Mayor
Incumbent Mayor Kirk Watson maintained a wide financial gap over his four challengers ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
Watson's donations and spending totals have far outpaced candidates Carmen Llanes Pulido, Jeffery L. Bowen, Doug Greco and Kathie Tovo all year, and that trend continued in the latest campaign finance reporting period covering most of October.
In that time, Watson drew more than $102,000 to his campaign from 332 donors, spent more than $300,000, and reported almost $94,000 remaining as of Oct. 26. Other candidates reported lower totals, had between 29 and 131 donors each, and had about $38,000 on hand between them for the same period.
City ethics complaints were lodged against both Watson and Greco this fall stating they violated local campaign rules that cap the amount of donations candidates can accept from outside city limits. Final hearings over those allegations are now scheduled in mid-November, after the general election.
In a statement, Greco—who filed a lawsuit challenging that city rule this year—said he was disappointed that Austin's Ethics Review Commission didn't hold the hearings in October, and that he's returned thousands of dollars of his donations from outside the city. He also noted he was the lone candidate to sign a city agreement for financial activity that would entitle him to some public campaign funding if he reaches a runoff—taking place in December for any races where no candidate earns at least 50% of the general election vote.
Several political action committees are backing candidates in the election. The Austin Board of Realtors, Austin Leadership and Austin Firefighters Association PACs supported Watson in the last month, and the Austin United PAC supported Llanes Pulido.
District 2
Incumbent council member Vanessa Fuentes reported the only significant financial activity in her race, in which she faces just one challenger.
Fuentes this year raised more than $102,000, spent more than $50,000, and had more than $99,000 on hand as of late October. Candidate Robert Reynolds only reported spending $200 of his own money on his campaign in the last reporting period.
Fuentes was also supported by the ABOR PAC this fall.
District 4
The five-person race for the North Central and East Austin district also saw the incumbent council member keep his financial lead.
Chito Vela outraised his top challenger Monica Guzmán nearly 2-to-1 and outspent her by a wider margin this year, while she drew dozens more individual donors. Vela had more than $30,000 on hand ahead of election day to Guzmán's nearly $2,000.
Candidate Louis Herrin had more financial activity this year and was also below $2,000 on hand as of late October. Candidates Eduardo "Lalito" Romero and Jim Rabuck didn't report on any donations or spending this year.
District 6
The incumbent candidate also held the lead this year in the contested Northwest Austin race between council member Mackenzie Kelly and challenger Krista Laine.
Kelly's 2024 contributions and spending totals nearly doubled Laine's, and Kelly had a late October cash-on-hand advantage of about $37,300 to $24,700. Kelly also attracted about double the number of individual donors over the course of the year.
District 7
The open race to represent portions of North and Northwest Austin saw almost $300,000 spent this year, and two of six candidates held financial leads over their opponents by October.
Civil rights lawyers Gary Bledsoe and Mike Siegel reported the highest donation and spending totals in the race, with Siegel outraising Bledsoe by about $15,000 and outspending him by $12,000. Siegel also had more than $23,000 to Bledsoe's nearly $8,000 remaining a week before the election.
Among other contenders, Adam Powell had less than $2,000 on hand by late October, and Pierre Huy Nguyen, Todd Shaw and Edwin Bautista had less than $200 each.
District 10
In a faceoff to represent portions of West and Central Austin, business owner and consultant Marc Duchen was outpaced by legislative director and former teacher Ashika Ganguly.
Ganguly raised almost $40,000 more than Duchen from double the number of individual donors through 2024, and outspent him by about $25,000. As of late October, Ganguly doubled Duchen's remaining cash on hand with $34,000 to his $17,000.
