Mitchell Motorsports owner plans City Council run

(Updated at 5:45 p.m. to reflect the response I received from Council member Diane Hervol.)

Travis Mitchell, the owner of Mitchell Motorsports, a self-proclaimed "family-owned and operated trike, motorcycle, atv/utv, auto and outdoor power dealer." announced today he is running for the Kyle City Council in May.

Travis Mitchell

Mitchell faces an uphill battle because he is likely to face an entrenched incumbent regardless of which place he runs for. Mitchell said he has yet to make that decision. But if they decide to run for re-election, and I believe both intend to, Mitchell would have to face either Diane Hervol, who didn’t even have an opponent in her bid for a second term three years ago, or Shane Arabie, who won a convincing runoff victory in 2014 with 73 percent of the vote when he ran in 2014 to fill the unexpired term of Chad Benninghoff. Both Arabie’s and Hervol’s districts are at-large ones. Mitchell lives in District 2 which is represented by Becky Selbera, Her term expires in 2017, but she is the subject of a recall effort.

Neither Arabie nor Hervol have responded to my requests for their reaction to Mitchell’s announcement.

(Update at 5:45 p.m.) Ms Hervol did respond and told me she is "definitely planning to run for re-election in May.  I will make my formal announcement in the future when I feel the time is appropriate.

"I think it is very important to have as many people as possible to become involved in the future of our city," Ms. Hervol added. "I would hope that other citizens will announce their candidacy in the months to come."

I am still awaiting to hear from Arabie. 

(Back to the original post)
"I am running for city council because I believe Kyle’s best days are ahead," Mitchell said in a statement that appeared today on his blog. "I want to help lead our town by working with the mayor, the council, the city staff, our committees, and most importantly our businesses and citizens, to help realize that belief.

"I am also running because I want the opportunity to help influence the culture of this town," he said. "In many ways Kyle is fractured. So many of our citizens are indifferent to politics and isolated from community. They live here but do not call Kyle home. I want to push the needle forward by leading and inspiring the indifferent to become involved."

Mitchell did not go into specifics about how he plans to create more citizen involvement, but promised he would share these strategies in the future.

Mitchell said he has named Brandy Kothmann of Kyle as his campaign treasurer.