dueling press releases from Attorney General Greg Abbott and the Democrat-affiliated Lone Star Project are both spinning a settlement agreement between the AG and the Texas Democratic Party as victories for their respective sides.In 2006, six individuals and the TDP filed suit in federal court alleging that Abbott was enforcing a provision of the Texas Election Code too tightly. The provision forbids an individual from possessing another person's ballot, and Abbott prosecuted 26 cases. But the six plaintiffs in this case shot back by saying that they were merely trying to deliver the mail-in ballots of a friend or relative, and that the law was overbroad. They also noted that the majority of the Republican AG's prosecutions were against racial minorities, and all of them were against Democrats – and thus, they charged, this was more about suppressing and intimidating Democratic voters than preventing fraud. (Click here for a more detailed rehashing.)Today, the suit was dismissed in Marshall by District Judge T. John Ward after a settlement was reached. Abbott's press release claimed that this was "the latest in a string of victories for the State of Texas, which consistently maintained that its efforts to protect the integrity of the elections process were entirely constitutional," while the Lone Star Project's statement was headlined "Plaintiffs Win Favorable Settlement in Abbott Vote Suppression Case."