There are two important factors to consider when considering a person’s fitness to represent you in public office: their experience and their character. Experience can be an indicator that the person has the requisite competence to perform the duties of public office, but it’s character that’s most important, because it’s the character of the person that will determine how he or she will perform those duties once elected. It’s by examining the records of candidates for public office that we judge whether they have the competence and character to be trusted with our public welfare.
The American can say very little in support of retaining incumbent County Executive Steve Stenger. He did make one crafty move in trying to mandate and enforce higher countywide police standards by interpreting bad policing as a public health issue, which indeed it is, but this was seen as a power grab by many county municipalities, who defeated Stenger in court. Indeed, Stenger has seen a great deal of political defeat since winning this office in 2014, especially in his power struggles with the County Council, which has formed a decisive 6-1 bipartisan majority against the beleaguered county executive. The county executive cannot function without the support of the County Council, and their relationship has come to define dysfunction and even open conflict. The council is investigating the ethics and legality of Stenger’s personal negotiations for county leases for campaign donors – in the absence of any interest or action from the county prosecutor, Bob McCulloch, who accused Charlie Dooley of corruption in a Stenger campaign ad last election cycle, without providing any evidence.
Stenger’s unsuitability for this office is self-evident, even to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which operated almost as a campaign organ in Stenger’s successful bid against Dooley four years ago. Stenger’s dubious moves in favor of campaign donors and his lack of transparency – he even declined to report on his private meeting with new Gov. Mike Parson when asked during a public meeting of the County Council – have irreversibly violated the public trust in a way that makes it impossible for him to effectively function as a public official. This feeling runs particularly strong in the black community, where Stenger’s collusion with McCulloch and the Post to falsely paint Dooley as corrupt has not been forgotten.
But a case against Stenger is not an argument for his replacement, which brings us to Stenger’s challenger in the August 7 Democratic primary, political newcomer Mark Mantovani. Mantovani is so new to electoral politics that Stenger has questioned whether his opponent is even a Democrat, given that he donated to Eric Greitens’ campaign for governor, which he said he now regrets. But Mantovani also donated to Hillary Clinton’s most recent presidential campaign and said he voted for her over Trump.
Politics is a profession and, as with all professions, relevant experience is of great value. Nobody wants to endure a surgeon’s first operation, but when the operation is inevitable, how do you decide between an unethical, unqualified surgeon and an inexperienced one? One way is to examine whether the inexperienced surgeon has the qualities needed to be successful.
We believe there are three qualities that are foundational to public office, and you either have them or you don’t; you can’t acquire them once you assume the office. They are intelligence, integrity and imagination.
Mark Mantovani unquestionably possesses superior intelligence. This not a function of his considerable academic credentials, nor the year he spent as a fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School immersed in the study local government prior to deciding to run for county executive. What has impressed us most has been his growth as a candidate. Too many people who run for public office are, unfortunately, the same people at the end of the campaign as they were at the beginning. We have seen Mantovani, at first blush a prototypical retired business CEO, go from a superficially informed political neophyte to a nuanced thinker on public policy who can now speak to the complexities and complications of governing in a challenging urban environment. It has benefitted him greatly, in this regard, to actually listen to the County Council members whom Stenger evades and ignores, such as Councilwoman Hazel Erby, who enthusiastically endorsed Mantovani. We have seen him engage with communities he didn’t know and who didn’t know him. He not only listened to them, he heard them and learned from them.
Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. It also has a second meaning of being whole and undivided. To understand integrity in the political sense you have to combine the two meanings. It’s not enough to be a person of high moral principle; you must also be a whole or complete person. That’s where moral consistency comes from, and without moral consistency you can’t have principled leadership.
In America’s merciless, rapacious business culture, Mantovani’s tenure at Ansira speaks to his integrity. During his 14 years as CEO he grew a local family-owned marketing company with 50 employees into a national firm that employs over 800. Through several changes in ownership, he maintained and grew both employment and revenues. He left the company, its owners and employees stronger and more prosperous than he found them.
“Some men see things as they are and ask why. I dream of things that never were and ask why not.” With these words, Robert Kennedy defined the political imagination that is required to produce a political vision that can be the aspiration for a community or a people. It’s been clear from the beginning that Mantovani’s campaign was not the product of political ambition, but rather driven by the desire to answer the question: Why can’t the St. Louis region be a place where people flock to rather than flee? Why can’t all the people of St Louis – regardless of zip code, race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation – see this region as the place where they have the opportunity to succeed and thrive?
It is because of Mantovani’s possession of these qualities that are foundational for successful political leadership, paired with the many failures of Stenger during his first term, that we believe Mantovani deserves a chance to lead the county. Unhampered by political baggage like his opponent, he will be able to focus on more forward-looking and inclusive economic, jobs and health care priorities. A strong black turnout for Mantovani could be the difference in bringing change to St. Louis County. The St. Louis American strongly endorses Mark Mantovani for St. Louis County executive.
