Colquitt comes up short
By Meliqueica Meadows
Of the St. Louis American
Before election returns began to trickle in, putting state Rep. Maria Chappelle-Nadal decisively ahead from the counting of absentee ballots on, there was evident concern at the incumbent’s victory party.
Her challenger, Cassandra “Sandi” Colquitt, had run a close race two years ago, and over the weekend her campaign mailed a letter expressing support for Colquitt from former state Rep. Betty Thompson and most black elected officials in the 72nd District.
Many of Chappelle-Nadal’s supporters were concerned, but the incumbent was cool. She had done her informal poll counts. She was sleepless, but confident.
She had good reason to be. In the latest count, she won by more than 1,000 votes, with 2,375 votes versus Colquitt’s 1,331 – a decisive margin of 64.1 percent to 35.9 percent.
“It was a well run campaign, very disciplined,” said state Rep. John Bowman, chairman of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus.
“I’m glad to bring her progressive voting record back to the capitol.”
As victory became certain, Chappelle-Nadal’s supporters, who had gathered at Cicero’s in the University City Loop, began to analyze how they had won so soundly.
Most said they were taken aback by the abrasiveness shown by Colquitt’s camp at the polls – and were certain that voters were repulsed as well.
One black campaign worker, who declined to be named to avoid local recriminations, said he supported Chappelle-Nadal at the poll established at Barbara Jordan Elementary School, where he faced Thompson and state Rep. Ted Hoskins, who traveled together to support Colquitt. He said Hoskins was screaming, “Maria is the worst person I know!”
“They shot themselves in the foot,” he said. “It was all about Maria. At some point, you have to say what Sandi stands for.”
Meanwhile, at Colquitt’s campaign headquarters on Olive Boulevard, the challenger was trying to find meaning in her loss.
“I am very proud,” Colquitt told a packed house of increasingly disappointed supporters – entirely black, except for a few Orthodox Jews.
“Win or lose, we started something in this community that should have been done a long time ago. We brought the black community together with the Orthodox Jewish community.”
A rabbi from Chicago made the trip to St. Louis to show support for Colquitt. “Part of the Torah is a belief that we’re all responsible for each other,” he said. “I came from Chicago here because I knew our community here was in trouble with the incumbent.”
Chappelle-Nadal ascribed Colquitt’s Orthodox Jewish support to her expected advocacy for school vouchers, which could help fund Orthodox families to send their children to alternative, faith-based schools. The incumbent’s camp also noted an expensive, last-minute mailing on Colquitt’s behalf, apparently funded by the school voucher movement.
Chappelle-Nadal’s legislative activism this past session helped to kill a bill that would have diverted money from the state’s general revenue fund to establish the Betty L. Thompson Scholarship Fund to give money to families so children could attend the schools of their choice.
“The problem is that this legislation is not going to help our children en masse,” Chappelle-Nadal said.
“When you go to Bishop Middle School and see their library has only a fourth of the books it should, I’m not going to vote for legislation that would take $40 million away from them and give it to corporations.”
From the beginning of the campaign, Chappelle-Nadal was backed by political heavyweights like former Missouri Lt. Gov. Harriett Woods. However, Colquitt managed to siphon away some of her opponent’s previous supporters, like Thompson and St. Louis County Councilwoman Hazel Erby. They squared off over Shelley Welsch’s recent challenge to incumbent University City Mayor Joe Adams, which served as a preliminary round to the 72nd District rematch on primary night.
In conceding the win, Thompson said, “I congratulate Maria and I hope she can move on, do good in the community and try to work with both sides to show the true diversity of the district she represents. I wish her the best.”
That is a sharp turn from Thompson’s earlier stance, in which she called Chappelle-Nadal “immature” and publicly renounced her previous support for the woman who filled her seat in the state House.
Now that the battle is over, Thompson said it is possible to work together with Chappelle-Nadal for the betterment of the district.
She said, “People have to forgive and forget and move on.”
Because no Republican has filed for the seat, Chappelle-Nadal’s victory Tuesday night almost assures her the seat in November.
By the end of the night, as late-arriving black supporters joined an early turnout of mostly white progressives, Chappelle-Nadal’s crowd of supporters matched almost precisely the diverse demographics of the 72nd District.
Among the last to leave the incumbent’s victory party was John Hickey, executive director of Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition. Hickey, a veteran of progressive local politics, proudly displayed each election return on a tattered notebook as he called in to the county election board. Each call brought better and better news.
For Hickey and an exhausted cadre of progressives, the victory was sweet. For the incumbent, it was back to work.