Cavazos: 'I'm Not Going to Disappear'

Perla Cavazos talks to supporters at the Old Alligator Grill. (photo by Lee Nichols)

Austin City Council Place 1 candidate Perla Cavazos isn't quite ready to throw in the towel, but she understands what a 2-1 deficit to Chris Riley in early voting means. (And as of this writing at 9:12pm, with 32% of Election Day boxes reporting, the gap hasn't closed much.)

"Well, there's always hope to be had," Cavazos said at her party at South Austin's Old Alligator Grill, "but I'm really proud of the campaign that we ran. We did the best that we could with the resources that we had. I'm proud that we kept it positive, and I'm proud that Chris and his campaign kept it positive too, and I think the voters appreciate that."

Cavazos said she wasn't ready yet to ascertain what went wrong for a campaign that was clearly a serious one. She also wasn't prepared to cast any stones toward a city that had a chance to elect its first ever Latina to City Council but chose not to.

"I happen to be Hispanic and a woman and am very proud to be active in the Latino community, but I was running based on my qualifications and my experiences and that's why I'd want to be elected, not because I'm Hispanic. But I think it would be great and I'm hopeful that one of these days we'll elect another Hispanic to council." (Currently, Mike Martinez is the only Hispanic on the seven-member council, despite a Latino population of about 35% in Austin.)

Don't expect Cavazos to vanish from the Austin political scene, she says.

"I'll definitely be back. I'm going to stay active in the community, doing what I've been doing, working on issues of affordability, bringing more voices to the table, and having broader representation at City Hall. You can count on me coming back. I'm definitely not going to disappear."