Statesman - Travis GOP chair Matt Mackowiak unapologetic in pursuit of ballot wins.pdf - Gamer

Please enable JavaScript to view the full PDF

‘Trying to own liberals’: Travis GOP chair Matt Mackowiak unapologeti... about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statesman.com%2Fstory%2F... statesman.com ‘Trying to own liberals’: Travis GOP chair Matt Mackowiak unapologetic in pursuit of ballot wins 20-25 minutes Austin City Hall had all but cleared by the time one of the final speakers lumbered to the podium in the early hours of Aug. 9, 2019. With his navy suit more rumpled than when he had arrived 12 hours earlier, Matt Mackowiak took aim at what he considered the council’s epic failure. 1 of 16 10/14/2021, 2:04 PM ‘Trying to own liberals’: Travis GOP chair Matt Mackowiak unapologeti... about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statesman.com%2Fstory%2F... He delivered a blistering rebuke to leaders’ extraordinary decision that summer to repeal a law against camping in public and pointed out trash and human feces in some of the city’s most cherished areas. “The homeless camping ordinance ... has really become an amazing disaster for our city,” he told them. At the time, Mackowiak was a mere bit player in Austin politics — a perpetual underdog as the head of the Travis County Republican Party in a decidedly liberal city. His audience that night was 11 Democrats on the City Council who indulged him but remained unswayed in the five minutes when Mackowiak delivered his remarks. Yet his comments were an early moment in his blossoming effort that has sparked mass disruption in Austin politics: In attempting to write a new playbook, the GOP operative latched on to a local policy matter, built momentum to overturn what had been a 9-2 council vote and, critics fear, began a movement that threatens to reshape Austin’s progressive landscape. More:Save Austin Now sues city, says it's not enforcing camping ban More:Austin ramps up camping ban enforcement; homeless advocates say shift is dramatic, confusing More:Austin ballot measure could benefit police — but might that come at the expense of firefighters? More:Austin firefighters say they will fight ballot measure on police staffing Mackowiak, a 42-year-old Austin native who graduated from 2 of 16 10/14/2021, 2:04 PM ‘Trying to own liberals’: Travis GOP chair Matt Mackowiak unapologeti... about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statesman.com%2Fstory%2F... Westwood High School and the University of Texas, has become as controversial as the topics he has tackled and the political organization he founded and leads. The co-creator of Save Austin Now has been criticized for his abrupt style (he casually dropped the F-word 15 times in a 90- minute American-Statesman interview), questionable fundraising and spending decisions, and raw political ambition. Council Member Mackenzie Kelly said she felt threatened when he admonished her in a phone conversation she secretly recorded this summer: "You don't forget who your friends are." Mackowiak denies threatening her. “He’s very intense,” said Pete Flores, a Republican candidate who credited Mackowiak with helping his campaign orchestrate a major upset in Texas Senate District 19 in 2018. “Some people may be put off by his intensity, but his intensity is geared toward making sure he covers every detail as much as possible.” Mackowiak has profited financially from his fights with Austin's leaders. As of mid-September, he told the Statesman that his public relations firm, Potomac Strategy Group, had received $134,125 of the $3.8 million Save Austin Now had raised in campaigning for two elections. The firm has Mackowiak and six other employees. All but $7,661 of that amount has not previously been made public in campaign finance reports. He would not say if he earned additional money through commissions with the organization's most highly paid vendor, an Ohio consultant with a troubling financial past. Over the past year, he has bragged on Twitter and to supporters about buying a luxury car and staying at a posh 3 of 16 10/14/2021, 2:04 PM ‘Trying to own liberals’: Travis GOP chair Matt Mackowiak unapologeti... about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statesman.com%2Fstory%2F... beachside resort in Mexico. He regularly flits between Austin and Miami, where he says he soon will expand his public relations business. He has given himself a makeover, buying new fashionable suits after dropping 70 pounds. To date, the signature victory for Mackowiak’s group, which he says is nonpartisan and was founded with a Democratic activist, was forcing a citywide election and persuading voters in May to reinstate the city's ban on camping in public. The victory was not close: 58% in favor of the reinstatement, 42% against. More than 156,000 ballots were submitted. To get there, Save Austin Now raised a near-record $1.9 million by appealing to everyone from wealthy conservatives and moderates to everyday liberals who felt the