The American had a candid conversation about County Executive Charlie A. Dooley with his senior policy advisor, Mike Jones. Dooley, a Democrat, faces a spirited challenge on the Nov. 2 ballot from Bill Corrigan, a Republican.
The American: When you first brought us Charlie Dooley in his first campaign, he said the county executive is not a powerful office. Do you feel that way now?
Mike Jones: There are structural limitations to the authority of the county executive that are a function of the County Charter and the county’s fragmented municipal structure, the same way the mayor of St. Louis has structural limitations. Despite that, it is an extraordinarily important office in the hands of the right person. You have a lot of latitude to get things done, which makes it arguably the most important local job in politics.
The American: What has Charlie done with the powers of the instrument?
Mike Jones: You can point to the I-64 reconstruction, NorthPark, Express Scripts, Metro’s expansion. I’d say, foremost, making public transportation an important centerpiece of public policy in St. Louis County, which was not on the radar screen before. Charlie’s issue is he has done a very poor job of tying any of that back to the aspirations and needs of the black people in St. Louis County.
The American: What’s in it for the black community if he is reelected?
Mike Jones: Race in America, and certainly in St. Louis, is a political and social construct that still matters. How we view and construct race will drive how we make public policy and business decisions. Therefore, for me, even with the all-too-obvious failings of black political leadership, it still matters a great deal from a community standpoint who we elect.
All elected officials are a function of who they choose to surround themselves with. Charlie chose Gene Gordon to head Workforce Development. This is a pivotally important position that has a direct impact on the opportunities of a lot of disenfranchised people, a disproportionate number of them black, to get a foothold in the economy. Gene has done an extraordinary job. He has expanded workforce development programs. He has established robust summer youth employment program opportunities all over the county, particularly in North County.
Charlie appointed Dr. Delores Gunn as director of the County Health Department. She is a brilliant doctor and an excellent public administrator relative to public health, humane medical treatment of prisoners, and the management of our public clinics and the building of a new one.
I humbly submit myself as number three. Before I came to work for Charlie, nobody in county government cared about public transportation, which is critical for low-income and disabled people, and a disproportionate number of those are black.
I would assert no white politician would have hired these three people and given them the authority or latitude to get done what we have got done.
The American: How does this square with the common perception in politics that John Temporiti runs the office?
Mike Jones: People always write about the way they feel. If people feel that way, let’s not waste time arguing whether it is objective or correct or not. We have to deal with why people feel that way. My observation from working for county government is, from a black perspective, the political culture of the County is somewhere between hostile and indifferent. I don’t think we have done anything to change that culture or the perception of it.
Everybody knows I am a basketball junky. A professional player puts himself in a good position to win. In November, the question if you are black – or, not just black, but of moderate to low income – and this political culture is hostile or indifferent to you, then do you have a better chance of impacting that culture with a conservative white Republican and the ideology that goes with that, or with Charlie Dooley, who hires Gene Gordon and Delores Gunn, who operate against that culture?
The American: His Republican opponent, Bill Corrigan, came to us. As a candidate he is not that bad.
Mike Jones: He seems like a nice guy. One thing I have learned is never personalize it. Politics is a contact sport, and your energy needs to be fairly mean – but not ugly and nasty. I draw the line at mean. He has the right to run, but in politics you have to be able to defend your turf. You have what you can take, and you keep what you can hold.
The American: There are some awful Republican candidates in this cycle, compared to Corrigan.
Mike Jones: Even if he’s Abe Lincoln, he is still a product of the Republican Party that is dominated by radically conservative to almost what I would consider fascist elements. People are a creature of who they run with. The people bringing him to the party are fundamentally the enemies of progressive social justice issues and enemies of the empowerment of black people. When they talk about wanting to take the country back, that’s what they’re talking about.
The American: There has been a tail-wagging-the-dog thing, with Dooley making announcements about achievements that are an obvious response to Corrigan’s criticisms.
Mike Jones: As a guy who has vanity in his communication skills, I think our communication strategy and deployment for the past four years have been mediocre to awful. I won’t defend that. It does look reactive.
The American: How do you handicap the horse race on the campaign?
Mike Jones: The Dooley campaign has spent a lot of money on expensive national pollsters and consultants, but ultimately the election comes down to the same thing as the Metro tax. Ultimately it will be decided by North County in general and more specifically black voters in North County.
One of the things missing in St. Louis County is the impact of the black community. It does not see itself as a cohesive political community that is organized to reach out and make alliances, as other interest groups do, to change or shift public policy. If Charlie Dooley looks like a black politician adrift, he is a politician who comes from a community that is also adrift.
It’s important that the center of gravity in the African-American community is no longer in the city, it’s in the county. The city is not big enough and the black community in the city is not robust enough to carry the day from a leadership standpoint. In the county, those leaders haven’t emerged, and a lack of political leadership allows conservative white business interests to dominate public policy in the county. A black politician, like a white politician, is a function of the pressures he gets. If a community is not organized or coherent, its interests are always at a disadvantage in the competitive give-and-take that makes for American politics.
The American: Why should the community believe if Dooley is reelected things would get better?
Mike Jones: Two elements in the black experience are constant. One is hope, and the other is personal redemption. If black Americans were not a hopeful people, we never could have survived the travails and brutality of the black experience in America. Hope is not a plan, but it is a critical element. The other constant is we have always produced leaders who were less than what was needed at any moment, but we always held out the possibility for redemption.
To put it another way, it is the instinct of the pack to protect the wolf. The pack will protect the wolf even when the wolf doesn’t protect the pack. Hopefully what the wolf learns going forward is his importance to the pack and the pack’s value to him. Both are better off if they protect each other.
So on Nov. 3, somebody will be county executive, and somebody will work for the county executive. Who is it going to be and who will be the people in the room with him will be determined by the winner of the Nov. 2 election. If you’re black, the question is not would you trust your interests with everybody in that room, but would you trust your interests with anybody in that room.
