Council Member Ann Kitchen hasn’t drawn any competition in the upcoming election, and it’s safe to say the folks behind the most recent effort to dethrone the District 5 CM won’t be mounting any new ones. In late June, Joe Basel, who helped found the Austin4All PAC in January of 2016 to recall Kitchen – because she “purposely hurt businesses that employ citizens of Austin” (i.e., opposed the unregulated local operation of transportation network companies) – was fined $1,900 by the Texas Ethics Commission for operating as a political action committee (taking contributions and making expenditures in excess of $500) without having filed a campaign treasurer appointment with the city. Basel founded the PAC with Rachel Kania and Tori Moreland, neither of whom were fined. All three are known right-wing operatives, Basel perhaps best. His American Phoenix Foundation has a history of planting hidden cameras around liberal politicos in hopes of exposing “political hypocrisy.”
This article appears in July 20 • 2018.