#NEWS // BG Reads | November 9, 2022
[AUSTIN METRO]
Israel and Watson will head to December runoff in the race to elect Austin’s next mayor (KUT)
More than half of Austin voters could not agree on one candidate to be the city’s next mayor Tuesday night, so voters will return to the polls in a month to determine the ultimate winner.
With some election day results still rolling in around 11 p.m., Celia Israel had 40 percent of the vote and Kirk Watson had received 35 percent. Because both are just shy of the more than 50 percent of the votes a candidate needs to secure office, the two will likely face off in a runoff election on Dec. 13…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Ellis and Harper-Madison easily win reelection to Council (Austin Monitor)
In some of the least-surprising news Tuesday night had to offer, City Council incumbents Natasha Harper-Madison and Paige Ellis both held on to their seats in decisive victories over their opponents.?
In District 1, Harper-Madison, who has served on Council since 2019 and was mayor pro tem in 2021, ended the night with almost 54 percent?of the total vote. Opponent Misael D. Ramos earned about 25 percent and?Clinton Rarey?and Melonie House-Dixon each won just over 10 percent of the total vote.
A similar story played out in District 8. Ellis, who will be starting her second term on Council in January, declared victory after early voting showed her with just over 60 percent of the votes cast. (That number later settled out to be just over 58 percent.)…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Guerrero and Qadri set for runoff in District 9 (Austin Monitor)
With six candidates on the ballot and the incumbent term-limited, the District 9 City Council race fulfilled its promise Tuesday night as one of the most competitive contests on the ballot. None of the candidates cleared the 50 percent threshold needed, so progressive political professional Zo Qadri and longtime educator and environmentalist Linda Guerrero will face off in the runoff.
Qadri came in first after the votes were tallied, with 29.9 percent. The Pakistani immigrant who moved to Texas at age 12 would be the first South Asian and Muslim elected to Austin City Council. Qadri ran his campaign on transit and increasing the city’s housing supply through relaxed zoning regulations.
“I think that speaks to the investments we made in the field,” Qadri told the Austin Monitor Tuesday night. “I think that speaks to the investments we made in every community – whether homeowner, renter, longtime Austinite, freshman at UT – and making sure that every single person in this district felt part of this campaign and felt part of this city.”…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
District 3 Council race headed to a runoff (Austin Monitor)
José Velásquez and Daniela Silva are poised to go head-to-head in a runoff after election results Tuesday night show the two candidates garnered the most votes for the District 3 City Council member seat. Velásquez received 7,650 votes for 36.43 percent of the vote, while Silva trailed just behind with 7,228 votes for 34.42 percent.?
Velásquez and Silva stood out in a crowded race of six candidates to replace Council Member Pio Renteria, emphasizing progressive values to voters…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Bazan, Alter set for runoff in District 5 (Austin Monitor)
Six candidates lined up this year to take the seat held by retiring City Council Member Ann Kitchen, who has served District 5 since 2015. When the votes were counted on Tuesday, the two candidates whose campaigns emphasize streamlining development regulations, including compatibility standards to speed up building new housing, remained in the ring.
Stephanie Bazan and Ryan Alter will face off in the Dec. 13 runoff for the South Austin seat. Bazan led with more than 29 percent of the vote, followed by Alter, who had more than 24 percent of that same vote. In third place was Ken Craig, Kitchen’s longtime aide, who had about 19 percent of the vote…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
The Boring Company won't tunnel in Kyle after all (Austin Business Journal)
The Boring Company will not dig a pedestrian tunnel in the Hays County city of Kyle after all.
That's according to the San Antonio Express-News, which?reported Nov. 4 ?that the city was not moving forward with the plan to dig under railroad tracks next to the Plum Creek subdivision. A city spokesperson confirmed the news and Kyle City Council member told the Express-News that the tracks' owners, Union Pacific, did not want to dig beneath them.
When the Council?in May approved ?spending $50,000 on pre-engineering services to study the tunnel, it was a major milestone — the first public example of local work by?Elon Musk 's tunneling startup.
领英推荐
The tunnel was supposed to connect Plum Creek with the $90 million, 39-acre second phase of the Kyle Crossing retail hub…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Greg Abbott reelected Texas governor, defeating Beto O’Rourke (Texas Tribune)
Greg Abbott ?decisively won a third term as governor of Texas on Tuesday, defeating Democratic challenger?Beto O’Rourke ?after a tumultuous few years marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, a deadly power grid failure, new restrictions on voting rights and abortion and the Uvalde school shooting…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Republicans poised to narrowly increase majorities in Texas Legislature (Texas Tribune)
Republicans were poised to narrowly expand their legislative majorities in both the House and Senate early Wednesday morning, though they fell short of taking some seats they targeted in this year’s midterm election.
The Republicans’ leads were being felt prominently in South Texas, where the GOP won key races after targeting the historically Democratic region of Texas after Democratic President Joe Biden underperformed there in 2020.
Several of the races had not been called by Decision Desk HQ early Wednesday morning…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Maxwell Frost elected as the first Gen Z member of Congress (NPR)
Democrat Maxwell Frost has won in Florida's 10th Congressional District, according to a race call by the Associated Press, making him the first member of?Generation Z ?elected to serve in the U.S. Congress.
The 25-year-old's victory marks a?pivotal moment for progressive activists ?who came of voting age over the last decade and found their political voice in response to divisive issues including gun violence…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[HEARINGS AND MEETINGS]
TODAY
THURSDAY
[BG PODCAST]
Today's episode (169) features Larry Smith, Chairman of Austin-based Tokyo Electron US Holdings Inc.
Part of an ongoing series on the CHIPS and Science Act passed in August, Larry and Bingham Group CEO A.J. discuss its impact on the Austin and Central Texas.
The bipartisan bill includes more than $50 billion in incentives for manufacturers of semiconductors, or chips, to build domestic semiconductor plants.