On June 7, voters in the city’s 4th Ward will go to the polls to vote on who will represent them on the St. Louis Board of Alderman. The aldermanic seat in the 4th Ward became vacant on March 5, when 4th Ward Alderwoman Peggy Ryan was recalled. The campaign to recall Ryan was organized by her former ally and political benefactor, OL Shelton. Shelton had supported Ryan when she beat former Alderman Mike Mitchell.
The rift between Ryan and Shelton reached its apex in the August 2004 primary election, when Ryan supported Sam Moore in the 4th Ward Democratic committeeman’s race, which, in one of the most bizarre elections in St. Louis history, Shelton won twice.
In this election, Moore was initially announced as the winner, only to later learn that some “additional ballots” were found uncounted, and they gave Shelton the edge by a small number votes. When Moore and his supporters went to court to challenge the Board of Election Commissioners’ decision, the court decided that the election results were flawed and ordered a new election in November 2004.
The order for a new election proved to be the beginning of the end for Ryan. Shelton and his forces used this opportunity to organize a recall petition against her. Shelton’s campaign workers used the captive audience that turned out in the November general election to collect signatures on the recall petitions. Shelton won decisively in November and immediately began his campaign to recall Ryan.
Shelton’s victory also was aided by his ability to build a coalition with his former 4th Ward political foes by teaming with long-time 4th Ward politico Norma Leggette, who was elected 4th Ward Democratic Committeewoman in August 2004. This proved to be a strategic and important alliance in getting Shelton named as the Democratic nominee in the June 7 election.
When an alderman is recalled, the aldermanic seat is immediately vacated and a special election for a replacement must be held. The process involves the Republican and Democratic Central Committees meeting to appoint candidates to run in the special election. These committees are comprised of the Democratic and Republican committee people from the city’s 28 wards. In order for a person to be considered, he or she has to be nominated by a committee person at the meeting. Following a long-established tradition, the committee people almost always will give deference to the nominee of the ward committee people.
When the Democratic Central Committee met, Ryan did not get nominated, and thus Shelton became the Democratic nominee. Ryan, Sam Moore and Gregory “G” Tumlin have submitted petitions to become independent candidates on the June 7 ballot. With three independent candidates and no Republican in the race, Shelton is predicted to win in a landslide. This, however, has not slowed Shelton down. Last week, he filed a court petition to have all of the independent candidates’ petitions nullified for what was described as “irregularities.”
Shelton’s victory will be a classic example of how fickle politics can be. Five years ago, Shelton was on the trash heap of politics after suffering a humiliating loss of his 4th Ward Democratic committeeman’s race and being rejected in his attempt to succeed Wm. Lacy Clay as state senator from the 4th District.
The most glaring irony in this particular political drama is that both Ryan’s recall and Shelton’s prior political setbacks were precipitated by their support of Mayor Francis Slay. Most of the criticism leveled at Shelton by his North Side colleagues was based on his support of Slay for mayor against two black candidates and his support of Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce against Jerryl Christmas. Ryan has borne the brunt of criticism for her support of Slay during the controversial 2001 ward-redistricting battle. Shelton and his supporters used Ryan’s allegiance with Slay to defeat her in the recall.
The EYE will leave any conclusions that may be gleaned from this analysis to the readers.