In one of Jeff Smith’s many well written letters to his constituents, he vividly described participating in a night-time ride-along with the St. Louis police. It showed the flair, daring and community spirit that characterized Smith at his best in his brief political career.
That heady night of participant observation on Smith’s part was evoked Tuesday morning when a federal judge announced that the young man would be taken into the custody of the Bureau of Prisons to serve a year and a day for conspiring to obstruct justice. That is not a one-night ride, and there no longer are constituents to hear about his brushes with danger and the darker forces in life.
It is not difficult to imagine Smith serving less time than a year and getting out on good behavior with a book already written and a publisher already waiting. Despite our many struggles with Smith for some of his policy stands and political associations, we would buy a copy. Many of the people who wrote letters to the court petitioning for a lenient sentence would as well.
Jeff Smith, one imagines, will do fine and make the most of his time in confinement. But we are not the ones facing that shame and isolation and the knowledge that a promising political career had been shattered over what was, in the beginning, nothing more than a diversion of spending on a campaign mailing with an important message.
We have never endorsed Jeff Smith for public office. As perhaps no other publication can claim, we have not endorsed any of the Democrats who have pled guilty to felony charges this year. We are pleased to see Stacey Newman, whom we endorsed over Steve Brown, take his place in the state House, and we consider Hope Whitehead a substantial improvement over T.D. El-Amin.
Jeff Smith, as always, is another story. We were disappointed in his acquiescence with politics as usually practiced in this city and state, but he is no Joe Keaveny. Smith created himself as a politician and a leader, on the strength and will of people who believed in him. He may have later engaged with politicians we consider to be mediocre hacks, but he left his open seat to a failed school board candidate who was all but fabricated by Mayor Francis G. Slay and Rex Sinquefield. By comparison, Smith will be missed in the state Senate and in the neighborhoods of St. Louis, where he loved to walk the blocks and admire the architecture and engage with the people.
Yet, unlike many of Smith’s supporters (still), we don’t resent his being driven out of office and away from the community for a silly prank over a postcard. He pled guilty to conspiring with Brown, in November 2006, to offer a shady operative a future paid campaign position in return for lying to federal election officials on their behalf. He then repeated those lies and added more lies to them when being interviewed by the FBI in June 2009. He had established a pattern of deceit and offering paid political positions in exchange for deceit that would benefit him. These are terrible indictments about his integrity.
As Brown said on Smith’s behalf to the operative, who was recording every word, “If there are fines, we can get that stuff taken care of, and you’ve got Jeff with the possibility of, you know, the Senate campaign committee stuff. We know you’re on the line, but we’re prepared to still be your friends.” With this evidence before us, we think St. Louis and Missouri deserve – and need to find – better, more accountable, more honorable friends.