Is it the fickleness of an election season, or are more people taking a genuine interest in county government? It’s always hard to tell this time of year, but in the past few months the county commissioners have captured more than their usual, meager share of media attention. There were the controversial road bonds, the pay raises, the deluge of sewage from the problem-plagued criminal justice center … and the debate over banning wild animals as pets even landed a spot in The New York Times.
This election cycle has four commissioners’ seats up for grabs. While three Democratic incumbents — County Judge Sam Biscoe and Pct. 2 and 4 commissioners Karen Sonleitner and Margaret Gomez — are seeking re-election, Pct. 3 commissioner Todd Baxter recently resigned to seek the GOP nomination for House District 48. (His interim successor was expected to be named by the time this issue hits the streets.) The trio of Dems will each face primary opposition, but only Sonleitner is expected to draw formidable competition.
Jeff Heckler filed Wendesday as a Democratic challenger, and Brigid Shea is also considering running for Sonleitner’s post in Pct. 2, which underwent a personality change in the county’s latest redistricting plan with the addition of liberal voting boxes. The new boundaries are a dream-come-true for progressives who would prefer to see someone of their own ilk sitting at the dais instead of the (some would say road-happy) incumbent. In its new form, the precinct covers a wider central city area and loses the more conservative northwest sector, while maintaining other parts of its old self in the north and northeast.
As a two-term commissioner seeking a third term, Sonleitner has drawn opposition in previous primaries, but none had the progressive credentials or fundraising experience of Heckler and Shea. Heckler, who owns a PR firm, worked on campaign-finance reform issues, was a paid consultant in the earlier battles against the Longhorn Pipeline project and is active in county and state Democratic politics. He and Shea consider themselves friends and worked together to oppose the pipeline. Shea has the better name identification, first as a founder and leader of the Save Our Springs Alliance, followed by a term on the Austin City Council. She now runs her own consulting firm and in September moved from her Rainey Street neighborhood (near the Convention Center) to the Allandale subdivision of North Central Austin. As a Rainey resident, Shea actively supported developers’ efforts to purchase and relocate a number of single-family homes in order to transform the area into a retail district. The deal eventually fell apart and the houses stayed put.
Sonleitner and her supporters wonder aloud why a pair of city-oriented activists would suddenly take an interest in county government. “Jeff Heckler has never once contacted me to talk about issues that he was hot and heavy about,” said Sonleitner. She and Shea plan to meet this week, she adds. “I look forward to hearing what she’s thinking about.” Shea says she’s thinking about a lot of things — tax equity issues, the “inexcusable” problems haunting the justice center, and the pay raises commissioners gave themselves. “I think they need to roll their salaries back, particularly at a time when people are losing jobs,” Shea said of the commissioners’ $73,915 annual salary. For the record, Sonleitner and Gomez voted for the salary increase but declined to accept the raise. Sonleitner says she has made the same amount — $68,981 per year — since 1996.
With Shea still weighing her options (she has until Jan. 2 to file), Heckler says he’s already invested too much time and money to pull out now. He has retained Mike Blizzard and Richard Fawal of Grassroots Solutions to work on his campaign. If he and Shea both run, Heckler observed, “It would give the notion that change needs to happen that much more credibility. Neither one of us is shy about mixing it up, and we’re not embarrassed to lay out our beliefs for all to see.”
Aside from the Pct. 2 dynamics, Biscoe and Gomez are poised for easy re-election bids. Little-known deputy constable Richard Theodore McCain will oppose Biscoe in the Democratic County Judge primary, and Mike Hanson, a regular at county commissioners meetings, has filed to run as a Republican for Gomez’s Pct. 4 seat.
In Pct. 3, 31 would-be Baxter replacements have applied to serve out the remainder of the commissioner’s term — and perhaps claim the luxury of running as an incumbent in 2002. Biscoe, who will appoint Baxter’s successor, spent Monday interviewing a short list of about 10 candidates. One safe short-list bet would be former commissioner Margaret Moore, who has returned to the court once before in an interim capacity and would likely be willing to make a return engagement. Other applicants seeking the appointment (although it was uncertain earlier this week which ones were short-listed) include Justice of the Peace Scott Davis, landowner/environmentalist Ira Yates, lawyer and former city Planning Commissioner Robin Cravey, former State Board of Education candidate Donna Howard, Austin attorney Mina Brees, and anti-rail activist Gerald Daugherty, who has also already filed as a Republican candidate for the seat.
This article appears in December 21 • 2001.
