Finding A Candidate Worth Voting For

How depressing Austin city council elections are for Republicans. Various nutty, partisan and dangerous candidates try to out-liberal each-other in calling for various forms of extremism, and the non-liberals among the electorate try to read the tea leaves to figure out which activist is least dangerous. Sometimes there is no good answer.

Lee Leffingwell is for the odious Point of Sale Energy reduction clap-trap that mandates you spend thousands when you sell your home. So you look for an alternative. Jason Meeker is proud of standing up against the Northcross WalMart. Jason Meeker may not be awful on the energy mandate, but is an anti-growth anti-walmart nut, and is "ENDORSED BY: Better Austin Today Political Action Committee, NXNW Democrats, Mexican American Democrats, and Travis County Green Party. " Yuck. (In case you try door #3, don't bother; Allen Dembling is a bearded bicycle nut who is running to the left of the two major candidates.)

Jennifer Kim, former aide to a Democrat Senator, has made her share of enemies in her first term (see previous post). So dump her for someone else? Randi Shade is a LGBT candidate fund poster child and touts Austin being weird and bagged these endorsements: "North by Northwest Democrats, South Austin Democrats, Stonewall Democrats of Austin, University Democrats, West Austin Democrats." She hates nuclear power while claiming to be for Clean Energy (wrong answer) and says: "I believe we should continue buying as much land as possible over the Edwards Aquifer and protect what we already have." Millions of dollars, poof. So, which flavor of liberal Democrat do you want? Neither thanks, I'll take Ken Weiss instead.

Place 4, same deal. Former Daryl Slusher aide Robin Cravey, a liberal environmentalist, versus Laura Morrison, an anti-growth Tarrytown liberal. Here's a precious comment on Austinist, exposing her as anti-VMU (that's vertical mixed-used, a great idea that works in developments like the Triangle):

"She's smart enough to make you have to read between the lines to see the density-hating and OldMoney-supporting. That's why it's so important that she be stopped. For instance, the VMU answer sounds reasonable until you go read my blog or Austin Contrarian and learn just exactly what these neighborhood planning teams _really_ tried to pull.
The amazing thing is that she's being labelled as progressive. I guess people are nostalgic for Limousine Liberals or something. Cid Galindo, whom the local Dems think is W's nephew or something, rides his bike to work and expresses a much more progressive tone on housing."

Speaking of which, Sid Galindo is perhaps the most objectively qualified candidate in the race; his urban planning background is a big asset (if not misused). He's shockingly free of the partisan-type endorsements, but instead touts Firefighters, Police, EMS group endorsements, and 3 former mayors, including Bruce Todd. He's running on his "plan" for Austin, leveraging his work on the Austin Planning Commission, a plan that calls for dense zones of development to help have sustainable living as Austin grows. Cid says he is against the odious Point-of-sale energy mandate, which makes him a step above the doctrinaire special-interest environmentalists. But he also makes clear that taxes won't go down as he feels Austin property taxes are not high. (He admits that is partly because of Austin Energy subsidy, and doesn't want to part company with that because he wants to leverage it for 'clean energy'.)

Still, it is depressing that I couldn't find a single candidate in my search of candidates expressing any real conservative ideals. Until I found Sam Osemene:

This election is about the future and the decisions we make today will define that future. There are two competing visions the voters of Austin have to choose from. There is a vision that believes government can solve all our problems. And there is another one that believes in personal freedom and that government is an impediment to individual progress. Samuel Osemene believes government is the problem not the solution to individual progress. This election is about new direction, new ideas, new energy and new optimism. Limited government interference in our personal lives promotes individual excellence.

It is like finding an oasis in a desert! A friend says he is a fringe candidate. Well, if so, it is an indictment of Austin and our local political climate. Common sense limited Government thinking is woefully lacking in City Hall, and it's a grave pity folks like Sam Osemene aren't running things.

I found a man worth voting for. I hope you do as well. Vote on May 10th.