city’s homelessness policy was inconsistent with the Democratic Party’s values. Riding that success, Mackowiak and Save Austin Now prompted a vote on another politically polarizing issue: requiring the city to hire hundreds of additional police officers. Proposition A, on the Nov. 2 ballot, could come at a cost some city leaders say would lead to difficult budget decisions. “In a Democratic-dominated area such as Austin, there has to be a limit to his influence,” said Dave Beckwith, a retired Republican political consultant. “But I don’t think he’s reached it yet.” Still, others have questioned Save Austin Now’s motivations under Mackowiak, who once worked in Washington as press secretary for Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. His detractorsdeclare him an opportunist who seized on voters’ emotions to profit financially and fuel his own political rise. 4 of 16 10/14/2021, 2:04 PM ‘Trying to own liberals’: Travis GOP chair Matt Mackowiak unapologeti... about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statesman.com%2Fstory%2F... “Matt Mackowiak has latched on to Republican dog whistle issues, probably to some extent for the financial windfall of it, or at the very least for the first time ever to be politically relevant in Travis County,” Democratic political consultant Mark Littlefield said. With early voting set to begin Oct. 18, the police staffing proposition has taken on a greater purpose than public safety: It serves as a litmus test of Save Austin Now’s lasting power and whether Mackowiak, who has worked on the successful Republican campaigns of former U.S. Rep. Will Hurd and current Texas Supreme Court Justice Jeff Brown, can continue to expand his local influence. “He is basically trying to find a place for the Republican Party to have some impact, and he is doing what he should do from a purely political point of view,” Democratic political consultant David Butts said. “Is it constructive for the city? I don’t think so. It is about politics.” Save Austin Now co-founder Matt Mackowiak makes a point during a news conference in Austin on Tuesday. Mackowiak has often clashed with members of the City Council — even one he supported and helped win election. Clashing with foes, friends alike Mackowiak’s political ascent in Austin coincided with a personal transformation. During the past year, he bought a Tesla, an electric car that ironically is the choice of many Austin liberals who desire eco- friendly transportation. He started hobnobbing with prominent Austin residents at fancy lunches downtown at the Headliners Club 5 of 16 10/14/2021, 2:04 PM ‘Trying to own liberals’: Travis GOP chair Matt Mackowiak unapologeti... about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statesman.com%2Fstory%2F... while pitching them for political donations. He dropped several waistline inches from that navy suit he wore to City Hall two summers ago, saying he did so by better managing his diet and walking his hilly Northwest Austin neighborhood. In an email this summer, he invited friends and business contacts to a luxury home in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, noting that it came with “a private chef, bartender and maid service.” He got edgier. Shedding what little filter he had during the early days of the camping ban fight, Mackowiak began unleashing attacks on social media against Mayor Steve Adler and Council Member Greg Casar — the two members of the council he viewed as most responsible for the city’s increase in homeless encampments. “Several times a year I have to mute him (on Twitter) because of the offensive shit he says,” Democratic strategist Harold Cook said. “He is very good at sensing where there is an opportunity and taking advantage of it.” That abrasiveness has made Mackowiak a target. One morning before the May election, Mackowiak said, he woke up to a text message from an associate who shared a link to an online post with a threat made against him. The post, Mackowiak said, directed visitors to occupy three properties — Mackowiak's residence, his company's downtown office and the district office of Council Member Kelly, a conservative whom he supported and helped in last year's election to defeat liberal incumbent Jimmy Flannigan. The threats prompted Mackowiak to spend $12,000 from Save 6 of 16 10/14/2021, 2:04 PM ‘Trying to own liberals’: Travis GOP chair Matt Mackowiak unapologeti... about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statesman.com%2Fstory%2F... Austin Now's account to hire a security detail on election night. Mackowiak even got into it with Kelly. Played out over Twitter and recorded by Kelly in a tense phone call in July, the disagreement centered on whether Save Austin Now or Kelly and council members should be credited for more than 100 homeless people being moved off the streets and into hotels. The effort was launched by the council, with Kelly as a co-sponsor, but Mackowiak contended the council did it only to undermine Save Austin Now and encourage voters