BG Reads 7.22.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - July 22, 2024

July 22, 2024

Bingham Group Reads

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July 22, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 Council OKs 13 proposed charter amendments for November ballot (Austin Monitor)

🟣 In purple Williamson County, presidential politics casts pall over voters (Texas Tribune)

🟣 Biden’s reelection exit gives unusual power to Texas’ 273 delegates. (Texas Tribune)

🟣 Harris gets the chance to press reset on the 2024 race against Trump (Associated Press)

Read On!

[BINGHAM GROUP]

🟣 Bingham Group has renewed its MBE and DBE certifications with the city of Austin. We are currently seeking sub-consultant services to support projects in the Austin Metro. Learn more here.

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

Tomorrow, July 23, the City of Austin will host a meet-and-greet for the two finalists to be the city’s next police chief:

  • Lisa Davis, Assistant Police Chief, Cincinnati Police Department

  • Jefferey B. Norman, Chief of Police, Milwaukee Police Department

Where: Palmer Events Center

When: 6PM to 8PM (doors at 5:30PM)

A selection by City Manager T.C. Broadnax is expected by this Friday.

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Council OKs 13 proposed charter amendments for November ballot (Austin Monitor)

Voters will decide on 13 potential amendments to the city charter in November, with two of the most significant potential changes affecting the number of signatures needed to recall a City Council member, and requiring elections for citizen-led ballot initiatives and charter amendments to take place in large even-numbered election years.

At Thursday’s meeting, Council considered 15 total possible charter amendments, with a high-profile measure that would have increased the number of signatures required to put a referendum on the ballot failing due to lack of a motion.

The amendments, which were named in a way to not have another Proposition A or B in front of voters again, would seek to do the following… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

In purple Williamson County, presidential politics casts pall over voters (Texas Tribune)

In 2018, Williamson County voted for Democrat Beto O’Rourke over Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in one of the closest statewide elections in the last 25 years. The county also swung narrowly for Biden over Trump in 2020.

Democrats are hoping those trends continue and help carry Biden into a second four-year term but they acknowledge that there is tremendous division within the party at a time when the president is under tremendous pressure to withdraw as the party’s presidential nominee . They argue that this election is an existential battle for democracy and that reproductive rights and the fate of a multicultural society is on the line.

But Republicans note that Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, won Williamson County over O’Rourke in 2022 in a reversal of that trend. They say four years of Biden have damaged the working and middle classes as well as the United States’ reputation on the world stage. They hope to ride discontent over inflation, gas prices and immigration into GOP victories up and down the ballot. And in the wake of a historic assassination attempt on Trump’s life, they are seeing renewed loyalty and enthusiasm to their party leader... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Biden’s reelection exit gives unusual power to Texas’ 273 delegates. (Texas Tribune)

President Joe Biden’s decision to drop his reelection bid Sunday threw his party’s nominating process into immediate chaos and suddenly focused the nation’s attention on the little-known group of delegates who could decide his replacement at next month’s Democratic convention.

It is unfamiliar territory for the 273 delegates Texas is sending to Chicago for the August convention. The group, a mix of rank-and-file activists and elected party leaders, has traditionally served as a rubber stamp for whomever Democratic primary voters choose to be their nominee… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

What happens next to Sheila Jackson Lee's seat in Congress? (Houston Chronicle)

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, one of the longest-serving members in Congress and an icon of Houston politics, died Friday. Jackson Lee was up for re-election in November. After handily clinching the Democratic nomination over former Houston City Councilor Amanda Edwards, she was widely expected to win another term representing the deep blue district that includes part of Central Houston and vast portions of northwest and northeast Harris County. Lana Centonze is running as the Republican.

What happens to her spot on the November ballot? Under state law, the Harris County Democratic Party’s executive committee will have until Aug. 26 to nominate a candidate to run in the Nov. 5 general election. If the committee does not choose a candidate in time, then the Texas Democratic Party would have two days, or until Aug. 28, to make the choice.

Gov. Greg Abbott has the authority to call a special election to fill the vacancy through the remainder of Jackson Lee’s two-year term, which is up in January. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Once Abbott calls a special election, the law requires him to schedule it within about two months if it will be held as an emergency election.

State law does not set a deadline for Abbott to make the initial announcement. In 2021, when U.S. Rep. Ron Wright, a North Texas Republican, died of COVID-19, Abbott called a special election to fill the seat within about a month. The special election was held about two months later. It’s unclear when, or whether, Abbott will call a special election to fill Jackson Lee’s seat, because by the time it is conducted, there would only be a few months before the term expires… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Republican former state Rep. Jim Pitts has died at 77 (Texas Tribune)

Former state Rep. Jim Pitts, a Waxahachie Republican who served as chief budget writer for the Texas House for close to a decade, died shortly before midnight on Saturday. He was 77.

Pitts died at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas surrounded by his loved ones, according to a Sunday statement. Details regarding memorial services have not yet been announced.

The Republican lawmaker represented House District 10, which included Ellis County, Hill County and part of Henderson County, from 1993 to 2015. He was chair of the Appropriations Committee for the majority of his last decade in office.

“Representative Pitts was known for his commitment to education, fiscal responsibility, and advocating for the needs of his constituents,” a statement from the family read.

“Beyond his legislative achievements, Jim Pitts was a beloved father, grandfather, brother, uncle, and friend."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

Harris gets the chance to press reset on the 2024 race against Trump (Associated Press)

For the past year, the presidential campaign seemed destined to be a monotonous slog featuring two candidates, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, that voters didn’t really want.

But that all changed on a quiet Sunday afternoon just 107 days before the election.

Biden’s decision to drop out of the race and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor resets the campaign with a swiftness that is unparalleled in modern American politics.

Once a contest between two elderly white men, the election will likely force Trump to contend with the much younger Harris, who was consolidating support among Democrats and would be the first woman of color atop a major party’s ticket.

“It shakes things up entirely,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a former adviser to President Barack Obama. “It turns everything on its head.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

As new tech threatens jobs, Silicon Valley promotes no-strings cash aid (NPR)

The rise of artificial intelligence has stoked fears that such technological advances will wipe out millions of jobs. Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have thought about that too, and they've long pushed an idea to soften the blow: cash aid from the government, no strings attached.

Now, the first results are out from the latest and largest study on the impacts of free money — research spearheaded by the man behind ChatGPT.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, offered to fund an experiment on what's termed basic income back in 2016. In a blog post that year, he said some kind of national payments would likely be needed as technology killed more jobs even as it generated massive wealth for others. So, he said, it would be good to study what might happen if people got regular paychecks from the government… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[2024 Austin City Council Race Watch]

This fall will see elections for the following Council Districts 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, and Mayor.

Declared candidates so far are:

Mayor

District 2

District 4

District 6

District 7 (Open seat)

District 10 (Open seat)

_________________________

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