Two elections in the August 5 Democratic primary – one in the city, the other in the county – represent more than the individuals who hold these elected offices. The races for both St. Louis license collector and St. Louis County executive have become proxy fights for who dictates the region’s politics.
Mayor Francis Slay endorsed against the incumbent Democratic license collector, Mavis Thompson, before filing for the primary opened. Against an African-American incumbent, he endorsed a black alderman, Jeffrey Boyd, who has supported the mayor for years (against the will of most of Boyd’s 22nd Ward constituents, who reliably vote against Slay).
The early endorsement of a black candidate of his choice against a black incumbent who was appointed by Gov. Jay Nixon was Slay’s declaration of political war by proxy – a reckless political rebuke of both the governor and the black political majority that recommended Thompson to the governor last fall (after Michael McMillan, also an African American, resigned to take leadership of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis).
Other early endorsers of Boyd were Sheriff James Murphy and the St. Louis Police Officers Association. Murphy shares with the mayor the distinction of having been successfully sued for racial discrimination by a black man who served under him. Murphy was successfully sued by two deputy sheriffs, William “Patrick” Hill and Jacques Hughes, and Slay by Deputy Fire Chief Charles Coyle.
Despite being black himself, Boyd proceeded to run a typical South Side campaign against Thompson in select majority-white wards in the city. He sent a piece of direct mail that depicts Thompson in a hoodie next to more than a dozen vicious quotes from the Post-Dispatch published almost 20 years ago when Thompson was clerk of the circuit court.
Thompson has run a positive campaign, emphasizing her years of administrative experience and the improvements to the management and efficiency of the office she has made. She also has garnered the support of every other African American who holds citywide office: aldermanic President Lewis Reed, Comptroller Darlene Green and Treasurer Tishaura Jones.
U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay, whose 1st Congressional District encompasses all of the city, had not responded to requests from The American to announce an endorsement in the race.
As license collector, Thompson has at her fingertips information about Boyd’s record in nurturing businesses in the ward he represents. In 2013 and 2014, her office reported, 44 businesses have closed in the 22nd Ward. Those going out of business in Boyd’s ward include one or more eateries, convenience stores, gas stations, apartments, condominiums, childcare centers, mortuaries, barber and beauty shops, used car dealerships, cell phone stores, alarm and electronic specialists, footwear group and commercial cleaning services, according to the license collector’s office.
Lincoln Industrial Corp. is scheduled to relocate out of the Ward 22, where it has operated since October 2001. Last year the company paid $30,000 in business taxes, according to the license collector’s office, and is reported to be the largest employer in the 22nd Ward with 400 employees.
“Offices like license collector, while not powerful in their ability to shape public policy, are important as measures of what kind of city we are,” said Alderman Antonio D. French, who has blasted Boyd for his political alliance with the mayor. “Held by strong, independent voices, those offices can help bring about a much-needed cultural and political change in our city.”
Post against Dooley
The proxy political war for the office of county executive is being waged by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which has run a disproportionate amount of negative coverage and editorials against the Dooley administration in recent years.
The Post has run front-page news stories – without one named source – alleging that corruption in St. Louis County government goes all the way to the top. Dooley has repeatedly denied that he was ever under federal investigation. Richard Callahan, U.S. attorney for the region, even sent Dooley a letter, which was later shared with the media, explicitly clearing Dooley of any involvement in Edward Mueth’s embezzling from the county when he worked for the health department.
During Slay’s administration, the city was embezzled by two senior parks officials, Joseph Vacca and Thomas “Dan” Stritzel. The Post ran seven brief news reports on the scandal, almost entirely dealing with the legal process of indictment and plea agreement, and one brief editorial squib calling “Foul” on the embezzlement. Slay’s possible involvement in this corruption was never considered, and even the “Foul” item calling for Slay to terminate the indicted embezzlers included the collegial note “it’s pretty hard to fire someone in the city.”
By comparison, the Post ran 23 news stories on Mueth’s scam – their coverage was so extensive, one of the stories is a timeline of all of the other stories – and four editorials mentioning Mueth that were scathingly critical of Dooley.
For Dooley, there were no folksy notes about how it can be “pretty hard” to fire a government employee, but rather the caustic charge from the Post that “no one has been fired or held accountable.” Finally, the Post ordered Dooley to fire almost everybody, like a maid cleaning the whole house in a hurry: “Mr. Dooley needs to clean house. He needs to do so quickly.”
The benefactor of all this lopsided negative coverage, if the Post can help it, is Councilman Steve Stenger, an attorney from Affton who has been frequently quoted in the Post’s relentless, negative coverage of the Dooley administration. Yet, when the Post finally moved to endorse Stenger, it had little to say on behalf of their candidate on his own merits.
“Mr. Stenger is a little vague on a long-term vision for St. Louis County,” the Post’s editorial board admitted. They also acknowledged that “for better or for worse” Stenger is “a lesser-known quantity” and that “his public record is relatively thin.”
That is to say that, without years of negative Post coverage to campaign on, Stenger has few merits of his own to claim as an elected official. Indeed, he has run a very negative campaign against Dooley, rather than providing a positive campaign outlining his plans for the county. Like Boyd’s mailer against Thompson, Stenger’s ads have relied heavily on quotes from the Post (though Stenger didn’t have to go back nearly as far as the almost 20-year-old digs against Thompson).
As brazenly as Slay endorsing Boyd early to show he is the kingmaker in the city, the Post has been denouncing Dooley for years, and a victory for Stenger would gratify the Post’s pretensions as a kingmaker in the county.
“It was Alice Walker who said, ‘The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.’ That is true in local elections,” French said.
“I truly hope people choose to show up at the polls on Tuesday and not just complain on Wednesday.”