to reject the camping ban. In a tweet referencing Mackowiak's claim, Kelly suggested the council was responsible for the effort and referred to Save Austin Now as "opportunists rewriting history." “You demeaned my organization and everyone involved,” Mackowiak told Kelly in the recorded conversation. He and Save Austin Now co-founder Cleo Petricek went to City Hall to confront Kelly in person. She refused to see them, agreeing to communicate by phone only. “Sweetheart, you are honestly ... I just want to help you solve your problem,” he told her in the phone call. “You don’t forget who your friends are, Mackenzie.” Kelly responded: “Matt, it really sounds like you are threatening me. ... You aren’t treating me with respect right now.” Finally, Mackowiak concluded, “We are totally done with you.” In early October, three months after the Twitter fight, Kelly joined Mackowiak and Save Austin Now at a news conference in support of the police staffing vote. 7 of 16 10/14/2021, 2:04 PM ‘Trying to own liberals’: Travis GOP chair Matt Mackowiak unapologeti... about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statesman.com%2Fstory%2F... While nurturing his newfound political influence, Mackowiak saw his marriage of seven years crumble, an event he attributed in part to campaign stress. After separating in March, he and his wife, Suzanne, a member of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's staff, are finalizing a divorce — a proceeding that a Travis County judge agreed to keep confidential. Mackowiak hired lawyer Anne Wynne, a liberal who ran unsuccessfully in 2018 to chair the Travis County Democratic Party — a position that, had she won, would have put her and Mackowiak in direct opposition. Mackowiak has since changed lawyers. It’s not his only involvement with the courts. He twice filed a lawsuit after Save Austin Now objected to ballot language approved by the city for the camping and police staffing propositions, earning partial victories in both cases. A third lawsuit first accused the city of erring in rejecting Save Austin Now’s effort to get the camping ban on the November 2020 ballot and was later amended to accuse the city of refusing to fully enforce the ban once it was reinstated. That case is pending. Save Austin Now co-founders Matt Mackowiak and Cleo Petricek chat in Mackowiak's Austin office. Petricek, a Democrat, has largely remained in the background as Mackowiak has served as the main public voice for Save Austin Now. Contributions from wealthy Austinites Save Austin Now’s rise began with a stumble and fall. To get an item on the ballot, Austin requires a petitioner to obtain signatures from 20,000 registered voters. Mackowiak thought he had done that, holding a celebratory press conference in July 2020 8 of 16 10/14/2021, 2:04 PM ‘Trying to own liberals’: Travis GOP chair Matt Mackowiak unapologeti... about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statesman.com%2Fstory%2F... to announce that he had submitted about 4,000 more signatures than the required amount. The plan was to get the camping ban on the November ballot. It didn’t work out that way. After reviewing the petition and rejecting flawed signatures, including duplicates and those from people who weren't registered to vote, the city clerk’s office informed Mackowiak that he had not submitted 20,000 valid signatures and was short by fewer than 1,000. “I was very low for about 12 hours, probably the lowest I have been through this,” Mackowiak said. He relaunched the petition drive and submitted signatures again in January, this time easily reaching the minimum requirement to be certified for the May election. The wait turned out to be to Mackowiak's advantage. Unlike in November, the May election did not include the presidential race, meaning Mackowiak avoided swarms of Democrats who were motivated to defeat President Donald Trump and who might have also sided against the camping ban. With the election looming, Mackowiak pivoted to fundraising and targeted wealthy business owners and Austin newcomers, who he said had fled other big cities with homelessness problems. He said he secured deals on “90% of major donor interactions.” Among them: billionaires Joe Liemandt, a software investor, and Robert Rowling, of Omni Hotels & Resorts. Both contributed $50,000. Others included a management company led by Austin FC co-founder Eddie Margain ($10,000) and the Austin Police Association PAC ($36,000). Whole Foods CEO John Mackey gave $2,500. 