(March 4, 2020, latest update 8:00 p.m.) -- With a potential large number of provisional and late arriving (mailed by March 3) vote by mail ballots not yet counted:
AL AUSTIN II 1,653 35.56% As previously reported in LBREPORT.com's "Follow the Money" coverage, independent expenditure committees backed by organized labor spent large sums to support Thrash-Ntuk in the 8th distr (and Saro in the 6th.) Andrews and Austin angered those organized labor interests by declining to enact "Claudia's Law" that supported union efforts to organize LB hotel room workers. A separate independent expenditure committee surfaced (backed by development, business and other corporate interests) supported re-electing incumbents Andrews and Austin. Reform Ticket Ovalle had no independent expenditure committee support, relied on mainly grassroots contributions and city matching funds and had the endorsementrs of former 8th dist. Councilmembers Rae Gabelich and Jeff Kellogg. Measure A (which the Mayor/Council placed on the ballot to continue without specified end date the 2016 sales tax that Mayor/Council specified said would be temporary) is narrowly failing but within 29 votes of passing. NO 27,133 50.03% [Scroll down for further.] |
The Mayor Garcia-run pro-Measure A campaign, funded mainly by LB's police and firefighter unions, raised over $500,000 and by late February had dpeloyed roughly 80% of it aginst individual taxpayers with no organized opposition campaign who say they spent less than $1,000 on lawn signs and distributed some hand-delivered fliers and made social network comments. Reform Ticket candidates Fox and Ovalle both opposed Measure A; Allen, Austin, Thrash-Ntuk, Saro and Andrews supported it.
2nd district Reform Ticket candidate Roberr Fox (17.58%) and Cindy Allen (27.60%) are currently within one vote of each other, assured places in a November 2020 runoff. Out of the running are Dr. Eduardo Lara (endorsed by incumbent Jeannine Pearce) who moved into third place (18,87%) with Jeanette Barrera (18.36%) in 4th place. In the 6th district with no Reform Ticket candidate on the ballot, organized-labor backed challenger Suely Saro is headed for a November 2020 runoff finishing first in March (43.99%) well ahead of of Mayor/police-firefighter union backed incumbent Dee Andrews (29.88%).
If Measure A ultimately fails, it will be a major political defeat for Garcia's messaging and monied campaign formatics against virtually no organized or competitively funded opposition. It could also focus attention on current Mayor/Council spending practices in the upcoming Council runoffs (which will follow Aug-Sept. 2020 discussion of City Hall's FY21 budget.) Also a wild card not discussed publicly: the Mayor/Council could vote put another ballot measure on the November 2020 ballot. The current 2016 version of Measure A requires its reduction by half in 2023 and elimination in November 2020. In the March 2020 election cycle, Reform Ticket candidates Fox and Ovalle opposed Measure A; candidates Allen, Austin, Saro and Andrews supported it.. Voters approved a Mayor/Council sought Measure B General Fund hotel room tax increase.
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