We disagreed with the Fannie Lou Hamer caucus in the Missouri Democratic Party about two statewide endorsements in the August 2 Democratic primary. Since we generally respect and endorse the caucus’ avowed agenda to leverage greater power for the black community within the major political party that depends on our votes for its candidates to win, we discussed these differences with the caucus.
We questioned their support of Teresa Hensley over Jake Zimmerman in the Missouri attorney general race, and they admitted it was the most difficult decision the North St. Louis County-based caucus faced this political season. Jake is a proven friend and an ally of our community, but he had been outmaneuvered in the battle for black political support in Kansas City and the City of St. Louis. They contend that their arithmetic convinced them Jake couldn’t win. It was business, they said, not personal – they wanted to befriend the winner, since that would increase black political leverage inside the Democratic Party. In the end, they did in fact back the primary winner.
They espoused a different, long-view rationale for taking a very promising Latino newcomer, Pat Contreras, over former state representative Judy Baker for Missouri treasurer, even though they thought Baker would win (as she did). They liked Contreras’ energy and urban orientation. As the future of the Democratic coalition needs to be both black and brown, they wanted to send the message that they not only understand that, but also embrace it. They reasoned that the black-brown coalition in the party is a little stronger after their support of Contreras, despite his loss.
Organizationally, the caucus covered 65 polling places in four North County townships, showing the boots-on-the-ground electoral activism that the Democratic Party should be compelled to respect. And so the awakening of the sleeping giant of black political power in North County continues, gradually – with Rochelle Walton Gray’s thumping of incumbent County Councilman Mike O’Mara on August 2 its first definitive victory.
North County Labor, which for decades has enjoyed much more influence within the party than the black community, is nursing a grudge over O’Mara’s defeat and apparently trying to stifle this upsurge in black political power. Jay Mosley won the Democratic nomination for state representative in House District 68. Normally that ensures the labor endorsement in a general election – especially if you’re running against someone like Keith English, now an independent. English was the only Democrat to vote to override Governor Jay Nixon’s veto of Republican legislation that caused massive cuts in programs for working families. As a result, the Democratic Caucus voted to strip him of his committee assignments, and he eventually resigned from the Democratic Party. Despite that troubled history, North County Labor Council voted to endorse English – who is white – as an independent over Mosley, the Democrat, who is black.
If Mosley wins, he will join Alan Gray, who is running unopposed as a Democrat in House District 75, and state Rep. Courtney Curtis, who effectively turned back a labor-inspired attempt to unseat him because he consistently and militantly puts the interests of the black community ahead of the agenda of union bosses. It’s relevant here that Alan Gray is the spouse of Rochelle Walton Gray, who trounced North County Labor’s candidate on the County Council, O’Mara. The opposition to Curtis, and now Gray and Mosley, is the kind of arrogance and political malpractice that Democrats will come to regret.
Some advice to organized labor: You have too many Republican enemies to pick a fight with black allies in an attempt to flatter the grudges of some outliers like North County Labor. Also: The days are over when you can beat a black incumbent in a majority-black North County district with a white challenger. There are new players at the table now in North County, and Democrats will need to learn to deal with them.
