A few more PACs emerge in final days

Right after publishing my last article on Tuesday, a few more PACs filed reports showing major spending in City Council races. Both are funded entirely by a handful of large donors.

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First is Restore Leadership ATX, a group run by Ellen Wood, founder of vcfo. In the past two weeks the group has dropped $100,000 on advertising in support of two candidates with conservative credentials: Steven Brown in District 1 and Jeffery Bowen in District 8.

Restore raised the money from a few people. In addition to $10k from vcfo, the group received $25k from private equity mogul Philip Canfield, $25k from Circuit of the Americas boss Bobby Epstein, $25k from tech entrepreneur Neil Webber; $10k from Stacy Hock, an investor and prolific conservative donor; $8k from angel investor Rocky Mountain.

Then there's the Better Austin PAC, which has raised $140,000 and spent $110,000 in the past couple weeks in support of three candidates Zo Qadri in District 9, José Velásquez in District 3 and Ryan Alter in District 5.

Better Austin is funded almost entirely by the family of Rajan Moonesinghe, a tech entrepreneur killed four years ago by an APD officer while patrolling his front porch with an assault rifle, apparently convinced there was an intruder in his home. Since his death, his parents and brothers have been mounting an aggressive multi-front campaign to hold APD accountable and demand reforms to training.

What's curious about Better Austin PAC is that, in addition to the $139,000 it raised from a handful of members of the Moonesinghe family, it also received $1,500 from the Austin Hotel & Lodging Association (not to be confused with the Texas Hotel & Lodging Association).

Earlier in the election cycle there was talk of the Moonesinghes using their substantial wealth to support challengers who would push for meaningful reform at APD, which by most accounts emerged from the post-George Floyd "Reimagining of Public Safety" exercise without meaningful changes to its training or policies on use of force.

I'm surprised not to see any spending from this PAC in District 1, perhaps on behalf of Amber Goodwin, who worked as an assistant district attorney for DA Jose Garza and is a longtime advocate for violence prevention programs.

Equity Action, the police reform group, also reported spending $32k this month. Its filing lists support for three candidates: Selena Xie, Qadri, Velasquez. They're also supporting the parks and libraries bonds and two proposed charter amendments, one to move all initiative elections to even-numbered November elections and another that would give City Council the power to appoint the city attorney.

We'll see if Council rediscovers an interest in pushing for police reforms. After being forced to retreat from the 2020 "defunding" exercise, city leaders have been very hesitant to challenge the police. Council did remain nearly united in holding out for key oversight measures in the 2024 police contract, although they paid dearly for it with budget-busting pay raises.

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