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(Thread) Mackenzie Kelly is on her way to the #AustinCityCouncil. Here is my post-mortem on her defeat of @JimmyFlannigan. Although the outcome was disappointing, it wasn’t surprising to me at all. 1/
#atxcouncil #atx #Austin #AustinTX #AustinTexas #CityCouncil #Runoff
#atxcouncil #atx #Austin #AustinTX #AustinTexas #CityCouncil #Runoff
Unfortunately, the Flannigan campaign failed to make important adjustments after the General Election, and leading up to the runoff. It was clear to me after getting involved with the campaign, that they were hesitant to go on the offensive against Mackenzie because...2/
she is a woman. Yes, but there were legitimate issues about her past that needed to be brought to light so that District 6 voters were aware. Including, her criminal history, her employment lawsuit last year for stealing proprietary information, and many other items. 3/
And because they were unable/unwilling to get this info in the right hands and bring it to light, myself and others were forced to go on the offensive for them, in a effort to expose her. And, although we had some minor successes in doing this, it was too little, too late. 4/
Many media outlets were hesitant to run stories, because they didn’t want to put anything out there that could directly impact the outcome of an election. The lesson here is this: if you have disparaging information about your opponent, you hit hard and you hit early. 5/
I sent a message to Flannigan’s campaign manager right after the General, detailing some easy steps to put him in a better position to win. She couldn’t be bothered to even respond. One of these included improving their social media strategies. 6/
Mackenzie had 4x as many followers and her social media game was a huge factor in her success. There was no effort at all to help close that gap and increase engagement with voters. I also suggested that we get start getting support from the Texas Democrats. 7/
After discovering that the campaign wasn’t in touch with its leadership, I emailed Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa, myself, and asked them to get involved. He responded to me right away and showed a willingness to help. It took an entire week for the campaign to follow up with him.
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And, by the time they did, early voting had already started. There are many other instances like these I could point to. Overall, I just felt that there was a casual, lackadaisical attitude coming from Flannigan‘s campaign leadership, and they seemed unable to grasp...
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the fact that their campaign was in trouble. I am admittedly angry that we didn’t do more, and that is a big factor in me sharing these criticisms. However, I also want people working on future campaigns to take a good look at what happened here...
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as there are a lot of lessons to be learned. Although I wish Mackenzie well, I am not confident at all that she will be an effective leader. I predict that a lot of her personal issues will carry over to the Council. In particular, I expect that she faces some ethics issues...11/
around her payments of over 125k to a “consulting firm” that doesn’t even exist. I have witnessed the best & worst of humanity in this race. I am still shocked by the amount of bigotry displayed by Mackenzie’s supporters, and their inability to recognize...12/
her countless personality flaws. In the age of Trump, however, voters are less concerned about character & qualifications, and are more motivated by anger & hatred. I am proud, though, to have worked with a small group during this process...13/
that always stood up to racism, homophobia, & other forms of bigotry. We must continue to stand up to these people and fight for equality. Thank you. 14/
