Tovo re-election kickoff Thursday

Kathie Tovo, who represents District 9 on the Council and also serves as mayor pro tem, will officially launch her re-election campaign at El Mercado on Thursday. Volunteers have already been collecting signatures in the various neighborhoods of District 9, but Tovo is hoping to get more signatures and more volunteers at Thursday’s party. Tovo is gathering signatures because she has served two terms, one under the at-large system and one under the current system, and it’s foggy how term limits work in this case. She was not certain whether she needed the signatures because of a difference of opinion about the matter, but she decided last fall to collect the signatures as soon as she could do so, and eliminate any doubt as to her eligibility. She needs to collect signatures of 5 percent of voters in her district. She told the Austin Monitor that she needs “somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,700, but I’m aiming for 5,000” signatures, adding, “We’re hoping to get it done quickly.” Longtime campaign consultant David Butts and media specialist Dean Rindy are assisting with the campaign, Tovo said. So far, no one has announced intentions to run against Tovo, who is popular with the neighborhood activists and environmentalists. She defeated incumbent Randi Shade for her at-large seat in 2011, and then ran against and defeated a fellow Council member, Chris Riley who withdrew from the runoff, in the first district race in 2014.

This whisper has been edited to clarify that Riley withdrew from the Council election.