Texans for Accountable Government held a City Council Candidates Forum earlier this week that was attended by over 75 accountability activists. The upcoming election, taking place on November 4th, is the first to take place since Austin voters elected to have single member districts with elections in November. Whether the single member districts or November election makes for a more liberty-leaning council remains to be seen.
In this two part series, I’ll share with you some interesting tid-bits from the forum and we’ll look at some the of the issues and backgrounds of some of the more liberty leaning candidates.
One of the candidates present, who is no stranger to politics, was Don Zimmerman who is running in District 6. Zimmerman is well known in the local liberty community for his role in organizing during the Ron Paul 2008 campaign. At the forum, Don touted his experience as a taxpayers advocate, as he shared his role in a recent legal battle between a the Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District, of which Don was the President and the City of Austin. A dispute which ended up going all the way to the State Supreme Court.
“They elected me, engineer of no charm, and we started a lawsuit against them”, Don told the crowd, “and after fighting them for 7 years, we actually beat the City of Austin on an illegal taxation issue, and we abolished a property tax that was worth around 18 million dollars.”
Don’s hoping his image as the “taxpayer’s best friend” will earn him a seat at the City Council Dais. More information about Don’s campaign can be found at DonZimmerman.org.
Kent Phillips, a liberty candidate running in District 3, also addressed the crowd. Kent is an activist who previously ran as a Libertarian against Democratic Senator Kirk Watson. Kent’s biggest issues are corporate protectionism, police accountability, traffic, and gentrification. At the forum, he touched upon a police department reform that seemed to resonate nicely with the audience. “I would go so far as to say we need to start putting cameras on the police officers collars”, Kent said excitedly, “so we could always see what they are doing.”
Kent is hoping to unite independent, libertarian, and conservative voters to compete against the stronghold the Democratic Party has had on local politics in Austin. More information about Kent’s campaign can be found at VoteKentPhillips.com
Be sure to tune in to tomorrow’s edition of the Liberty Beat as we bring you information on Michael Cargill in District 1 and Dr. Laura Pressley in District 4.