Board of Alderman President Lewis Reed is facing the challenge of his political career, fighting a two-front battle in the March 5 municipal Democratic primary against state Senator Jamilah Nasheed and Alderwoman Megan Ellyia Green. (Alternate take: Reed is facing a serious challenge from Nasheed and a well-intentioned but longshot spoiler bid by Green.) Given that Reed has been steering bills and counting votes at the board since 2007, one would expect him to clean up on aldermanic endorsements from his colleagues. But the EYE would suggest that voters to take a close look at these endorsements.
Reed has publicized his support from white conservatives like Alderman Joe Vaccaro, Alderwoman Beth Murphy and Alderman Joe Roddy, who often take to Twitter to bash Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones and other black leaders and progressives. These are the Archie Bunker Democrats who used to run St. Louis and, now that they are losing their grip on the city, seem intent on running a merged Metro St. Louis with a future Metro Mayor Steve Stenger, who only beat a political novice in his most recent Democratic primary by enough votes to field a soccer team. The Archie Bunker Democrats definitely want Reed over Nasheed (too street, too unpredictable) and Green (too young, too progressive).
Reed also has expressed his gratitude for the support of Alderman Jeffrey Boyd, who has become a perennial citywide candidate who usefully splits the black vote. The classic exhibit in this case is the March 2017 mayoral Democratic primary, when Lyda Krewson beat Tishaura Jones by 888 votes. Boyd brought home a whopping 2.67 percent of the electorate in that primary, even finishing a stunning fourth in his home ward, the 22nd Ward. Yet Boyd’s 1,439 votes were a spit more than the 888 votes the status quo needed for Krewson to defeat a black progressive in Jones. The EYE believes that math explains why Boyd never gets handed a better-paying full-time job in city government by the handlers he pleases; he is much more useful to them on the outside, where he can run for citywide office without interfering with civil service protocols.
In addition to the status quo and their enablers on the board, Reed also comes endorsed by Alderman John Collins-Muhammad Jr., one of the new, young black aldermen who have the potential to do good for the city if they set better examples than those who came before them, like Reed and Boyd. Collins-Muhammad is probably best known for his attempt to block the reduction in the size of the Board of Aldermen, a bill which ultimately failed despite Reed’s support. The EYE knows that opposing ward reduction is popular among most black aldermen and many black voters, who claim that ward reduction would dilute black power. In fact, blacks now hold a majority of citywide positions but less than a majority of the 28 ward positions, so the current ward boundaries clearly dilute black voting power and there clearly would be maps with fewer wards where a higher percentage of voters would have black representation at the board.
Collins-Muhammad’s support for Reed should come as little surprise to those who watch campaigns closely. Over the past two years, Reed paid Collins-Muhammad to work for Reed’s campaign committee. Then, rather than disclose the payments fully, Reed obscured Collins-Muhammad’s involvement by not using his full name on some of his Missouri Ethics Commission filings. Or maybe Reed just can’t keep track of Collins-Muhammad’s real, full name. Muslim writer and activist Umar Lee claims that Reed’s failed attempt to challenge Nasheed’s campaign based on her legal name revealed that Reed struggles with Islamic-sounding names, though Reed’s chief of staff Tom Shepard claims this is merely an unwarranted attack on a black man.
Reed also has been endorsed by Aldermen Terry Kennedy, who is calling it quits in the 18th Ward, Sam Moore, Brandon Bosley, Pam Boyd and Marlene Davis.
Reed also has been endorsed by an aldermanic candidate (with whom he also has a past financial relationship), one Debra Carnahan, who is running to unseat progressive 6th Ward alderwoman Christine Ingrassia. In 2004, Reed, his wife Mary Entrup, Debra Carnahan and her husband Russ Carnahan purchased the former Castle Ballroom building, a historic building that once hosted jazz greats such as Count Basie, Miles Davis and Duke Ellington.
The Castle Ballroom then fell into disrepair. Nevertheless, Reed used his campaign account to pay rent to the company that owned the ballroom, the company whose only partners were the Reeds and the Carnahans. So, while the building was in disrepair, Reed and Carnahan were taking payments from Reed’s campaign account. And, although the Reeds and the Carnahans made no improvements to the building, they doubled their investment in less than two years by selling it to a former staffer to then-Mayor Francis G. Slay. (Hi, Francis! Have not seen you in the EYE lately. Sold the city’s airport to any foreign bidders lately?) The building deteriorated so much while owned by the Reeds and Carnahans that it was ultimately condemned and demolished.
Reed’s personal relationships with the Carnahans became awkward when then-U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan was drawn out of a safe Democratic 3rd Congressional District and decided to run kamikaze against incumbent 1st District U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay in 2013. The first black-held congressional district in Missouri – which was first won by the incumbent’s iconic father, William L. Clay, in 1968, when Russ was 10 – was suddenly being contested by a white challenger. Current events side note: this white challenger is the son of a father, the late, former Gov. Mel Carnahan, who has an embarrassing blackface photo of himself doing a minstrel skit that the Post-Dispatch pulls out of its photo files (soon to be located in Iowa, it seems) every time another white Democrat has a blackface picture creep out of his closet.
Awkward.
There was a major “close black ranks” movement around Clay, but Reed was not in those ranks. Clay won easily without the early, vocal support he expected from black citywide officeholders like Reed. Rather than pay him back for not endorsing him over Carnahan, Clay endorsed Reed in the 2017 mayoral primary that Krewson narrowly won. Was Clay’s endorsement of Reed worth the 888 votes that cost Jones (and progressive St. Louis) the Mayor’s Office? Clay got nearly 30,000 votes in his most recent contested primary in 2018. Do the math.
As the longtime leader of the Board of Aldermen, with so many ways to make aldermen happy or to hurt them, Reed should have the overwhelming support of his colleagues on the board. But his supporters on the board include the white status quo, a black spoiler who caters to the white status quo, and a young alderman with the potential to make better decisions and set higher standards whom Reed has on his campaign payroll. With friends like these …
