Republican Mackenzie Kelly Wins Austin City Council Runoff. Local Paper Declines to Cover It By Bryan Preston Posted By Ruth King on December 16th, 2020
In a stunning upset, Republican Mackenzie Kelly defeated Democrat incumbent Jimmy Flannigan in Austin’s District 6 runoff Tuesday. Kelly ran on a platform that includes restoring police department funding and ending the city’s permissive homeless camping ordinance. She won with 52% to Flannigan’s 48%, a margin of just about 700 votes overall.
Kelly’s win, and Republican Jennifer Virden’s near-win in District 10, may signal a major shift in Austin voters’ thinking. The Democrat-dominated city was already up in arms over the homeless camping ordinance, which allows homeless people to camp just about anywhere they want all over the city (except city hall) since the council passed it unanimously in the summer of 2019. That has led to encampments under overpasses and even
The two races for the Austin City Council that were not determined in November will be settled in Tuesday s runoff elections – and the results will be the latest testament to how the city s progressive movement on public safety and homelessness is playing with voters.
To this point, no council member has lost an election since the council approved cuts to the police department s budget this summer and repealed the city s public camping ban last summer. Leslie Pool and Greg Casar cruised to reelection in November, and Delia Garza will be the next Travis County attorney after winning the Democratic primary and running unopposed in the general election.
Austin s groundbreaking social contract is first of its kind in nation Austin leaders just issued a groundbreaking resolution: a citywide social contract.
Photo courtesy of Society of Architectural Historians During its meeting on Thursday, December 10, the Austin City Council issued a groundbreaking directive to the city manager: write a social contract for Austin. The council has tasked City Manager Spencer Cronk to work with the city’s Joint Inclusion Committee to write the document, which is to be presented to the council by June 1, 2021. A global pandemic and racial unrest have led this nation and communities across the country to an inflection point; and . despite the polarization playing out on the national stage, the Austin community strives to rise above, reads the resolution.