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The Travis County Democratic Party chose local attorney Andy Brown as their nominee for county judge.
Two local attorneys—Democrat Andy Brown and Republican Michael Lovins—have been selected by their respective political parties to compete for the position of Travis County judge this November.
Brown and Lovins will race to replace Sarah Eckhardt, who resigned as county judge in March, less than two years into her second term, to run for the seat vacated by State Senator Kirk Watson (D-Austin). Because there was no primary election date scheduled between Eckhardt's resignation and the Nov. 3 general election, the local political parties—and not registered voters—determined the nominees.
The Travis County Democratic Party's 136 precinct chairs voted on Sunday, with nearly 56% voting in favor of Brown. The other two candidates were Travis County Precinct 1 Commissioner Jeff Travillion and former Travis County Democratic Party Chair Dyana Limon-Mercado.
The Travis County GOP's executive committee voted last week to allow its chairman, Matt Mackowiak, to appoint a nominee, and they announced Lovins' candidacy on Monday.
The county judge serves as chief executive of the county and oversees the Commissioners Court. The office functions similarly to that of a city's mayor.
Former Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe has been serving in the role in an interim capacity.
The candidates
Andy Brown is the Democratic nominee for Travis County judge.(Andy Brown)
Brown is the founder of law firm Andy Brown & Associates and previously served as a senior adviser to Beto O'Rourke and campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett.
In a statement issued after the vote, Travis County Democratic Party Chair Katie Naranjo said, "Our next County Judge will have huge shoes to fill after the departure of now-Senator Eckhardt—Andy's broad experience as an accomplished attorney and his tireless dedication to Democratic values leaves me confident they will serve our county well."
Brown ran against Eckhardt for the position of county judge in 2014; Eckhardt won nearly 63% of the vote that year and was reelected in an uncontested race in 2018.
Michael Lovins is the Republican nominee for Travis County judge.(Travis County GOP)
Lovins is a founding partner of the personal injury law firm Lovins Trosclair and a member of the Federalist Society, a highly influencial national organization of conservative and libertarian lawyers.
In a statement shared by the Travis County GOP, Lovins said his day-one priority, if elected, will be to propose "a budget that fully funds our county sheriff's office and expands county law enforcement patrols within the city of Austin."
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Popular
Former UT tennis coach Michael Center told Sports Illustrated he thinks others were involved in the Varsity Blues scandal at UT.
His name dragged through the mud, Center was fired, arrested by the FBI and sentenced to six months in a Central Texas federal prison after pleading guilty to two charges related to mail fraud. And over a year after his release, Center told Sports Illustrated he doubts he was the only one in burnt orange involved.
When the Varsity Blues scandal broke out to the public in 2019, the investigation was a perfect storm for nationwide attention: Hollywood glamour, blue blood conspiracy and faith in the tried-and-true American education system came to a head as 33 movie stars and other elites were found guilty of paying more than $25 million to pave their children’s way into eight colleges, including the University of Texas.
UT was one of eight schools caught in the college admissions scandal. (Laura Figi/Austonia)
Singer's client, private equity executive Chris Schaepe, was looking for a way to bend UT's tight admissions policies for his son, who was seeking a position oddly as a manager on UT’s basketball team. Through a middleman, Singer contacted Center, who eventually agreed.
Schaepe's son hadn't played tennis since his freshman year of high school. It was a detail that Center says passed through plenty of hands before he was admitted, including "academic support staff, the compliance office, the sports supervisor and, ultimately, the athletic director," SI's Jon Wertheim writes.
No one in the entire athletic department, including seven "risk management and compliant services department" employees, was named, implicated or punished. After an internal investigation, Center was the only one named in the Varsity Blues "subterfuge" in a September 2019 UT news release signed by the university president.
He told Austonia he was never contacted by the university during the investigation, and when the NCAA interviewed him for its investigation, he says it cleared him of any violations.
“I almost fell out of my chair,” Center said. “I literally couldn’t breathe. There’s no college coach in America—much less at a state school, much less a coach of a nonrevenue sport—who can admit an athlete without consulting other people in the athletic department. What they were asking people to believe, it’s just impossible.” SI said Center's assertion was backed by multiple UT coaches and administrators at other schools.
But why would the Forty Acres be complicit?
(Matthew/Adobe)
Center said UT’s then newly named athletic director Steve Patterson made clear that Center suddenly was responsible for more than building a successful tennis program. He was to be a "fundraiser first and coach second" and he would need to find donors to fund a new tennis facility. Patterson admitted to SI that he wanted his coaches to find donors and said the department was "$15 million in the red" when he started in 2013, though he denies any knowledge of the false tennis recruitment.
Center said he knew he would be "considered a team player" if he let in the son of a Silicon Valley magnate. And sure enough, Schaepe immediately began pulling out his wallet, donating $100,000 to UT tennis and a six-figure check to the school's communication program.
"I never entered this as a way to profit. This was a fundraising mission where I made a terrible mistake at the end,"
Center said.
Months after Schaepe's son was admitted, Center agreed to meet Singer at the Austin airport and found himself accepting a backpack filled with $60,000 in cash meant for him, personally. He said he immediately knew he had made a mistake. He told SI “I put the money in my basement and gave most of it away.”
“Why did I do it?” Center told Sports Illustrated. "I go to bed and wake up each day asking myself the same question. I had to convince myself that I somehow deserved the money."
Once in court, Center showed texts with UT's compliance official and mentioned Chris Plonsky, a department executive involved in "overseeing men’s tennis, compliance, academic support (which generates letters of intent) and the Longhorn Foundation," according to SI.
“I knew I had to answer for my guilt,” Center said. “But I was like, 'Man, schools are going to get hammered.'"'
But Center was the only Longhorn to go down for the crimes. “I was no rogue actor,” Center said. “And this wasn’t my word against their word. There were signatures that went along with it. That’s the system... There wasn’t one point in the process where I thought people wanted to learn the whole truth.”
Back at home in Austin, Center watched as actress Felicity Huffman served just eleven days for her part in the scandal. Some served up to five months; others simply paid a fine, and others, like Singer, await sentencing.
And because the prosecution chose to blame individual coaches, framing schools as victims in the case, universities like UT have received less than a slap on the wrist for their possible involvement.
“I was always taught that actions have consequences,” Center said. “What I’ve come to realize is that, yes, for some people actions absolutely do have consequences. Serious, heavy ones. For others, actions can have no consequences at all.”
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