9 of 16 10/14/2021, 2:04 PM ‘Trying to own liberals’: Travis GOP chair Matt Mackowiak unapologeti... about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statesman.com%2Fstory%2F... Lawyer Michael Barron made four contributions of $600 — two before the camping ban vote and two more recently to support the police staffing proposal. Barron is the longtime law partner of Adler, one of Mackowiak’s biggest foes. The biggest contributor was Phil Canfield, a private equity investor who public records show moved to Austin in 2020. He contributed $200,000 for the camping ban vote — slightly more than the total amount raised by Homes Not Handcuffs, the PAC that opposed Save Austin Now in the election. (Canfield has since given $50,000 for the police staffing vote.) Next was Danielle Royston, a longtime Austin resident involved in cloud-based technology. She gave $148,000. The $1.9 million generated by Save Austin Now was the most ever in an Austin election outside of the $10.3 million Uber and Lyft paid in 2016 in a failed attempt to overturn a city law requiring fingerprint background checks for drivers. The donations exceeded the $1.5 million raised by Mobility for All in 2020 for the mass transit initiative Project Connect. During this period of the campaign, Mackowiak said he began his days at 7 a.m. and didn’t stop working until 11 p.m. “I was a maniac,” he said. “It is a blur. It was a large effort.” Although Mackowiak says he collected a salary and co-founder Petricek did not, there are no records in Save Austin Now’s financial reports linking payments to him. There was a payment to Potomac Strategy Group, his communications firm, but it wasn’t made until more than a month after the May election — for only $7,661. An additional $126,464 that Mackowiak said Potomac received is 10 of 16 10/14/2021, 2:04 PM ‘Trying to own liberals’: Travis GOP chair Matt Mackowiak unapologeti... about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statesman.com%2Fstory%2F... not listed in campaign finance reports. Before forming a PAC in February, Save Austin Now for 18 months operated as a nonprofit — which, unlike a PAC, is not allowed to engage in political activity. Mackowiak said the nonprofit was created to educate voters on the camping law and to gather petition signatures, not for fundraising. But he eventually admitted to wrongdoing after a complaint made to the city’s Ethics Review Commission by Littlefield, the Democratic political consultant, who has long feuded with Mackowiak. To resolve the dispute, Save Austin Now paid $10,000 each to three nonprofits that provide services to people experiencing homelessness: the Salvation Army, Caritas and Mobile Loaves & Fishes. Mackowiak said he agreed to the settlement on the advice of his lawyers, who believed gathering petitions did constitute a political activity and should not be done by entities that had not formed a political action committee. Mackowiak said part of his reason for operating the nonprofit was to protect donors' identities. In addition to paying the homelessness organizations the combined $30,000, Save Austin Now agreed to terminate the nonprofit by the end of the year. It is also required to file its 2020 financial disclosure with the Internal Revenue Service by Friday and provide the document to Littlefield by that same day. “It will be our first opportunity to finally look behind the secret curtain of the Save Austin Now nonprofit,” Littlefield said. With Petricek mostly working behind the scenes, Mackowiak 11 of 16 10/14/2021, 2:04 PM ‘Trying to own liberals’: Travis GOP chair Matt Mackowiak unapologeti... about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statesman.com%2Fstory%2F... began connecting with as many voters as he could. He conveyed pro-camping ban messages through traditional mailers, but also through 29 billboards and advertising on popular digital platforms — paying $133,000 to Facebook and $100,000 to Google, records show. According to campaign finance disclosures through the end of June, Mackowiak also sent 18 payments totaling $825,992 to an Ohio consultant with a history of financial missteps. Shannon Burns, a Republican operative who worked for the White House under Trump before his consulting firm went broke and filed for bankruptcy, created WAB Strategic on Jan. 19 — about two weeks before Mackowiak launched the Save Austin Now PAC. The largest payments to Burns came in the days leading up to the May election: $160,569 on April 19, $75,000 on April 23 and $149,833 on April 26. Mackowiak declined to say whether he received money from Burns as repayment for hiring him to assist on the campaign. "Some vendors pay commissions; some don't," Mackowiak said. Mackowiak has again turned to Burns for the police staffing vote. According to campaign expenditure reports from July 1 through Sept. 23, WAB Strategic received eight more payments totaling $162,500. Combined in the two campaigns, Burns has received $988,492 from Save Austin Now. Burns said the formation of his company "had no connection whatsoever" to Save Austin Now. He confirmed that WAB Strategic is opening an office in downtown 12 of 16 10/14/2021, 2:04 PM ‘Trying to own liberals’: Travis GOP chair Matt Mackowiak unapologeti... about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statesman.com%2Fstory%2F... Austin. "We're very proud to have been selected to be part of the Save Austin Now team during the (camping ban) campaign. ... We're proud to now consider Austin home for our new office and look forward to