It’s been one of those months where I: A.) Felt like I was constantly busy, and B.) Still got very little accomplished. The Halloween season and the run-up to the election are part of that, but I’m still dealing with cataloging a large library of books, including sending out another Lame Excuse Books catalog this month, and the blog updates necessitated by the PHP vulnerability, and clearing a large tree limb that fell onto my driveway (now gone), in addition to all the usual slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
All that is a preamble to saying that what you’re getting today is a random selection of some pre-election tidbits.
Extreme concentration from two organizational sources
AFSCME + Austinites for Equity = ~89% of the money. There is only one individual household contributor. This is not a broad grassroots effort; it is a small number of large institutional checks.City employees’ union is the dominant funder and organizer
AFSCME (the national public-sector union) provided the single largest gift. Local AFSCME Local 1624 (City of Austin and Travis County employees) has been the public face of the “Don’t DOGE Our Austin” rallies, with union officers speaking and signs prominently displayed. Reporting indicates the Don’t DOGE PAC shares the same treasurer (Carol Guthrie, AFSCME Local 1624 business manager) and office ties as Austinites for Equity and the local union. Austinites for Equity itself previously received large AFSCME contributions (reported around $50,000). This creates a tightly interconnected funding and control structure centered on the union whose members’ departments would be audited.Out-of-state money is the largest single source
The majority of funds came from AFSCME headquarters in Washington, D.C., rather than from Austin residents or local small donors.
I’m pretty sure just about everyone reading this blog (bots and opposition researchers excluded) is going to be voting Republican straight down the line. So here are some down-ballot “non-partisan” race recommendations for my neck of the woods.
- Place 1: Dana Walker is the choice here, because her opponent is endorsed by Democrat groups.
- Place 3: Trevor Hale is the choice, for the same reason.
- Troy J. Evanovich for Place 6
- Miriam Arora for Place 5, and
- Gregory Andrew for Place 4.
All three are endorsed by True Texas Project, and their opponents are the usual social justice warrior Democrats.
For North Austin MUD #1, Jennifer Wiebe is the choice in the only contested race, because I voted against Diana Christiano for her signs appearing with Dem signs, and Wiebe evidently donated to Trump, which is a good enough reason to vote for her this far down the ballot.
