Invisible Man Controls The Austin City Council (Houston, Center: how much, lawyers)

[scm53]

Interesting two page ad in today's AAS about political consultant David Butts. I had heard the name before, and understood his role in advising local election candidates. But I guess I wasn't aware of his after election influence in council deliberations and issues. That his candidates, in return for the endorsements and money he channels to them, vote his way. I have no idea if Greg Casar, Leslie Pool, Ed Scruggs, or Mandy Dealey will be just figureheads, not really representing their new geographic districts, but instead, dancing to a single tune. But I also doubt that Karl Rove helped get anyone elected anywhere in the country, and then just shut up until the next paycheck.

Can anybody shed any light on this? Or the organization that ran this ad?

Mod cut: copyrighted material

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by scm53

Interesting two page ad in today's AAS about political consultant David Butts. I had heard the name before, and understood his role in advising local election candidates. But I guess I wasn't aware of his after election influence in council deliberations and issues. That his candidates, in return for the endorsements and money he channels to them, vote his way. I have no idea if Greg Casar, Leslie Pool, Ed Scruggs, or Mandy Dealey will be just figureheads, not really representing their new geographic districts, but instead, dancing to a single tune. But I also doubt that Karl Rove helped get anyone elected anywhere in the country, and then just shut up until the next paycheck.

Can anybody shed any light on this? Or the organization that ran this ad?

It always boils down to follow the money.
Most likely the trail leads to a SuperPac and then you have to start digging all over again.

Plenty of wealthy people (both sides of the political coin) are behind SuperPacs where they can spend their money to gain local influence over the laws. Not everyone is out for national influence.

Butts goes back to the SOS days and is a staunch "Progressive".

[CptnRn]

It seems unlikely that someone that influential in getting people elected, would not have expectations regarding those offices after the elections.

Lots of background on Butts here:

What's Left? - The Texas Observer
While Young has consulted for city and statewide politicians, Butts has remained exclusively local. He has a hand in nearly every council election and seat. As a kingmaker in Austin, Butts employs the same confrontational instincts that made him a street brawler on behalf of Jack Kennedy in 1960. “David is a political operator,” Young says, “that over the last 20, 25 years has elected all of those [Austin City] Councils.” That all councilmembers answer—through channels of election funding and power brokering—to Butts is an oft-repeated local legend. Butts laughs this off and says just because he helps council members get elected doesn’t mean he has control of City Council. Whatever the case, there’s no doubt that, as Young puts it, “David is the establishment.”

I have been wondering why the low voter turn out in Austin, this part suggests a "why" for some of it.

With the gentlemen’s agreement in place, elections in Austin became eminently predictable, and voter turnout cratered.
In 1971, not long before the gentlemen’s agreement was forged, 56.8 percent of registered Austin voters showed up at the polls, according to a 2009 study by Austin Community College’s Center for Public Policy and Political Studies, which Peck Young runs. Turnout then began a steep decline. By 2009, just 13 percent of voters turned out. In 2011, a mere 7.4 percent of eligible Austinites bothered to vote in city elections.

City Elections Are Nonpartisan, Right?

Wow way back in 1997 they were saying:

http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/1997-04-11/527923/
The Backstage Crew
Council Candidates' Consultants Direct the Show
Fri., April 11, 1997
The Dream Team Scheme

Meet Alfred Stanley, Dean Rindy, and David Butts, Austin's premier liberal/Democratic consultants. Over the past 25 years, they've changed the face of Austin politics and the minds of Austin voters. Their influence is now so strong that of the nine councilmembers elected during the last three elections (four years), they lay claim to everyone but Ronney Reynolds, Eric Mitchell, and Max Nofziger. Now they're putting their consultant heads together in hopes of making Kirk Watson their seventh councilmember in the Nineties. That's seventh, as in Seventh Heaven, since the consultant dream team promises that Watson's election will get them one step closer to the environmental consciousness for which they've labored a quarter of a century.

"The political dialogue has steadily moved towards protecting the environment," says the contemplatively calm Butts, Watson's lead campaign consultant. "We've had a growing sentiment in the city that there needs to be substantial change in the way we do business and allow this city to grow."

I have not been able to find anything regarding Ian Marcotte or the Coalition of Austin Neighborhoods, PAC

[Komeht]

So a shadowy PAC unknown to anyone accuses David Butts, whom everyone in town knows, of operating in the shadows... yeah, ok.

[Komeht]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

It seems unlikely that someone that influential in getting people elected, would not have expectations regarding those offices after the elections.

He's a hired gun. He works for money. yeah, he also has a point of view, so doesn't pick Tea-party leaning candidates. Doesn't mean he gets them to vote his way. And looking at the slate of candidates he's working for (also includes Steve Adler and Ora Houston not mentioned in the ad) they're going to disagree on a LOT.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by Komeht

He's a hired gun. He works for money. yeah, he also has a point of view, so doesn't pick Tea-party leaning candidates. Doesn't mean he gets them to vote his way. And looking at the slate of candidates he's working for (also includes Steve Adler and Ora Houston not mentioned in the ad) they're going to disagree on a LOT.

"Doesn't mean he gets them to vote his way."

[petro]

Does that ad come with a tinfoil hat?

[Komeht]

Originally Posted by petro

Does that ad come with a tinfoil hat?

It should come with a healthy dose of skepticism considering the PAC isn't currently registered with COA and won't disclose who they are until well after the election. Shadowy indeed.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

"Doesn't mean he gets them to vote his way."

I'm not concerned about the social or environmental issues. This is, and always has been a liberal city. Besides, there's no money in those issues. But I am concerned about this allegation of the "Big Four Fixers", and their connection to Butts. Obviously, David Armbrust is one of them. How much access does Butts provide on development, incentives, etc - all the things where the money is? Things that businesses pay lawyers and consultants BIG bucks to deliver. No one pays for or against a bag ban. They pay millions to get incentives or variances.

[austin-steve]

The ad seems kind of Black Helicopter to me, though I very much enjoy shows like 24 and HOC and do think that fiction mirrors reality sometimes.

Of course there are influencers, but I doubt any council members are puppets on strings. Most are driven by an ideology. If so, those strings were much easier to pull when winning the central ANC neighborhoods was all that was required to get elected. Now the voter base is a bit more diverse and spread out, and those who are not accountable to those who elected them will expose themselves to every politician's worst nightmare - the possibility of not getting re-elected.

Sidebar: I wonder how many politicians would submit themselves to 1-time water boarding in exchange for guaranteed re-election? I think the percentage would be scary high, which tells us something about what the system does to one's mind.

That said, Austin is no Chicago.