joining the fight to re-fund our police." A document prepared by Burns after the May election states that his company issued more than 4 million communications to identify and turn out supporters of the camping ban. The communications included automated calls, text messages and live calls but not solicitations for money. Before forming WAB Strategic, Burns was accused in numerous lawsuits in Ohio of running his former company into the ground financially while stiffing employees and investors out of their earnings. One of the investors who sued Burns was the elderly mother of his deceased business partner; she secured a $48,000 judgment against him. Burns’ company twice filed for bankruptcy but was unsuccessful, failing both times to get enough support from the company’s shareholders to complete the process. At the time of his first attempt in March 2018, court records show the company, Victory Solutions, was $2 million in debt and owed the IRS $411,000. It also owed nearly $380,000 in back pay to Victory employees. Mackowiak said he was unaware of Burns' financial troubles but said he has "zero, zero concern whatsoever with Shannon." Staying power may swing on election The fate of the police staffing plan could help set the course of Mackowiak's future, including whether he stays in Austin. 13 of 16 10/14/2021, 2:04 PM ‘Trying to own liberals’: Travis GOP chair Matt Mackowiak unapologeti... about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statesman.com%2Fstory%2F... In his dream scenario, Save Austin Now will follow up May’s election win with another victory in November — a second slap- down of Adler, Casar and the town’s liberal policymakers. Mackowiak says he then would pivot to the November 2022 election, targeting any combination of the mayoral race and the five council district races on the ballot by supporting conservative or moderate candidates who subscribe to Save Austin Now’s views on public safety. He has all but ruled out running for office himself, saying he’d rather influence policy decisions through elections. “If we don’t succeed, I may leave Austin. I’m not making any plans,” he said. But for at least the next few weeks, Mackowiak said he is singularly focused on the police staffing vote, which starts with requiring the city to employ two officers per 1,000 residents. A second provision of the plan mandates that 35% of an officer’s shift must be uncommitted time not responding to calls. To ensure that shifts are staffed adequately, city staffers say even more than two officers per 1,000 residents are needed. The true ratio, they say, is somewhere between 2.1 and 2.5 per 1,000. Accounting for projected population growth and officer attrition, the city says that if voters approve the staffing plan, the Police Department would need to hire 403 to 885 more officers in the next five years. The cost to do that is $271.5 million to $598.8 million, the city says. Mackowiak and Save Austin Now dispute that estimate but have yet to release their own. 14 of 16 10/14/2021, 2:04 PM ‘Trying to own liberals’: Travis GOP chair Matt Mackowiak unapologeti... about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statesman.com%2Fstory%2F... The Texas Legislature limited how much cities can raise taxes, so to come up with that money, officials might lay off staffers in other departments and reduce spending for other services, such as the Fire Department, EMS, parks and libraries, according to Casar, Adler and other city leaders. “It’s not about good policy, and it’s not about trying to fix problems,” Littlefield said. “It’s trying to own liberals.” According to a recent campaign finance report, Save Austin Now raised $731,000 from July 1 to Sept. 23. Television director and screenwriter Mike Judge gave $1,000. Charles Maund Toyota gave $100,000. The opposition group, Equity PAC, raised only $120,000, but that did not include two big donations that arrived from Washington after the reporting deadline — $500,000 from billionaire George Soros' Open Society Policy Center and $200,000 from the Fairness Project, a criminal justice reform group. The police staffing measure is in response to an officer shortage at the Police Department. The department is down to 1,809 budgeted sworn positions after the City Council voted to eliminate 150 vacant positions in 2020 and cancel three cadet training classes. With retirements on the rise, the department has more than 200 vacancies and has fewer than 1,600 employed officers. To get the measure on the ballot, Mackowiak submitted 27,778 petition signatures. Of those, 25,786,fewer than 4% of registered voters, were estimated to be valid. The petition language did not reference any cost estimates, but the ballot language will. “All I care about," Mackowiak said, "is saving our (expletive) city." 15 of 16 10/14/2021, 2:04 PM ‘Trying to own liberals’: Travis GOP chair Matt Mackowiak unapologeti... about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statesman.com%2Fstory%2F... 16 of 16 10/14/2021, 2:04 PM