“font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; line-height: 14px;”>At a very strange and often discouraging time in our public life, it was encouraging to see a very strong consensus in the city of St. Louis and St. Louis County on three elections that were decided on Tuesday where we see the decisive winners as bringing simple and unequivocal good news for this region.
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>Billionaire ideologue Rex Sinquefield branded his $12 million campaign to eliminate a city earnings tax in Missouri as “Let the Voters Decide.” The voters in the two Missouri cities that currently have an earnings tax, St. Louis and Kansas City, have decided – decisively – that they want to retain the one cent tax for the next five years, the span decreed in a statewide ballot initiative that Sinquefield got passed.
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>In St. Louis, Proposition E passed by margins usually seen only when an incumbent Democrat runs against a no-name independent: by 88 percent, a margin of nearly 30,000 votes. Mayor Slay’s chief of staff remarked on election night that the voters had given the city five more years to make necessary changes. That’s a truly bizarre spin. What those numbers mean to us is that city voters reject Sinquefield as someone who dictates how this city is managed. The voters – in a 20 percent turnout, a strong number for an April election – have said they would like to see Slay distance himself from his single largest campaign donor and his dangerous, unproven ideas for revamping tax codes to promote economic growth.
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>If city voters denied Sinquefield a mandate in nearly historic numbers, they were nearly as decisive in their embrace of Hattie R. Jackson for St. Louis Community College trustee. The retired educator and dean won 66 percent of the vote in a four-candidate field that included the incumbent and another African American, by a margin of nearly 8,000 votes. We think this bodes well for the leadership of the system, which has some 30 percent black students.
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>Jackson
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>told us she thinks the community embraced her “willingness not to work in vacuum, to be part of a team.” She said, “You get much better decisions and more credibility when you include people of differing opinions.” Every civic leader in this region should be required to say these words as they gaze into their mirror in the morning and adhere to them.
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>While we don’t have a high regard for the importance of the office of County Assessor or its need to be an elected position, St. Louis County elected the right man in Jake Zimmerman, a veteran progressive Democratic state representative who beat Republican realtor L.K. “Chip” Wood, 64 to 36 percent, by a margin of nearly 32,000 votes. A Harvard Law grad with a passion for public service and an inclusive leadership style, Zimmerman can now count an impressive landslide victory for countywide office. We think that when Charlie A. Dooley decides he wants to retire, Zimmerman, 36, will be well positioned to become the next County Executive.
