Naked City

Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir and Vera Carp, a mayoral candidate from Tuna, Texas, demonstrate the county's new eSlate electronic voting system in front of the Paramount Theatre Wednesday morning. DeBeauvoir hopes that the new system will speed up the county's notoriously slow vote-counting process. Previous counts have often lasted well into the night, but DeBeauvoir expects to be done with the May 3 municipal elections before the 10pm television news. It is also expected to reduce vote-counting in Tuna's elections from 10 minutes to less than two. (Photo By John Anderson)

Quote of the Week: "We're going to have a lot of cuts, and I'm calling on the churches to step up to the plate. If you don't like these horrible ideas, help us find a solution." -- State Rep. Kino Flores, D-Mission, chair of a House committee that last week held hearings on 12 different bills to expand legalized gambling in Texas. Reps from religious groups say the social costs of gambling far outweigh the benefits, but their strongest ally -- Gov. Rick Perry -- let slip that he wouldn't veto a Lottery Commission sunset bill even if it included new gambling. Stay tuned.

Gavino Fernandez briefly dropped out of the Place 2 City Council race last weekend, but as of press time had renewed his challenge to incumbent Raul Alvarez.

Meanwhile, in the Place 5 race, Brewster McCracken has picked up the endorsement of former Mayor Kirk Watson, and a dissatisfied Austin Neighborhoods Council says its PAC may not endorse any of the candidates in any race. See No Quiet on the Eastern Front and Seven of Five for more on the council races.

Early voting for the May 3 contests began Wednesday; see Early Voting for a list of voting locations.

The Texas House, after bitter debate, passed HB 7 -- its emergency appropriations measure to close this year's estimated $1.8 billion state budget deficit -- and then went to work on the equally grim HB 1, next year's budget bill. See Capitol Chronicle.

Assuming the House ever finishes the budget, next week should see a committee hearing on legislation to authorize a Central Texas Health Care District, and the latest version of a regional mobility authority bill should move to the House floor. More on both of these next week.

No City Council meeting this week; a light agenda planned for next week in Mayor Gus Garcia's absence; and no meeting again the following week. The next big meeting -- featuring more debate of the smoking ordinance, the neighborhood-plan amendment process, and the superduplex struggle -- will be May 8, after the election.