City races in presidential election years: Pros & Cons
Do we want the mayor on the presidential ballot?
Yesterday I went to the South Austin Rec Center and talked to about two dozen voters about city politics. I'm hoping to do more interviews in the next couple days. It's far from scientific –– it's just good to get a vague sense of what, if anything, the normies who are coming out to vote for Kamala or Trump think about City Hall.
Most of them think very little about City Hall. It's very rare to meet a young person (and I'm using young generously) who has well-formed opinions about City Council or the mayor. And, as far as I can tell, even middle aged people are far less likely than seniors to be plugged into local government, which I fear might be due to media consumption habits (older people still watch the local TV news and read the Statesman).
Very few people I talked to had heard about the recently-approved police contract or were familiar with the ongoing debate over zoning and land use regulations. Some had not voted in the mayor's race and others had but could barely remember who they voted for only minutes before.
