With 52.08 percent of the vote and only 20 precincts outstanding, incumbent Mayor Lee Leffingwell has declared victory.
Mayor Leffingwell just finished delivering a speech to supporters at Scholz Garten, where incumbent Austin City Council member Mike Martinez also recently celebrated success.
Leffingwell came out on top of his two challengers – former city council member Brigid Shea and community activist Clay Dafoe. Leffingwell has narrowly avoided a runoff, coming in with about 52 percent of the vote.
After thanking his supporters and volunteers, Leffingwell thanked his opponent Shea, for her candidacy and raising several issues on the campaign trail. "Our city hall will always be a place where everyone's voice can be heard," he said.
Leffingwell told the crowd at his victory party that he would continue to make job creation a priority for the city.
“From the very beginning, I said that my goal and my team’s goal is to leave Austin a better place than we found it," he said. "We’re going to continue to be focused on that goal, on that general goal in the years ahead,” adding "we're going to create thousands more in the next three years."
Some other highlights:
- On transportation, he noted "we'll put urban rail to a vote, when its right."
- "We will change our city government to allow for geographic representation," Leffingwell said. "And we will move our city elections from May to November."
- And in a possible allusion to Shea's attacks on the city's dealing with Formula 1 racing, Leffingwell promised "we will welcome Formula 1 to Austin, and the enormous positive impact it will have on our city."
