City Council Elections

Despite facing down six opponents in his Place 5 re-election bid, Bill Spelman did surprisingly well, winning a second consecutive term without a runoff.  

With 217 of 237 precincts in, Spelman collected 58 percent of the vote. His nearest competitor, Dominic Chavez, only garnered 19 percent.

"This kind of validates one of those things I've been thinking about Austin politics for a long time," Spelman told KUT News. "Even though there's no way you can be on the city council without making everybody angry at least some of the time, in the long run the vast majority of people will forgive you because they understand that. And because they understand you can't govern a great city and have everybody agree on everything all of the time. There's too many differences of opinion in a highly political place like Austin."

With 52.08 percent of the vote and only 20 precincts outstanding, incumbent Mayor Lee Leffingwell has declared victory.

Mayor Leffingwell just finished delivering a speech to supporters at Scholz Garten, where incumbent Austin City Council member Mike Martinez also recently celebrated success.

Leffingwell came out on top of his two challengers – former city council member Brigid Shea and community activist Clay Dafoe. Leffingwell has narrowly avoided a runoff, coming in with about 52 percent of the vote.

With a steady lead over challenger Laura Pressley, Austin City Council member Mike Martinez just declared victory.

The Place 2 incumbent just finished speaking to supporters minutes ago. KUT News spoke with Martinez shortly before his speech.

"We feel good, Martinez said. "The numbers are still coming in, but you have a ten point lead. We feel like we're on the path to re-election."

Update (Midnight): Here are the final results.

Mayor’s race

Clay Dafoe: 5,307 10.86%

Lee Leffingwell (incumbent): 25,434 52.06%

Brigid Shea: 18,115 37.08%

With a commanding 70 percent of the early vote, it's safe to say Place 6 Austin City Council member Sheryl Cole is assured a third term on the council.

KUT News conducted interviews with all 14 of the candidates running for local office. Cole describes several issues will face this year, including the Austin Energy rate redesign, increasing affordability and more.

Early voting results are out in the Austin city elections. All incumbents are in the lead.

In the mayor's race, Lee Leffingwell is leading Brigid Shea by a margin that should probably hold all night.  

In Place 2 things are closer, but incumbent Mike Martinez still leads Laura Pressley.

In the most crowded race, Place 5 incumbent Bill Spelman is having little trouble, with 55% of the vote – currently enough to keep him out of a runoff.

Place 6 council member Sheryl Cole leads challenger Shaun Ireland, 70 percent to 30 percent.

Mayor’s race

Clay Dafoe: 11.10%, 2,287

Lee Leffingwell (incumbent): 55.25%, 11,381

Brigid Shea: 33.65%, 6,932

Do you care at all about who runs the City of Austin? If not, you can go back to sleep. Otherwise, get pumped. Today is your chance to participate in the democratic process. Fourteen people are running for three city council positions and the mayor’s post.

Here’s a list of polling stations across the city [PDF]. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. During early voting, fewer than five percent of registered voters cast ballots. That’s down about 25 percent from the last mayoral election in Austin.

To make your decision easier for you, we interviewed every candidate and posted links to those interviews right here. You can also find links to newspaper and other endorsements below that.

On Monday, mayoral candidate Brigid Shea held a press conference accusing her opponent Lee Leffingwell of violating the city’s campaign finance laws. Leffingwell’s campaign denies the charge. And as of yesterday afternoon, the Shea campaign had not filed a formal complaint with the city’s Ethics Review Commission.

Surprising? Not exactly. Candidates accusing each other of ethics violations is a move many campaigns make as election day approaches.

In last year’s bitterly contested Place 3 Austin City Council run-off, incumbent Randi Shade filed an ethics complaint against challenger Kathie Tovo. And in the 2009 mayoral election, Lee Leffingwell alleged fundraising impropriety on the part of opponent Brewster McCracken.