Leffingwell poised to take mayor's seat

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Brewster McCracken has dropped out of the Austin mayoral race, saving the city a costly run-off election, and leaving Lee Leffingwell as the likely mayor-elect of Austin.

Two-term City Councilman Lee Leffingwell won 47 percent of the votes, while McCracken only received 27 percent. Former Austin Mayor and State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn received 21 percent of the vote.

When McCracken withdraws through the proper legal channels, the city clerk would then declare Leffingwell the winner in the election since only the top two candidates receiving votes are eligible for a runoff election, said City Public Information Specialist Nicole Sherbert.

McCracken said moving forward with a runoff election would "...not be in the best interests of Austin."

"It would have required an unprecedented fundraising effort that, in this economy, would have put an additional burden on my supporters," McCracken told his campaign supporters in an e-mail sent Monday morning.

The cost of the election would have been more than $567,000, said Sherbert.

Various Austin political consultants said Monday McCracken would have faced tough opposition from Lee Leffingwell in a runoff election.

Mark Littlefield, who has worked on previous McCracken campaigns, said roughly 60 percent of voters would have turnout in a runoff, mostly in support of Leffingwell, since more established voters tend to come out during a runoff.

Littlefield said McCracken was giving up a dream of holding the mayor's seat, not only for himself, but for Austin residents.

He also said McCracken made some missteps during the campaign, by not aligning himself with the city's well established progressive base, instead focusing on filmmakers, musicians and green energy entrepreneurs.

"He said 'I am not going to win an establishment run of the mill usual city council election, so I'm trying to go outside of the box,'" Littlefield said of McCracken's strategy. "Well, his box collapsed."

Leffingwell, meanwhile, won on a strategy of preserving core city services, and had the backing of many major Austin groups, including all of the public safety unions in town.

He said his first priority would be to work on the 2010 budget. "We have to figure out a budget by October 1st, and there will be significant challenges on how to do that," said Leffingwell.

Leffingwell also said he would most likely withdraw a complaint he filed in municipal court about McCracken's out of town donations.  McCracken's latest campaign finance report noted he raised roughly $9,000 more than the $33,000 allowed from out of town donors under city campaign finance law.

Leffingwell said that put McCracken at an unfair advantage going into a runoff.

"Certainly, if there's some other way to resolve that issue, I want to very seriously consider withdrawing the complaint," said Leffingwell.

McCracken said he would continue in private sector work, hopefully with the Pecan Street Project, he said, a project he spearheaded in his two terms on City Council.

Bill Spelman will take McCracken's seat on the city council in June. Leffingwell will take the oath of office as Austin's 51st Mayor, June 22nd.