Daily Archives: 05/19/2011

(Community Matters) Randi held a press conference today explaining her reasons for staying the race.

Why I think her reelection is critical: (and disclaimer, I don’t know Kathy Tovo. I hear she’s a nice woman; I believe that’s true. She’s a long time community volunteer/leader who has given much time & treasure to our city. So, in no way is this personal. It’s philosophical.) Among her closest supporters is an elite group of city hall insiders who believe they know better than the rest of us. We dealt with a couple of these leaders in our neighborhood association. Their default position was to oppose home owners’ requests and variances for their properties – instead of listening and understanding whether or not the proposal maintained or eroded the character of our neighborhood. They even default objected to VMU status for commercial properties on Guadalupe. They sought to impose historical zoning on neighbors’ homes against the home owners’ wishes, even against the wishes of almost every other neighbor in our subdivision. And, they have a sizable number of supporters on the zoning, planning and historical commissions who believe it is good policy to rule against homeowners and other neighbors and in favor of the vision of an elite few – sorta a neighborhood association model without neighborliness.

Some among Kathy’s closest supporters are outright against growth (don’t mind being on the record against growth) – either not understanding or caring that this means fewer jobs for Austinites now and in the future.  Many believe small businesses should be required to pay a minimum of $16/hour to employees (hey, who doesn’t wish they could?). I want our city leaders to prioritize new jobs, maintain Austin’s unique local character, prioritize building infrastructure for the city’s future, to protect our environment and to realize most of us want more – not less – fire, EMS and police protection.   I suppose some voters will be surprised to learn Randi is also a neighborhood & social activist – has been since way before running for city council; she’s always cared about neighborhoods, social services, affordability, schools and economic development. These objectives aren’t mutually exclusive, though admittedly finding the balance is hard, an inexact science.  AND . . . many of these Tovo supporters I write about are acquaintances of mine, some are good friends. I know their intentions are honorable; I just believe parts of their vision for Austin and some of how they propose to achieve it are wrong for our city and will result in a decreased quality of life for too many Austinities – probably not for them, probably not for me & Steven, but that’s not who I worry about in these elections.

Randi made the following remarks today at City Hall:

I’m extremely gratified to be joined by so many good friends and supporters. The last few days have been more exciting and more energizing than any time during this entire campaign – or even during my first campaign, three years ago.

I’ve literally been inundated with hundreds of phone calls and emails since Saturday from people urging me to stay in this race.

This is not about personalities, it’s about priorities.

I want to say that again, because it’s important: This is not about personalities, it’s about priorities.

Specifically, it’s about the enormous differences between me and my opponent when it comes to some big decisions that are critical to Austin’s future.

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(Community Matters) David Plouffe is one of the most engaging and confidence building men I know. He’s also one of those brilliant guys from whom you can feel and hear the hard drive and mother board in overdrive.

from Mike Allen’s Playbook: TWITTER AS THE NEW DIAL GROUP — TIME magazine “White House Memo: To spread the Gospel of Barack, the White House doubles down on social media — He’s back: Plouffe … is looking for new ways to pierce the media clutter,” by Michael Scherer: “When Barack Obama traveled to Texas this month to talk immigration, David Plouffe, his top message guru, decided to stay home and watch Twitter instead. While Obama spoke, Plouffe sat before two flat-screen televisions in the White House complex. One showed live footage of Obama in El Paso. The other flickered with a lightning-quick vertical ticker tape of people tweeting with the #immigration hashtag, reacting line by line to the President in real time. ‘I find it useful,’ Plouffe says, ‘to see what’s penetrating.’

“When Obama went off script to joke that Republicans would soon demand a border moat filled with alligators, a blur of Twitter messages showed people sending the quote to friends and followers, signaling a messaging victory of sorts. ‘It’s kind of the next evolution,’ Plouffe explains. ‘Remember back in 2008, you’d have the presidential debate, and then most of the networks would have some sort of dial going up and down. That seems very Jurassic Park-like compared to this.’ … Plouffe, who served as Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, is an engineer, more interested in data, numbers and quantifiable metrics than in storytelling. He uses the word cume as a verb – meaning ‘to build up a cumulative audience’ – and describes other people as ‘influence hubs.'” http://ti.me/jrh9O5