Following the winter holidays, City Council is slowly cranking up again to full speed, but doesn’t meet formally until Jan. 23 (work session, Jan. 21). However, they convened today (Jan. 9) as “Council Committee on Austin Energy,” the governing body that remains since last year’s proposal to create a distinct AE board of trustees came a cropper after public opposition. Among the agenda items is solar energy policy (see “Then There’s This“) and briefings on various administrative matters.

Meanwhile, we continue to monitor the lengthening list of potential Council candidates lining up to test the new era of single-member districting and the 10-1 Council, come Nov­em­ber. Each week has lengthened the catalog – now approaching the scale of Homeric epic; this week we add a half-dozen more to the list, and the buzz reflects more names to come. Follow the entire, ongoing Battle Royale to Be at austinchronicle.com/election.

We add only those names we’ve been able to confirm with the rumored candidates; if you’ve received the call to serve, or know someone gettin’ jiggy with it that we’ve missed, please drop me a line at mking@austinchronicle.com.

Here are the latest additions, as of press time Wednesday.

DISTRICT 1 (East/Northeast) Sam Osemene, ACC assoc. prof. of govern­ment, small business owner, and 2009 Place 6 candidate, declares on Facebook: “The game
is on. Get on board. We are moving forward. I need your support.”

DISTRICT 3 (East/Southeast) Nicholas Lucier, ACC student and local activist (currently on the anti-fluoride hunger strike at City Hall), briefly ran for mayor in 2012 as a “Mushroom Tea Party” candidate. He says that “through the mobilization of the local student population and art scene, I foresee a great shift coming to Austin in 2014.” Eric J. Rangel, a Place 4 candidate against Laura Morrison in 2011, was traveling over the holidays, but returned to say, “I am highly considering running for City Council’s representative in District 3.”

DISTRICT 6 (Northwest) Jade Chang Sheppard, recent Demo­crat­ic candidate for state House District 50, says she’s experiencing “campaign withdrawal” and “not ruling out” a Council run; she’s in the process of “seriously considering it” and “analyzing the district.”

DISTRICT 7 (North/Central) Josiah Ingalls, who ran for mayor in 2009 and Council Place 1 in 2011, says he’s considering a run.

DISTRICT 10 (West/Northwest)
Matt Lamon, longtime Austinite and currently chief of staff to state Rep. J.M. Lozano (R-Kings­ville), says he intends to run and is “looking forward to working on issues that matter most to Austinites.”

This article appears in January 10 • 2014.

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Contributing writer and former news editor Michael King has reported on city and state politics for the Chronicle since 2000. He was educated at Indiana University and Yale, and from 1977 to 1985 taught at UT-Austin. He has been the editor of the Houston Press and The Texas Observer, and has reported and written widely on education, politics, and cultural subjects.