St. Louis voters in Downtown and on the near South Side have a chance to bring new faces and more diversity to the Board of Aldermen in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, March 3. Given the dominance of the Democratic Party in city elections, the winners of the Democratic primary will almost certainly be elected in the April 7 general election.
Voters in wards 7, 8 and 15 will encounter candidates on the Democratic ticket who are transplants to St. Louis offering new ideas for their wards and the city, compared to the veteran legislators who previously held those seats.
On the March 3 ballot, an open seat for alderman of Ward 7 (which covers parts of Downtown and Soulard) will be contested. Given that former 7th Ward Alderwoman Phyllis Young, who retired on December 12, represented the ward for 30 years, all candidates are, in effect, change candidates – but one more than the others.
Chelsea Merta, age 27, is a transplant from Evansville, Indiana who moved here to study at Saint Louis University School of Law. Now a member of the Missouri Bar, she is legal counsel to Faith Aloud, a non-profit organization that advocates for reproductive justice and is a member of the Don’t Shoot Coalition. This coalition was formed to advocate for systemic change in criminal justice following the unrest in Ferguson.
“Mayor Slay wants to add 160 police officers,” Merta told The American. “To what end? That’s not addressing why crime happens – the cycle of poverty through generations. You can only throw more police at the problem so many times before you have an epiphany: that you need a root cause analysis to see how you can intervene to address the roots of the problem.”
Slay has endorsed one of her opponents, John. J. (Jack) Coatar, a former assistant prosecutor in the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office. Merta described Coatar as a “protégé” of Brian Wahby, longtime chair of the city Democrats and a close Slay ally.
Samuel J. Cummings III, an African-American IT professional from St. Louis who previously lost a bid for state representative, is also on the ballot.
‘Voice for the voiceless’
In Ward 8, which covers parts of the near South Side that include the Shaw neighborhood, Kevin B. McKinney, age 58, is challenging incumbent Stephen J. Conway, who has held the seat for 24 years and is a Slay ally.
McKinney moved to St. Louis in 1997 from Jonesborough, Tennessee, where he was the first and, to date, only African-American mayor. A housing consultant, McKinney said the 8th Ward is more diverse than is reflected by current community participation in ward politics because the incumbent caters to a small, entrenched base.
“The ward is about 35 percent African-American, but when I go to ward meetings there are usually only two or three African Americans in attendance,” McKinney told The American. “There are so many people in this ward, in this city, who need to be heard. I want to be a voice for the voiceless.”
‘Get city departments working’
In Ward 15, which covers parts of the near South Side that include the South Grand Business District, change has already come. On October 7, Megan Ellyia Green, age 31, won a special election to replace longtime Alderwoman Jennifer Florida, who resigned to accept a citywide appointment – winning a remarkable 46 percent of the votes in a four-way race.
Green, who grew up in upstate New York, moved to St. Louis 10 years ago to accept a Coro Fellowship. After a stint teaching in St. Louis Public Schools, she now works to expand access to early childhood education with the non-profit Child Care Aware.
“Our aldermen are legislators who get tied up in executive functions of government because so many city departments are not working,” Green told The American. “I want to use our legislative powers to get city departments working.”
Green’s opponent, Elizabeth H. Braznell, has been endorsed by Slay and the St. Louis Police Officers Association. The police union has targeted the ward with a series of direct mailings that slander Green as pro-criminal because she supported the protestors who exercised their First Amendment rights on South Grand.
Like her more famous counterpart in the Missouri Senate, state Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal, Green knows the taste of tear gas from riot police. She was hit with tear gas on South Grand on November 25 – an incident that resulted in a federal restraining order against police. “I was sitting on MoKaBe’s patio,” Green said, “when the tear gas was thrown.”
The municipal primary election in St. Louis will be held Tuesday, March 3. Contact the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners are 314-622-4336.
