Place 5 Run-Off: It's All Over But the Votin'

Place 5 opponents Margot Clarke and Brewster McCracken get together to hug a tree. (See, we told you he's not a Republican!) (Photo By John Anderson)

Saturday's run-off election for Place 5 on the City Council could turn on a couple of key "if" factors. As in:

Margot Clarke could win if she's able to sweep some key boxes outside of the central city, where she appears to be the preferred candidate.

Or, Brewster McCracken could win if he can pick up additional boxes inside the central city, where he captured more than a third of the vote on May 3.

Heading toward E-Day, popular wisdom gives McCracken the edge because he garnered the most primary votes -- collecting about 44% (to Clarke's 35%) out of a field of seven -- and he has raised the most bucks, thanks to the recent spurt of fundraising efforts mounted by leaders of the Real Estate Council of Austin. But we recall how similar circumstances seemed to weigh in favor of Manuel Zuniga, who lost to Bill Spelman in 1997. Same thing with Rafael Quintanilla, who lost by a whisker to Raul Alvarez in 2000. Both Spelman and Alvarez owed their victories, of course, to the reliable central-city vote.

In sizing up the strengths and weaknesses of both campaigns, political consultant David Butts sees a crapshoot. "Either one of them could win, depending on what they do to get their people to vote," he said. Butts does not work for either campaign, but he has fielded calls from both candidates seeking advice. On balance, though, Butts says there is nothing terribly exciting about either candidate. "Neither one has captured the imagination of voters, except in pockets," he said.

The two campaigns have each conducted voter-identification polls to determine which voters need hounding. The candidates and their respective volunteers braved the heat last weekend knocking on doors in neighborhoods where they could have or should have fared better; Clarke moved her show farther south -- south of 78704 -- and McCracken and his troops fanned out east and northeast. This week saw more pavement-pounding and phone-calling. McCracken's war chest allowed him to break out a new and improved TV commercial this week. (Local campaign junkies saw lots of room for improvement from Brewster's last spot before May 3.) And late last week Clarke was putting the final touches on a mass mailing.

McCracken's most recent mailing was designed to appeal to a road warrior's eye. "Been stuck in traffic lately?" the mailer teased before laying out a series of select traffic-related quotes from each candidate. "I drive my car Downtown to work every morning and I know first-hand the headaches of Austin's traffic problems," McCracken says. ("What he should have said," sniffed one Clarke supporter, "was I drive my SUV Downtown every morning.") Clarke's remarks excerpted in the mailer come across as decidedly anti-road ("If you are stuck in traffic, it's because you are in a car"), although she says her comments were selectively pulled from a larger context of what to do about the traffic situation. "We need to have multiple solutions to traffic problems," she explained. "If I'm stuck in traffic then, yes, it is because I'm in a car, but that doesn't mean I think there is only one solution to traffic congestion."

Traffic will be an issue for a long time, unlike another of the hottest issues of the run-off race -- Mayor Gus Garcia's proposed anti-smoking ordinance, scheduled for final approval today (Thursday). "It looks like it may be settled before one of us takes office, but that was easily one of the biggest issues of the campaign," said McCracken. It is one of only a few issues on which the two candidates disagree; McCracken opposes a smoking ban, while Clarke supports one.

For the first time since 1996, a City Council run-off race features a female candidate, which has generated a consciousness-raising revival among local feminists who want to see a third woman sitting on the council dais. Count Bettie Naylor among them, even though she backed McCracken in his first City Council bid last year (she says she committed to him before she knew Betty Dunkerley was running). This time, Naylor, a Capitol lobbyist who is active in the county Democratic Party, has thrown her support behind Clarke and this week made phone calls on her behalf. "I want very much to see more women in office," said Naylor. "Every City Council issue that affects the community should have the consideration of both men and women. Margot is pro-environment and pro-choice, but she is also very independent," she said.

Citywide, the voters who turned out on May 3 split almost 50-50 between male and female -- which is somewhat unusual, Butts says, since city elections tend to draw more older, white, and male voters than younger, minority, and female voters. However, women form the majority of Travis Co.'s registered voters, Butts said, and traditionally women outnumber men at the ballot box in Democratic primaries. Though City Council elections are nonpartisan, the fact that McCracken has been erroneously identified as a Republican could pay off for Clarke. On the other hand, McCracken can also boast a fair amount of female support and carries the endorsement of former Gov. Ann Richards and former City Council Member Brigid Shea.