Last week the headline of our Political EYE column posed the question: “Will this mayoral race help lead the way to a new St. Louis?” The day after we published that column, the Post-Dispatch provided their answer: “Not if we can help it.”
On Friday, December 16, St. Louis’ only daily newspaper led its front page news coverage with an explosive story titled “Back in business.” The news nugget was that St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones has done bond business with an investment firm that employs an ex-felon. Further, this ex-felon, Craig Walker, did time as a result of a federal investigation of Virvus Jones, who is Tishaura’s father. Virvus Jones was investigated for promoting a “stalking horse” candidate in his 1993 race for St. Louis comptroller. Walker went to trial over his role in funding the “stalking horse” campaign and was sentenced to 33 months in prison. Virvus Jones pled guilty to felony tax fraud and was sentenced to a year and a day in prison when his daughter, the future city treasurer – and current mayoral candidate – was 23. Neither Walker nor Virvus Jones were accused with mishandling public money.
Importantly, there is no claim made or evidence provided in the Post report that Tishaura O. Jones mishandled public money in doing business with IFS Securities, a black-owned firm. In our news report this week, she makes the case that the treasurer’s deals with the firm that employs Walker saved the city over $6 million. She also points out that all three bond deals she negotiated with IFS Securities were approved by the St. Louis Board of Aldermen. This is crucial, because other than Tishaura O. Jones, who is running for mayor in the March 7 primary election, every major candidate for mayor sits on the Board of Aldermen (Lyda Krewson, Antonio French) or presides over it (Lewis Reed).
None of these essential facts are captured in the Post’s report. In fact, its headline – “Back in business” – suggests the treasurer’s bond deals with IFS Securities were all about her ex-felon father going back into business with his ex-felon banker friend. It is patronizing and patently unfair to suggest that an elected treasurer (who is female) is doing business on behalf of her father. There is no evidence in the story – though plenty of implication – that her father benefited in any way from the treasurer’s deals with IFS Securities. Further, the “back in business” connotation of shady deals overlooks IFS Securities’ extensive, reputable business dealings. Alex McKenzie, president and CEO of IFS Securities, said the firm has participated in more than 700 transactions in 2016 alone as an underwriter. Ten of those were in Missouri with clients that included St. Louis County, the Missouri Development Finance Board and the cities of Columbia and St. Peters.
The City of St. Louis has every reason to do business with IFS Securities and, indeed, Craig Walker, as Tishaura O. Jones’ mayoral competitors all acknowledged when they approved the treasurer’s three bond deals with the firm. Walker long ago paid his price for meddling in politics and no longer plays any role in politics. He was not punished by the federal government for his work as banker, and the Post-Dispatch is wrong to impugn his character and motives, as well as the character and motives of Virvus Jones and Tishaura O. Jones. This was a shameful hatchet job perpetrated by a writer, Joe Holleman, whose main beat at the paper, appropriately enough, is gossip.
Marie Ceselski, 7th Ward Democratic committeewoman and an advocate for Tishaura O. Jones’ mayoral campaign, wrote in a blog post that there “is so much more to this story about the treasurer and the banker. But it isn’t about financial wrongdoing or ethics. It’s about a dog whistle. Hear/see the name ‘Virvus Jones.’ Hear/see the word ‘convicted.’ Vote against that, even if you are voting against your own self-interest. The real story here is that in order for Lyda Krewson to be elected, enough of you who want change have to be swayed to stay at home or vote for a candidate other than Jones.”
We are disappointed, but not surprised, to hear/see the city’s only daily newspaper piping on the racist dog whistle in mid-December in an attempt to influence an election that will not be decided until early March. From now until then, it seems like the Post-Dispatch is “black” in business, “black” up to its old tricks of trying to unfairly undermine an African American vying to lead this struggling, segregated city.
