Last finance reports before Election Day: what Austin's council candidates raised, spent and have left

Austin's City Council candidates filed their last campaign finance reports before the Nov. 3 election this week. The "8th day before election" reports, posted to the city's document system on Oct. 26 and 27, cover money raised and spent from Sept. 25 through Oct. 24, and the cash each campaign had left going into the final stretch.

The reports matter now because they are the last full look voters get before Election Day. Early voting ends Friday, and more than 325,000 Travis County voters had already cast ballots by Tuesday night, according to the county clerk's unofficial totals. That is 34.26% of registered voters.

District by district

The figures below come from each candidate's sworn cover sheet. "Raised" and "spent" cover the reporting period only. "Cash" is the contributions balance the campaign reported on Oct. 24.

District 1 (open seat). Amber Goodwin raised $23,951, spent $34,890 and had $27,266. Misael Ramos raised $20,497 and spent $16,937, with $13,993 left and a $10,000 outstanding loan. Steven Brown raised $6,786 and had $8,977. Alexandria Anderson raised $2,330 and had $1,465. Michael Nahas reported no new contributions and $6,768 in cash, with $7,262 in loans. Portia Riggins reported $87 raised.

District 3. Incumbent José Velásquez raised $4,306 and spent $47,065, leaving $58,954. Neha Shah raised $2,344 and had $2,528. Gavino Fernandez Jr. reported no new contributions and $9,000 in cash. Eduardo Romero's report shows $16 raised. We did not find an 8-day report for Brock Skinner in the city's system as of Wednesday morning.

District 5. Incumbent Ryan Alter raised $10,702 and spent $68,271, leaving $101,268. David Weinberg raised $7,194 and spent $80,099. He had $98,826 in cash and reported $275,000 in outstanding loans. Liz Brink reported $27 in activity. We did not find an 8-day report for Farrah Abraham.

District 8 (open seat). Selena Xie raised $28,550 and spent $53,377, leaving $106,001, the largest cash balance in the field. Jeffery Bowen raised $27,475 in a period that began Oct. 1, spent $13,599 and had $13,876, with $30,000 in loans.

District 9. Incumbent Zohaib "Zo" Qadri raised $6,891 and spent $112,295, the most spending of any candidate this period. He had $32,305 left. Rich Heyman raised $12,905 and spent $23,714, with $29,511 in cash and a $20,000 loan. Katie Kam raised $8,105 and had $2,006. Dave Thadani reported no contributions and also filed a designation of final report, which under state forms signals a campaign expects no more reportable activity. We did not find an 8-day report for Kai Huang.

Outside committees

Several political committees also filed. Their own cover sheets list the candidates they support or oppose. We report those lists as the committees filed them.

• The Austin Board of Realtors PAC lists support for Velásquez, Alter, Xie, Qadri and Goodwin. It reported $43,468 in spending this period and $764,276 in cash.
• Equity Action lists support for Goodwin, Velásquez, Xie and Qadri, plus the parks and library bonds.
• Austin United PAC lists support for Weinberg, Heyman, Brown, Ramos, Kam, Shah and Bowen, and opposition to Alter, Qadri and Velásquez.
• Restore Leadership ATX lists support for Brown, Bowen and Proposition I.
• Protect and Serve Texas PAC, which mostly backs state House and Denton County candidates, lists opposition to Alter.

Our ballot measure money story covers the committees working on Prop I and the bonds.

What our records add

Committee support is reported here side by side with each incumbent's record, not as an explanation for any vote. Our race guides list how incumbents voted on the year's biggest items: District 3 on Dog's Head, District 5, and District 9. The open-seat guides for District 1 and District 8 profile every candidate. Member pages for Velásquez, Alter and Qadri show their full voting records.

What's next

Early voting runs through Friday, Oct. 30, and Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Polling places are on the Travis County Clerk's site. Reports that arrive after this story will appear in the city's campaign finance documents, and we will update these figures when the missing 8-day reports post.