Five Days the Hard Way

Heading into election day next weekend, let's look back at the campaigning week that was, in all its chicken-fried steak and custard scarfing glory.

Monday, April 27: Early voting begins, rather unspectacularly, maintaining a slight but steady uptick since.

Tuesday, April 28: Carole Keeton Strayhorn has early voting rally at Amy’s Ice Cream/Phil’s Roadhouse. ChangeAustin.org also does email blast trumpeting Strayhorn. La Prensa newspaper releases endorsements dumping all over Mike Martinez. Martinez tweets “La Prensa is clueless and is completely misrepresenting the facts.”

Wednesday, April 29: Lee Leffingwell's “Chicken Fried Steak” meme takes hold. Brewster McCracken holds presser with Pike Powers, who trumpets McCracken’s renewable-creds; the candidate unveils four-point plan for energy leadership.

Unfortunately, that same day controversy erupts over McCracken’s web ad trumpeting the Austin Model over the St. Louis slide. People at frozen custard stands are pissed.

Thursday, April 30: St. Louis goes viral on Twitter. Jam-packed Austin Chronicle comes out. And the shocking denouement to the Hustle for Mayor interview series airs.

Friday, May 1: Candidates appear at RECA luncheon, which you can read semi-coherent text-message coverage of here. St. Louis makes it to Wonkette. And one week-out campaign finance reports start coming in.