Randi Shade unseats incumbent

Mon, May 12th 2008, 08:28

Victory Fund-endorsed candidate Randi Shade won a seat on the Austin City Council on Saturday, soundly defeating incumbent Jennifer Kim with 64 percent of the vote to Kim's 27 percent. A third candidate, Ken Weiss, earned nine percent.

First-time candidate Shade, an 18-year resident of Austin, will be the city council's first openly gay member.

"I'm thrilled," Shade told the Austin American-Statesman. "I knew it would be an uphill battle to run against an incumbent. But we built a broad coalition of support, and I think people are ready for a change."

The campaign between Shade and Kim became increasingly heated in the weeks leading up to the election, with both candidates launching strong offensives. The American-Statesman reports that Shade accused Kim of being ineffective and inaccessible. She also criticized the incumbent for spending money on things like velvet Christmas stockings and for sending misleading automated calls.

"The attacks that the incumbent made against me were surprising, disappointing and in most instances based on fiction," Shade said.