Here's who is on the ballot in Austin's mayor, City Council races

The field is set in Austin's mayor's race — and in five additional City Council races — with seven candidates now officially competing to succeed Mayor Steve Adler.

Monday's filing deadline to appear on the Nov. 8 ballot came and went without any major changes to the expected lineup. The three most prominent mayoral candidates, based on fundraising and spending totals, all took the final step by submitting a ballot application. No surprise candidate jumped in at the final hour.

The seven candidates are: Kirk Watson, Celia Israel, Jennifer Virden, Anthony Bradshaw, Phil Brual, Erica Nix and Gary Spellman.

The Austin city clerk's office was scheduled to draw names Tuesday to determine the order in which the candidates' names will appear on the ballot.

More:Austin City Council members give themselves $33,000 pay raise in spite of backlash

Watson, who previously served as Austin's mayor and in the Texas Senate, looks to be the clear front-runner. He holds endorsements from the city's fire and EMS labor unions, and the nearly $1 million he raised as of mid-July exceeded the combined money raised by all other City Council candidates.

Israel, who is leaving her seat in the Texas House, has turned up the heat on Watson, saying his housing plan, which includes letting individual council districts propose their own land development rules, discriminates against communities of color.

More:Austin's mayor's race heats up: Celia Israel blasts Kirk Watson's housing plan as racist

Virden, an independent real estate broker who has loaned her campaign $300,000, is pursuing conservative voters. That same strategy nearly worked for her in 2020 when Virden ran for City Council and advanced but lost in a runoff in Austin's District 10. That district, with wealthy western neighborhoods, is closer to the political middle than many other districts, which skew to the left. Thus, running citywide will be in many ways a greater challenge for Virden than in her 2020 campaign.

As of the July fundraising period, the four other mayoral candidates had campaigned little.

Here's a look at the field in the other City Council races:

District 1

Incumbent Natasha Harper-Madison faces three challengers: Clinton Rarey, Melonie House-Dixon, and Misael Ramos.

Ramos and House-Dixon joined late. Rarey has been campaigning for longer and, as of mid-July, had raised about $1,000. He and the others have work to do to unseat Harper-Madison, who raised nearly $114,000 and has proven popular among voters in Northeast Austin.

District 3

Six candidates are competing in East Austin to succeed Sabino "Pio" Renteria, who has held office since the city split into council districts in 2015.

A seventh candidate, Bertha Rendon Delgado, was ruled ineligible because she has been convicted of a felony for drug possession. She had raised $7,000 for her campaign and spent it all.

Of the remaining candidates, the two campaigning the strongest are José Velásquez and Daniela Silva. Velásquez, who Renteria endorsed, raised $44,000 in the recent reporting period to Silva's almost $12,000.

Others running are Jose Elias, Gavino Fernandez, Yvonne Weldon and Esala Wueschner.

District 5

Six candidates are squaring off in a competitive race to succeed departing Council Member Ann Kitchen.

They include Kitchen's longtime policy adviser Ken Craig; lawyer and Capitol staffer Ryan Alter; lawyer and filmmaker Aaron Webman; and communications professional Stephanie Bazan.

The race is so tight that City Hall insiders have not come to a consensus on who is the favorite.

A fifth candidate, Bill Welch, a U.S. Air Force veteran, ran in House District 47 in 2006. He won the Republican nomination before losing in the general election. His conservative background figures to be a hindrance to him in the mostly liberal South Austin district.

A sixth candidate, Brian Anderson, recently began campaigning.

District 8

Incumbent Paige Ellis has three opponents: Kimberly Hawkins, Antonio Ross and Richard Smith.

Smith, a lawyer running on a conservative platform, appears to be her biggest threat. As of July, he had $41,000 available.

Ellis, who had $100,000 available, has been careful to not draw unwanted attention to her campaign. Last week, she was one of only three council members who voted against giving themselves a $33,000 annual raise, and the only council member who spoke out against it.

District 9

With eight candidates vying to replace Kathie Tovo, this is the largest and possibly most competitive field.

As of last month, the five strongest fundraisers, all with more than $30,000 available, were Ben Leffler, Zohaib Qadri, Joah Spearman, Linda Guerrero and Tom Wald. But a sixth candidate, Greg Smith, was not far off with $25,000 available.

As in other races, the central issue is land use. Leffler, Qadri, Spearman and Wald all favor relaxing rules against multifamily housing, which they say will drive down housing costs. Guerrero says she wants to preserve historic neighborhoods and has been endorsed by two council members, Tovo and Leslie Pool, who protected such neighborhoods in discussions on land development code reform.

Also running are Suzanne Mitchell and Kym Olson.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: 35 candidates running for the Austin City Council