It’s dispiriting to attend two major campaign kickoffs and realize, this early out, that you’ve already heard the candidates’ standard stump speech.
But while the Hustle sees it as dispiriting, the campaigns call it something else: “setting the narrative.” And although it’s far out enough from the May 9 general that only City Hall watchers and wonks are following developments with anything more than a vague awareness (see “Municipal Death Match!“), the themes and messages on which the race for mayor will be won or lost are calcifying before our eyes.
Care to take a closer look?
The first kickoff last Saturday was Lee Leffingwell‘s, at his Downtown campaign headwaters. Just north of the constantly clogged intersection of Sixth and Lamar, and an instant pedestrian adventure in traffic-dodging, the location imparts a sense of the rigors of modern urban life. Vitality – reflected in the incessant Twitter updates from TheLeeTeam, among other avenues – is a trope the campaign is earnestly flogging, perhaps out of an instinctive fear that Leffingwell, the elder statesman in the race, appears stodgy or out of touch. That certainly wasn’t an audible consideration for Saturday’s crowd – although a slightly older, more politically attuned group than would gather at Brewster McCracken‘s bash later that day, the crowd at the soiree contained a wide cross section of Austinites. Leffingwell’s speech largely reiterated his official campaign announcement in January. Alluding to the safe, nearly miraculous Hudson River landing of a US Airways airplane several weeks ago, former pilot Leffingwell said similarly experienced steadiness is needed locally, a familiar iteration of the campaign’s theme of paternal steadfastness.
Then Leffingwell launched into his familiar attack on his opponents: “I’m not running for mayor to use that office as a stepping stone for some other office” – a dig at McCracken, as well as recalling Kirk Watson‘s jettisoning the office in 2002 to run for attorney general. “I’m not in this race to satisfy my ego” – aiming both at McCracken and Carole Keeton Strayhorn. “The bottom line is, I’m not in it for myself,” but, as his campaign placards proclaim, “I’m in it for you.”
The Ruby’s barbecue was soon gone and the keg diminished by the small but dedicated set of imbibers. It was a short trip up MoPac to the McCracken event, nestled in the Village Shopping Center, where the neighboring Alamo Drafthouse Cinema underscored the candidate’s campaign commitment to promoting Austin’s entertainment industries. The headquarters – “at the geographic center of Austin,” declared McC, meaning, we think, “demographic” – also sits across the road from the future home of the Northcross Wal-Mart, subliminally engendering the residual Responsible Growth for Northcross anger directed at Leffingwell during the last election.
The turnout for McCracken’s event was somewhat smaller than LL’s, and the attendees included few faces long familiar from local campaigns. Fittingly, the somewhat younger crowd partly symbolized the McCracken campaign priorities; among others, I met a between-jobs game designer, drawn there by McCracken’s zeal for the digital-entertainment industry (and likely to do a little networking). McCracken’s speech was curiously short on the spiraling 21st century rhetoric with which he launched his campaign; instead, it was a rattling of the differences, real or imagined, between him and his fellow contenders: “I don’t want it to be at the end of the day [that we emerge] from the challenges in the current moment, and we say, ‘We survived it, and we’re only a little worse off than we were before.’ We should expect more than that.” In other words, why land in the Hudson if you can touch down somewhere better?
In retrospect, the star of the day wasn’t the candidate but Temo Figueroa, formerly the Obama campaign’s national field director. Figueroa’s taken his show on the road (he’s also staffing a San Antonio campaign) for politicians itching to work some presidential mojo. For a good 20 minutes, he laid out the McCracken campaign as clearly as he comfortably could, aiming for a 52% majority on election day and scrapping the need for a run-off (an optimistic, if unrealistic, assessment shared by Leffingwell). He predicted a 60,000-voter or 13% turnout, numbers that are now being sniffed and sifted by the Austin blogosphere. He then implored the crowd to help in any fashion possible – volunteering to block walk, host McCracken house parties, even call in to local talk radio and comment on political blogs with pro-McCracken sentiments. (The escalating Obama-off between the candidates is rich stuff: Figueroa’s unveiling came after the Leffingwell team hired Obama’s Texas director, J.D. Gins, and enlisted several other Texas Dems; not to be outdone, Figueroa reminded the crowd McCracken was the only candidate to back Obama from the beginning.)
After the speeches and platitudes, a few things became clear: McCracken is doing his best to paint Leffingwell as the candidate of yesterday and himself as the candidate of tomorrow, while Leffingwell’s content that his promise of steadiness – and conversely, McCracken’s unsteadiness – will make a winning message in May. And if there’s much doubt that Austin’s existing political constituencies have lined up behind Leffingwell, then his kickoff should have dispelled these notions. With his high tech talking points, McCracken is hoping to create a new coalition. Can he get it together in time?
For footage from the kickoffs, Hust FM’s analysis, and more, visit austinchronicle.com/hustle.
This article appears in February 13 • 2009.