While Mayor Francis Slay has more financial backing and endorsements from prominent African-American elected officials, both Irene J. Smith and Bill Haas say they can stun the city and upset Slay in Tuesday’s Democratic Primary election for mayor.
While Slay is a heavy favorite in his race, Comptroller Darlene Green has no competition at all.
Green is running unopposed in Tuesday’s primary. As in the mayoral race, Republicans are not fielding any candidates for comptroller.
The winner of the Democratic Primary will face Green Party nominee Willie Marshall in the April 4 mayoral election. Comptroller Green will run unopposed.
The following are brief profiles of the three mayoral candidates.
Smith: “I can bridge racial divide”
Irene J. Smith is confident she can defeat the incumbent because “the people are behind me.”
She obviously hopes that many of those “people” are black and that black voters on the city’s North Side shock pundits and show up in mass numbers for the March 8 Democratic Primary.
Smith has charged that Slay has further divided the St. Louis community along racial lines “beginning with the most racially divisive redistricting” in the city’s history.
In fact, Smith lists “reconciling racial and economic inequalities” in the city as the first standard in her campaign.
She also says that if elected mayor, she would:
* leverage all public/private resources to improve the quality of life for all citizens in the city of St. Louis, particularly in the areas of education, public safety, and health* insure that all citizens receive a fair share of city resources and services* improve access to government for all citizens* create more effective partnerships that produce results for all St. Louisans.
A native of the city and graduate of Beaumont High School, Smith, 46, earned a BS degree in urban affairs from Saint Louis University and a JD degree from the University of Missouri Law School in Columbia.
She was St. Louis County counselor from 1980-84 and was the city’s director of Human Services in 1984-85. She practiced law and was a municipal judge in the suburb of Hillsdale in 1990-92. In 1994, she was elected 1st Ward alderman and served until 1997, when she was appointed administrative judge in the City Courts. She is an adjunct professor of criminology at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park.
Smith made international headlines for at least appearing to use the bathroom in a wastebasket during a board of aldermen hearing at City Hall in July 2002. She was reprimanded for the incident; however, she says it should not deter voters from picking her over Slay or fellow Democrat Bill Haas.
During her years as a public servant, Smith says she “saved hundreds of jobs and fought off attempts to abolish the Department of Human Services and therefore saved services for seniors, children and the poor.”
She said she “kept Slay from slashing $250,000 from the recreation budget, fought efforts to reduce city employees’ pay and benefits and kept the incumbent from contracting out City Marshal’s jobs.”
Smith said Slay’s “hand-picked” additions to the SLPS Board of Education created a “disastrous” school year last year and cost the district points in its quest to achieve full accreditation.
“Just saying things are better does not make it so,” she said of Slay’s confidence about the future of the school district and the city.
She said Slay let the SLPS board situation grow out of control, yet “when they threatened to close several Catholic schools on the city’s South Side, he immediately invited the archbishop to a meeting at City Hall.”
“That makes it look as though he favors one part of the city over another.”
Mayor Slay: “A difference for all St. Louisans”
Being the incumbent in a three-way tussle for the Democratic nomination for mayor, Mayor Francis Slay can list an impressive array of success stories from his first four years in office.
The successes have come in all parts of the city, especially North St. Louis.
“We’re seeing much more investment in the city, much of it in North St. Louis,” Slay said.
“More than 300 new homes have been completed in the 3rd Ward, and this kind of growth is going on all over the city. This will make a big difference for the people of St. Louis.”
He said hundreds of new homes have been built or are under construction in North St. Louis neighborhoods, and extensive development and rehab projects dot west St. Louis.
“We’ve made much progress, but we have a long way to go. There is positive momentum and we want to keep it going during the next four years,” Slay said.
Slay can tout an overwhelming list of African-American endorsements from politicians, including Congressman Wm. Lacy Clay, former Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr., County Executive Charlie Dooley and Alderman Mike McMillan among many others.
According to Slay, the Rev. BT Rice read a news story about endorsements in the American and asked to be included as an endorser, as did the Rev. Cleo Willis. Also, the 27th Ward Regular Democratic Organization wrote, “Mayor Slay, you deserve to be reelected. We are calling on all that truly believe in diversity to vote and reelect you as the Mayor for the city of St. Louis.”
