We Were Once Recalling

Ann Kitchen (by John Anderson)

Council Member Ann Kitchen hasn't drawn any competition in the upcoming election, and it's safe to say the folks behind the most recent effort to dethrone the District 5 CM won't be mounting any new ones. In late June, Joe Basel, who helped found the Austin4All PAC in January of 2016 to recall Kitchen – because she "purposely hurt businesses that employ citizens of Austin" (i.e., opposed the unregulated local operation of transportation network companies) – was fined $1,900 by the Texas Ethics Commission for operating as a political action committee (taking contributions and making expenditures in excess of $500) without having filed a campaign treasurer appointment with the city. Basel founded the PAC with Rachel Kania and Tori Moreland, neither of whom were fined. All three are known right-wing operatives, Basel perhaps best. His American Phoenix Foundation has a history of planting hidden cameras around liberal politicos in hopes of exposing "political hypocrisy."