Mayor Francis G. Slay, St. Louis city’s longest running mayor, announced today at an 11 a.m. press conference that he will not be running for a fifth term in 2017. In 2013, Slay became the city’s first mayor to be elected to a fourth four-year term.
He prefaced his announcement by saying how proud he was of city residents on Tuesday night for voting down Prop E, which would’ve rid the city of its one- percent earnings tax and its largest revenue generator. He was particularly proud that the residents saw past the “most negative and expensive” campaign, led by wealthy investor Rex Sinquefield. (He spent $2 million in St. Louis and Kansas City to defeat their respective earnings taxes and lost badly in both cities.)
“It was also one of my final nights,” he said, pausing to take a deep breath, “staying up late worrying about election returns. I will not be a candidate for mayor next year.”
This is not a goodbye,” he said. “I will be mayor for another year. I will have a full and likely controversial agenda to pursue and complete. My health is fine. I told my family last night. I told my City Hall staff this morning.”
He said he doesn’t have plans for his next step.
“Hillary Clinton has not asked me to be a running mate,” he said. “St. Louis Football Club has not named me its manager.”
He said he does have $1 million in his campaign and he will probably put toward races and issues in the future.
Slay stood alone at the podium in City Hall and did not take questions afterwards.
“I wanted this to be simple,” he said. “I didn’t want this to be an extended eulogy.”
He mentioned the recent “win” of the National Geospatial Agency selecting North St. Louis city as its preferred site to build its new $1.7 billion facility.
“Although St. Louis is still very recognizably the city I’ve represented in one elected position or another since 1985,” he said, “it is also city that has slowly won back some of its swagger as a place to start a business, raise a family and walk or ride a bike to work. I love what we are becoming.”