Rather than trade barbs with his Democratic opponents, Slay has used his record of achievement as the reason for his reelection.
According to the Slay campaign, from July 1, 2001 through November 2004, more than $2 billion of investment in “bricks and mortar” has been initiated throughout the city of St. Louis, and many improvements have been made to improve the quality of life in the city.PRIVATE “TYPE=PICT;ALT=Icon: Housing”
This includes nearly $650 million in private funding and public incentives being invested in major housing construction and rehabilitation involving nearly 7,000 newly constructed homes, substantially rehabilitated homes, and new homes from transformed underutilized commercial buildings n with an additional $137 million invested in miscellaneous residential improvements.
More than 1,200 affordable housing units have been completed or are under construction, and an additional 300-plus are in predevelopment, with the assistance of federal incentives and the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Historic districts are being established to protect historic resources and stimulate additional development. Residential property values have increased significantly.
Slay said that the controversy surrounding police statistics “was my fault,” blaming himself for missing important information in a memo from Police Chief Joe Mokwa.
He said that he never sought the dismissal of Fire Chief Sherman George and did not blame him for what was perceived as a rash of injuries to firefighters more than two years ago.
Slay also was a leader of the “Lead Safe St. Louis” program, initiated in 2003, to eliminate childhood lead poisoning by 2010. With the help of Congressman Clay and Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond, $10 million in federal funding has been secured to address this problem. In 2004, more than 10,000 children under the age of 6 n over 30 percent of such children in the city n were tested for lead poisoning, and the percentage of tested children with elevated lead blood levels has been dropping.
Slay was presented with a Champion for Children Award on Monday by the Rev. Benjamin Hooks of the Children’s Health Forum in recognition for his commitment and leadership in “protecting our children from harmful exposures to lead,” Hooks said.
Haas: city, school district deserve better
Bill Haas has served as a board of education member for St. Louis Public Schools for two terms, and he is again trying to win his first term as mayor.
Like Irene Smith, Haas would need solid support to pull off the monumental upset of incumbent Mayor Francis Slay. He says he can wins those votes because of his service on the school board.
“If it’s true I am the smartest candidate in the city race on education, that makes me the person to vote for,” Slay told the American.
“The most important thing for the city’s future is improving the city’s school district. Since most of the students are children of color, I think this is a reason black voters should support me.”
“If there is a true, level playing field in education, that would be the biggest step to ending the racism in the city.”
If he were elected, Haas said, “I could make it a better city for all of us. I’ve been a stand-up guy for eight years on the school board and it would be the same at City Hall.”
Haas said he could help bring black and white city residents together “because I can reach out to both communities.”
“I’ve voted equally for North and South Side candidates. I’m color-blind myself.”
Slay said he is running to “stand up to Slay.”
“Mayor Slay and those he supports are bullies, punks and thugs, and people in the city are afraid of them. I’ve had politically powerful people, including some state representatives, say that they are afraid of him and that (Slay and his supporters) fight too dirty.”
Haas, 60, said his announcement last month on a blog site that he had contemplated suicide years ago was more of a call to help someone who might find themselves in a similar situation.
“It should not stop someone from voting for me,” he said.
Haas is running for mayor for the fourth time. A Harvard Law School graduate, he works at Wal-Mart, teaches part-time and is serving his final weeks on the school board.
“The city deserves better government than Fran Slay and his bullies, thugs and punks on the school board and elsewhere as mayor.”
Haas admits that Slay “has done some good things for the city.”
“But I am strongest where he is weakest: on education. We all know that if you improve the public school system in the city, all else will follow, and if you can’t improve the schools, nothing else much matters.”
Haas also has a formula for victory over the better-financed incumbent.
“If every one not for Slay votes, and they vote for me because I have the better chance to beat him, (I could win) between 40-50 percent,” he concludes.
“Given the chance, I could be a great mayor, the kind of mayor this city needs and deserves.”
In the closing days of the campaign, Haas is busy trying to have Slay’s name removed from the ballot on a legal technicality.
“I have no money for a lawyer. It’s a little political and a lot of legal. But I’m pushing on.”
And he promises to push even harder if he is elected mayor of the city of St. Louis.
