Austin attorney Sheryl Cole announced Tuesday that she will seek current Mayor Pro Tem Danny Thomas' Place 6 seat on the city council. If elected, Cole will be the first black woman to serve on the Austin City Council.
Cole is the president of the Lee Elementary School Parent Teacher Associa-tion, and she worked on the school bond campaign last year.
Tuesday was the first day council hopefuls could announce their candidacy. Though campaigning won't begin until 2006, current council members, and now Cole, have already made decisions about next May's election.
Place 2 Councilman Raul Alvarez has reached the term limit of two, three-year periods on the council, but said in late October that he will not pursue the required minimum 5 percent of qualified voter signatures, which is necessary in order to run for a third term. Alvarez decided not to seek another term in order to devote more time on citizen issues in East Austin, such as affordable housing.
Councilman Brewster Mc-Cracken, who currently holds the Place 5 spot, is also up for re-election and will run to keep his seat.
Will Wynn will seek another term as Austin's mayor. He will run against Thomas, who has reached the two-term limit as a council member. Thomas, who told Wynn in November 2004 that he planned to run for mayor, stressed that this was the right time for him to run, the right time for a change. He said that running against Wynn was "nothing personal," as he's been planning to seek the mayoral position since 1999.
Thomas said he will run on his "restoring the voice of the people" platform, which he used in his 1999 City Council campaign. He said he will make his official announcement sometime after Thanksgiving.
"I feel I've done a good job and will bring my background to the table," Thomas said. "I've been honest, have served everybody and didn't gravitate towards a particular group of people."
Thomas said that while he has never met Cole, he thinks it's a great idea for her to run for his seat, which has been historically held by black council members. Before Thomas, former councilman Charles Urdy held the seat for five terms.
Cole has already received 200 individual endorsements from various people involved with the environment, business and neighborhoods, said David Butts, one of Cole's campaign consultants.
Butts said the focus for her campaign will involve her financial background as an accountant and how she will try to keep Austin running financially in the black in addition to working on East Austin's disparity of income, housing and quality of life.
"I think she's going to win," Butts said. "She's built the broadest base of support in the community."
He describes Cole as "easy-going, with a good sense of humor and she doesn't take herself too seriously, but holds strong to her convictions."
No one has filed to run against Cole yet. The deadline to file for candidacy is in early March.
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