On Tuesday, a respected legend in black politics in St. Louis joined the diverse coalition working to elect Lewis Reed as Mayor on March 5.
“I am happy to endorse Lewis Reed for Mayor,” Pearlie Evans said in a statement. “He is the kind of leader who shares my vision for moving this city forward.”
Evans was longtime District director for now retired Congressman Bill Clay. She made her announcement as her longtime boss’ son, U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay, was stumping for Reed’s opponent, incumbent Mayor Francis G. Slay.
As a former colleague of Lacy Clay in the Missouri Legislature, Elbert Walton, points out in a letter in today’s American, the junior Clay’s support for Slay is simple payback. In Clay’s hotly contested August 2012 primary, Slay endorsed him early. Reed, who is close friends with Clay’s challenger Russ Carnahan, did not endorse.
According to Glenn Burleigh, Reed’s campaign manager, Evans’ support for Reed is more indicative of the grass roots than Clay’s support for Slay.
“We are just finishing canvassing North City for the second time, and people are mad at Lacy and Jamilah,” Burleigh said.
Slay also endorsed and donated campaign funds to Jamilah Nasheed in her successful August 2012 primary race for state Senate. Reed did not endorse in that race either. Nasheed has been stumping for Slay even more aggressively than Clay.
Burleigh doesn’t see their support for Slay making an impact on the black voters who have strongly opposed Slay in his three successful campaigns for Mayor. “Lacy and Jamilah are not as universally loved as the mayor hoped,” Burleigh said.
Contested races
The Reed camp sees numbers on its side in North City by virtue of all the contested aldermanic elections on the March 5 ballot.
“We have a broad base of support all through North City, but we’ll see an especially high voter turnout for us in the 21st and 27th wards, two of the highest-voting wards in North St. Louis and they both have contested races,” Reed said.
Contested aldermanic races mean candidates compete to turn out more voters, nearly all of whom also vote for a mayoral candidate.
“There are contested races in the 1st Ward, 3rd Ward, 5th Ward, my home 6th Ward, and those are all wards where we expect to do very well,” Reed said. “Even the 15th Ward, a South Side ward where we won the endorsement and the ward organization is working for us, has a contested race. This is all a benefit for us.”
Public sector union support
Reed is not from St. Louis and makes his home in the diverse 6th Ward on the near South Side. Unlike recent African-American candidates for Mayor such as Irene J. Smith, the black community is nowhere near his only source of support.
JoAnn Williams, business representative for Carpenters District Council of Greater St. Louis and Vicinity, said Reed has the strongest union support where it counts: among unions whose members live in the city and can vote on March 5. This includes the many unionized city employees represented by the Carpenters who are working hard against Slay.
“From our extensive experience of this administration, it has taken a systematic approach to destroy public sector unions by mandating unnecessary furloughs, attacking wages and benefits, and refusing to collective-bargain in good faith,” Williams said of Slay.
She thinks public sector employees will have an impact turning out the vote for Reed.
“Public sector employees are in a better position to know why Slay’s programs have failed than the average citizen does, and we are speaking to our families and neighbors, telling them what we know first-hand about this mayor,” she said.
The teachers’ union – staunch Slay enemies because of his alignment with school choice advocate Rex Sinquefield (Slay’s largest single campaign contributor) and Slay’s push for charter schools – strongly backs Reed.
Reed also has the endorsement of both white and black firefighters, a rare collaboration, as they were united over Slay’s handling of their pensions. The police department’s civilian employees also support Reed. Many of these public sector employees live in areas of the city where Slay usually counts on his strongest support.
“Southwest city – Slay’s base – is where a lot of firefighters and civilian police employees live,” Burleigh said. “There are signs that Slay is weakening in Southwest City, which he can’t afford to do.”
“Firefighters and rank and file police live in wards where Slay has to keep us under 30 percent,” Reed said. “That could be a very difficult task.”
Burleigh said the Reed campaign got a surprise late boost from the activist campaign against Veolia Environmental Services, a multinational company that Slay has pushed for a consulting contract with the city’s Water Department. Activists have attacked Veolia for its environmental record and its operations in the Middle East.
“These are mostly white, middle-income and upper-income voters,” Burleigh said of the activists. “They aren’t that focused on the Mayor race, they are environmentalists and they are concerned about Israel and Palestine – but they are siding with us.”
Colleen Kelly of the Dump Veolia Coalition said it’s a coalition of non-profit groups that can’t endorse in an election. “We want what’s best for the water,” she said. “But in general, we are very pleased with Reed. Reed’s office has listened to us.”
Reed is optimistic because he thinks he has been able to put together an unlikely coalition of voters that can beat an incumbent who feels threatened and has raised more than $3.5 million to defend his seat.
“We have identified our voters. Now the next order of business is to get them to the polls, and we have detailed plan,” Reed said. “Part of what will determine the outcome of this race is turnout, and all those down-ticket races that favor us will be critical.”
The American will continue to cover the March 5 primary online at stlamerican.com.
