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Candidates for Austin City Council races in this year's November election raised more than $159,000 and had over $817,000 available as of September.
Five council seats will be on the ballot this fall: East Austin's District 1 and District 3, District 5 in South Austin, Southwest Austin's District 8, and District 9 in Central Austin.
Candidates were required to submit 30th day before election finance report on Oct. 5.
District 1
Northeast Austin's seat, currently filled by Natasha Harper-Madison, has eight candidates running for the seat. Together, candidates have more than $73,000 available to spend as November nears.
District 3
District 3 candidates, encompassing East Austin, have over $100,000 in hand leading up to the election. José Velásquez will be running for his seat again, against four challengers.
District 5
South Austin's District 5 candidates had a total of over $330,800 on hand, according to campaign finance reports. Incumbent Ryan Alter is challenged by three other candidates vying for the seat.
District 8
Southwest Austin's District 8 has only two candidates vying for the seat currently filled by Paige Ellis. In total, candidates Jeffery Bowen and Selena Xie had over $125,000 on hand, according to finance reports.
District 9
Zohaib "Zo" Qadri is running again for his seat representing Central Austin. He is challenged by four other candidates. In total, District 9 candidates have almost $185,000 in hand. Candidate Kai Huang did not submit financial filings.
Also of note
Multiple candidates across Austin’s five City Council races failed to meet deadlines for filing required financial disclosures this year, violations of local and state ethics rules that can be punishable as misdemeanor offenses. Weeks after Austin's SFI and PFS deadlines in late September, some candidates across all five Austin races on the ballot—in council districts 1, 3, 5, 8 and 9—had yet to file their forms, as previously reported by Community Impact.
For more information on candidates, check out Community Impact's questionnaires with candidates for each race here.
Going forward
Election Day is on Nov. 3. Early voting begins Oct. 19 and ends Oct. 30.
Ben Thompson contributed to this report.
