We have long advocated for consolidation of St. Louis government services by, among other things, making a number of citywide offices that currently are independently elected into appointed positions. There is no reason why recorder of deeds and license collector, for example, need to be elected positions with independent administrations. But they remain elected positions, and both are being contested in the August 7 primary.
Michael Butler is challenging the incumbent Sharon Carpenter as recorder of deeds. (Jimmie Matthews, a perennial candidate, also filed.) While we believe that Butler, currently a state representative, has more political potential than this ministerial office holds, we commend him for thinking ahead and not contributing to a conflict between a number of credible black candidates for Missouri’s 5th Senatorial District when Jamilah Nasheed is term-limited in 2020. Carpenter was first appointed to the seat in 1980 – that was six years before Butler was born. She resigned over a nepotism charge in 2014, yet still managed to win both primary and general elections to take back the office that year. This will be her first challenge by a serious black candidate for what traditionally had been considered a “white office” (St. Louis politics is always a special kind of racialized crazy). Though, again, we would prefer to see Butler serving the public in a more meaningful office, we have no doubt that he will be a much more energetic, professional, forward-thinking, inclusive and hard-working recorder of deeds than the incumbent. We strongly endorse Michael Butler for recorder of deeds.
Dana Kelly-Franks is among an emerging group of young progressive Democrats who are challenging the mediocre, often-backwards status quo in St. Louis politics. For example, for a black candidate to challenge a black incumbent for a traditionally “black office” like license collector would have been a no-no for pretty much all of our political history before now, but Kelly-Franks believes she can do better than the incumbent – and we believe her. (We also agree with the incumbent, Mavis Thompson, when she says that imagining improvements and updates to a city office is much easier than actually implementing them, considering downtown’s stressed power grid and City Hall’s outdated computer system.) We are especially impressed by Kelly-Franks’ grit, business acumen and passion for her community, which she serves by teaching badly needed financial literacy as a volunteer. We also want to encourage her generation as they try to apply their passion and activism to electoral politics, a development that gives us hope that this region might finally start to move forward. We strongly endorses Dana Kelly-Franks for license collector.
