Tough runoff fight ahead for Shade

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Austin City Council Member Randi Shade is facing an uphill battle when it comes to keeping her job.

On Saturday, Shade received just 33 percent of the vote while her opponent, Kathie Tovo , gathered 46 percent of the vote.

“Her chances are very difficult,” said political consultant Jeff Crosby. “She has somewhat of a better chance than a snowball in hell, but not much more.”

Before Crosby started helping candidates for state office, he spent decades consulting hopefuls for the Austin City Council.

“She has got to change this race completely around. She has either got to unearth something people don’t know about Tovo that is really damaging or Tovo is going to have to make a mistake,” Crosby said.

On Saturday Tovo was just a few percentage points shy of unseating the incumbent. Now she says she’ll spend the next five weeks trying to get new supporters to the polls for the June 18 runoff.

“We are going to knock on twice as many doors and try and recruit twice as many volunteers to make twice as many phone calls,” Tovo said.

Turnout for the run off election is expected to be a small fraction of Austin’s registered voters.

On Saturday 32,000 voters cast a ballot. That figure represents a little more than 7 percent of Austin’s 444,000 registered voters.

Historically, fewer vote in runoffs. City Hall insiders expect turnout for the runoff to be about 5 percent.

The cost of the runoff for taxpayers according to the city, $528,400, or $24 per expected vote.

“It certainly will cost the taxpayers a lot more than many of them would want to spend on a runoff election,” Tovo said. She went on to say that in the end, the decision should be Shades' decision an no one elses. 

Shade was unavailable for an interview on Monday saying that she had back-to-back meetings all day.

Sources said it's more than likely that Shade did not want to give interviews because she is still trying to determine if she wants to proceed with the runoff.

“She’s got to look into her heart and say, 'Do I really want to fight for this? Do I really, really want to go and throw myself at this for the next few weeks?'” Crosby said.

Next Tuesday, the City Council will canvas the votes, which basically makes them official. Shade must make a decision whether she’ll stay in the runoff by then.