This Election Is about Public Integrity

For Immediate Release

From the beginning, this election has been about public integrity. I stepped down as Executive Director from Central Texas Interfaith after a career of grassroots organizing, LGBTQ advocacy, and public school teaching to run for Austin mayor. My organization won around ½ Billion in local and state community investments, and I was at the center of the organizing effort to kill the state’s largest corporate tax giveaway program, Chapter 313. I was the only candidate to sign the City of Austin Campaign Contract voluntarily limiting myself to $120,000 in spending and contributions, will be the only candidate to get public funding in a runoff, and I have already turned back over 60 grassroots donations worth about $6,000 to comply with a City of Austin rule limiting donations to certain zip codes.

Kirk Watson has brought the culture of “pay for play” politics and “Austin bashing” from the State Capitol to Austin City Hall. The donors from his $1M campaign and quarter million dollar Political Action Committee (PAC) have already come knocking for our public tax dollars. He recently pushed through a $107.6M City real estate purchase to one of his PAC donors, Brandywine Realty, and on this week’s council agenda is a $1.7M contract to a business organization, Opportunity Austin, that has 13 top Watson donors on its board, including its board chair and CEO. He has refused to stand up to Greg Abbott, and as a billionaire’s mayor who is a millionaire himself, helped cause the affordability problem he claims to now address.

We need a mayor who will fight for working Austinites, build a strong middle class, and fight for the investments in education, workforce and housing that will keep our city affordable. We need to make sure recent changes to our land code work for Austinites who live here and plan to live here, not institutional investors. And we need a mayor who will stand up to Greg Abbott and state leadership when our local decisions, education funding, and civil rights are under attack. I’ve got a career of successful executive experience, having built and led a $1M organization and a lifetime of successful organizing and advocacy for working families. If you haven’t voted, I ask for your vote. Thank you.