Election Ticker: Masters of Disasters

CodeNEXT having been kicked, Fred Lewis is now on to stopping the next land use rewrite from happening. Over the past week, his Let Us Vote Austin PAC has been disseminating these pro-Proposition J yard signs around the city. Prop J, of course, relates to Lewis' initiative to require that any future zoning rewrite be put up to a public vote. (Photo by John Anderson)

Lewis Conway Jr. fell ill on a trip to New York City last weekend with the nonprofit group Just Leadership USA and spent some time in the hospital. The City Council candidate for District 1 posted a photo of himself bedridden on Saturday, along with a caption asking for "support and positivity." Turns out it was nothing too serious, and by Monday he'd posted an update. "Not enough rest and too much work is what I've been told," he wrote. "I'm out and will be on a plane to Austin in about 10 hours."...

Conway's opponent Natasha Harper-Madison is facing a little heat this week after the Statesman reported on her dual residency. NHM has rented a house on 13th Street with a roommate since October of 2016, but owns a home with her husband, an Austin firefighter, in the Williamson County part of Northwest Austin, and her two kids attend school in the Round Rock ISD. Council candidates are expected to have resided within the district they're seeking to represent for at least six months, though it's currently unclear if any of her opponents plan to challenge her residential status...

Mayor Steve Adler's challengers, Laura Morrison and others, have been attacking the planned Major League Soccer stadium at McKalla Place as a "giveaway" to the incoming soccer team and its ownership. Asked about the charges, Adler spokesman Jim Wick responded, "Our city needs to use its land for the greatest public benefit. The mayor doesn't believe the city should be in the business of selling its land to private developers for maximum profit. There is no city-granted property tax exemption. This is a great deal, one of the best (if not the best) in the country. They build the stadium, give it to us, then pay us to rent it."...

One of the late filers in the mayoral race, Todd Phelps, told the Chron­icle this week that he was "recruited" by local businesspeople (unnamed) to run against what he calls the "Adler Disaster." Phelps, who garnered 10% of the vote in 2014 (and later got 6% in the 2016 GOP primary against U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith), said Adler has failed on "affordability and mobility." He criticized him for not yet enacting a full 20% homestead exemption, and spending too much transportation funding on "walkables" instead of highways. He also said we should provide property tax exemptions to the landlords of "iconic businesses" like Threadgill's World Headquarters. Phelps said he intends to get in a run-off, and beat whoever else survives...

Rich DePalma has a few new endorsements to brag about. The D8 candidate recently earned nods from the Circle C Area Democrats and citywide urbanist troupe AURA...

Beto O'Rourke and Ted Cruz hold their first senatorial debate this Friday, Sept. 21, at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and have two more on the schedule after that: Sept. 30 in Houston and Oct. 16 in San Antonio. Each session will last an hour and feature different topics and formats. The first promises a moderated discussion on domestic policy...

Democratic Attorney General candidate Justin Nelson continues to hammer incumbent Ken Paxton on his securities fraud indictments, this time boasting about his Tuesday jury duty summons, something Paxton can't take part in because of said indictment...

In an unusual move, former Land Office Commissioner Jerry Patterson, a Republican, announced his endorsement of Democratic challenger Miguel Suazo against GOP incumbent George P. Bush. Defending the endorsement, Patterson cited what he described as Bush's mishandling of the Alamo and the recovery efforts from Hurricane Harvey...