Making the Rounds on Election Night
At midnight I arrived at Steinberg Rink in Forest Park for the Greg Daly/Mike McMillan celebration party. This was not a watch party as those are reserved for candidates watching to see if they have won. With Daly and McMillan both knew they’d be victorious —- Daly with only minimal opposition and McMillan unopposed.
I had a nice conversation with McMillan as volunteers began to clean up after the party. McMillan said he was glad he was not challenged as he enjoys governing rather than politicking. From the level of contributions he receives it is clear he is quite good at the politics. Most observers see him as being groomed to be a future Mayor for the City of St. Louis. With that in mind I certainly intend to keep a close eye on him as well as attempt to educate him on urban planning related issues.
From there I headed over to Lindell Blvd for the Jeff Smith celebration. That party was still going pretty strong when I arrived although the big players such as Congressman Lacy Clay had already left. Dave, Lucas and Matt from the Arch City Chronicle were among the remaining guests.
As Antonio French is indicating on PubDef, the St. Louis Election Board (directors, staff, etc…) deserve major kudos for outstanding performance. The new electronic voting machines combined with live results at HQ and frequent updates online put them miles ahead of St. Louis County. The online reporting was very clear and straight forward. Very impressive. I’m sure we’ll hear about malfunctions with some machines and some waits but overall I think it went quite well.
The finally tally shows only 16.79% of registered voters in the city bothered to vote. That was only 33,196 people out of 197,676 registered voters in a city with a total population of around 350K. Now I am curious how many of our 350K residents are eligible voters because the number of registered voters seems high relative to the total population. Political watchers had predicted much higher turnout.
Hopefully we’ll see the precinct numbers soon as well as final numbers from St. Louis County on those races and ballot measures. I’ll be on KDHX’s Collateral Damage program on Monday evening at 7pm discussing the election results and other local topics.
– Steve
Steve:
You definitely arrived at both parties too late to catch the action. The Daly/McMillan was definitely a watch party, just not for those two races. Throughout the festivities, either Daly or McMillan would make brief announcements as to the current results in the various other city-related races. At one point, the Mayor, Lou Hamilton, Ald. Conway, and others were crowded around the latest numbers from the BOE website on Mr. Hamilton’s Blackberry. The entire crowd was watching very closely the 4th district race, as well as some of the state rep. races.
[REPLY – Darn the luck, I’m sure Lou & Francis would have been all like, “Hey Steve glad you are here, come join us.” – SLP]
St. Louis has a high percentage of eligible voters due to the average older age of the city residents.
That’s a big reason why maintaing the elderly as a political base is so important to city elected officials.
Why does Mike McMillan talk with a southern drawl?
[REPLY Good question! I went to college with a guy from Tulsa that had an English accent. – SLP]
I’m really glad Jeff Smith won. His victory reaffirms my faith that the electorate can see right through candidates like Gambaro. Congrats, Jeff.
Money Man, that is kind of funny about McMillan’s accent. Even though he’s from St. Louis, he sounds like a freakin’ Kentucky colonel. I wonder if he likes mint juleps. . . . But congrats also to him and F.X.
“With that in mind I certainly intend to keep a close eye on him as well as attempt to educate him on urban planning related issues.”
Steve, what kind of professional experience do you have working in planning and development? Are there any planning projects that you’ve completed that we could see?
Also, as far as your education in planning, do you have any formal education regarding planning outside of architecture school?
[REPLY Architects receive extensive training in site planning but I also took a number courses in our college’s City & Regional Planning department. I have a number of projects that I am currently involved with but those are confidential at this time at the request of the owners. And finally, see my latest post — I’m pursing a Masters in Urban Planning. – SLP]
Speaking of odd St. Louis accents, can someone explain the British-sounding accent of former Mayor Conway?
I was among those who did not vote. I waited until after work, and left work only to find that my truck was dead. I had to get it jump-started, and by then it was after 7:00 p.m.
Alas, one less Sauve vote…
One time I told McMillan that I could hear New Orleans in his speech. He told me that his grandmother was from New Orleans. I think that she took care of him every day while his mother worked. Hence he picked up that speech pattern as a child.
I just can’t vote for a Creole speaking – slicked back hair man. I cringe every time he speaks. I am voting for Pat Herod. He is an honest and upstanding guy, who has a familiar St. Louis accent and he does not use gel.
[REPLY – Hmmm, I’ve never seen McMillan with anything other than very normal hair. – SLP]
No Gumbo for you Money Man. I am suddenly a McMillan supporter now that I know he has roots in New Orleans.
“he does not use gel.”
Money Man, that’s the wackiest McMillan innuendo yet!
Shoulda sold that one to the spin doctors.
Take a look at Pub Def Weekly about half way down:
http://www.pubdef.net/archive/2006_03_01_archive.html
Gel…Yes. Money Man has the proof. Mike McMillan is a typical slickster politician.
[REPLY – The direct link to the post is http://www.pubdef.net/2006/03/mcmillan-fundraiser.html which will save lots of scrolling. That sure looks like some slicked back hair but the times I’ve seen him it was never that way. Perhaps it was a transgression? – SLP]
I was at that Victory Party that Steve went to for Daly and McMillan and neither of their hair was slicked back. Both of them had been out campaigning all day and were in the heat. McMillan’s hair was wet from the humidity. It is a shame that someone would base their vote on whether someone uses a hair product or not. McMillan is also an “honest and upstanding guy” who will beat Pat Herod in the general election at least four to one.