Add Another Name … or Three

Although the overall City Council field shrank by a couple of names last week, district campaigns continue to draw interest. You can add Ed English and Alex Blum to the District 7 interest list, and Mario Cantu has confirmed he will be among those running in District 3.

Cantu has been considering a run for several weeks, and confirmed to Newsdesk this weekend that he will be joining the burgeoning list of candidates in District 3. He describes himself as an Austinite "born and raised," and has served as the Sector 9 representative for the Austin Neighborhoods Council. He says he's a "neighborhood factivist" -- preferring to get "the facts straight" before taking action.

The District 7 names were first sighted in "District 7," a new district online news letter edited by Steven Zettner of Sustainable Neighborhoods. The editors say, "AustinDistrict7.org was founded so that residents in our district would have a place, unaffiliated with any candidate or outside interest group, to share assessments of candidates based on our local issues."

English is a retired sales and marketing professional, was active in promoting the 10-1 Council through Austinites for Geographic Representation, and describes himself as a "centrist unaffiliated with any party." He cited transportation and affordability as major issues, and said he will be "making a firm decision" on a candidacy soon.

Newsdesk has gathered a little less detail thus far on Blum, but did confirm that he is "pretty sure" he will be running and should have more information available in the next few days. He lives in the North Lamar/Parmer area, and described "more police on the beat" as a major need for District 7 neighborhoods.

Of course, nobody's a candidate until he or she officially files for the office, and the official filing period for the November election runs from July 19-August 18. (Soliciting or spending money can begin May 4.) As of Friday, Jan. 31, three candidates had taken the initial plunge and designated treasurers: mayoral candidate Stephen Adler named Entrepreneur Foundation CEO Eugene Sepulveda; District 10 Council Candidate Marjorie "Margie" Burciaga designated attorney and former assistant District Attorney Mindy Montford; and District 3 candidate Shaun Ireland designated himself as treasurer.

As always, to see the full current list of mayoral and City Council candidates, consult the Chronicle Election page, where you'll also find updates on the March primaries (remember those?) The candidate catalog is at "The Pols Just Keep on Coming"; when we report on new candidates in the Daily News or the print edition, we update the full list as well.