The Center for Austin’s Future, which bills itself as Austin’s “only elected office candidate recruitment engine,” has announced its 2019 “ATXelerator” recruitment class for aspiring officials. In a press release declaring the students will “start their run[s] for office in January,” CAF Board President José Beceiro described the 26-member incoming class as “people who want to think big and make Austin a model 21st-century, global city.” The class will undergo a retreat/orientation next month, followed by eight weeks of seminars in various policy subject areas, from transportation to social equity. The recruits, who hail from all 10 Council districts – from one in District 5 to seven in District 9 (where ATXelerator grad Danielle Skidmore recently challenged Kathie Tovo) – include many attorneys and techies and activists on a broad ideological span – from Workers Defense organizer Manuel Muñoz (D4) to data scientist/urbanist Dan Keshet (D9) to Ellen Troxclair aide and Prop K backer Michael Searle (also D9). The ATXelerator program concludes with a “pitch-style” competition before an expert panel of judges, plus a public event for nine finalists – the “Center4ATX Games” – this coming spring.
This article appears in December 28 • 2018.
