Estilo Communications

Local Elections Provide Austin Voices

By Marion Sanchez

It’s hard to believe that we are back on the campaign wagon with Austin City Council elections on May 10, 2008. Elections are an exciting time for me. Growing up in Venezuela, we took our campaigns very seriously -with a twist of fun and danger.

I remember driving to downtown Caracas and meeting other supporters of our party making long lines of cars with flags, maracas, and confetti, just to find the opposition party at the end of the road and creating the same chaos only possible in the unplanned urban sprawl of a South American metropolis. Of course music, dancing and name calling was part of the festivity; but we always needed to be careful as the celebrations could become discussions and discussions could end in heated fist-fights.

I come from a family that has always been involved and proud to participate in politics. When my daughter, Vanessa turned 18 this year, having her registered to vote was the first item on our agenda.

Austin also has a very distinct and fun flavor to its celebration of politics, choice, and elections. We host coffees with the candidates, open forums and networking opportunities. One big positive difference between the politics in Caracas and Austin is that in Austin, and probably all over the United States, we the people have many opportunities to meet the candidates up close and personal. This distinction provides us the opportunity to ask specific questions, get a feel of the candidates and make up our own mind based on the information received.

With that in mind I encourage all of you to take the time to learn about the issues, participate in the process and bring others along with you to vote. Politics is a subject that can be close to your heart or as far away as your worst enemy. But in the end, your vote counts. Only when you take action can you make a change.

Here is an easy way to get started: the following is the list of the candidates running for City Council on May 10, 2008:

Place 1

· Lee Leffingwell (incumbent)

· Allen Demling

· Jason Meeker

Place 3

· Jennifer Kim (incumbent)

· Randi Shade

· Ken Weiss

· Trevor Titman

Place 4

Seeking to replace the seat being vacated by Mayor Pro Tem Betty Dunkerley:

· Robin Cravey

· Cid Galindo

· Laura Morrison

· Sam Osemene

For more information logon to http://austin.about.com/od/politics/tp/Austin_City_Council_Race.htm

This entry was posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 9:25 am and is filed under Community Corner, Elections, Newsletter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.