Candidates File for St. Louis’ Municipal Elections
Filing opened yesterday for municipal elections in the City of St. Louis. Here is a rundown.
President of Board of Aldermen – Contested!
- Incumbent Jim Shrewsbury (D) has filed for re-election.
- Ald. Lewis Reed (D-6th) has filed to challenge Mr. Shrewsbury in the Democratic primary.
- I’m guessing this will be a close race, dividing many.
- It would be interesting to have an independent run to face the winner of these two in the general election in April.
- Someone in this position really should be a current or former alderman, although this is not a requirement for the office. The position is adminstrative and needs to be able to know the ropes.
Circuit Clerk
- I think this seat is up for re-election, anyone know for sure?
School Board
- Two seats on the city’s school board are up for election. Will anyone want to run?
2nd Ward
- Incumbent Dionne Flowers (D) has filed for re-election.
- No challenger has filed.
4th Ward
- Incumbent O.L. Shelton (D).. has not filed. Ald. Shelton won this seat after the previous alderman was recalled, the ward remains divided.
- No challenger has filed either.
- A challenger is expected so this may be a contested race.
6th Ward – Contested!
- Ald. Reed (D) is not seeking re-election but is instead running for President of the Board of Alderman, as noted above.
- Three challengers for the Democratic nomination have filed in the following order: Kacie Starr Tripplett, Patrick Cacchione, and Christian Saller.
- Rumor has it more are expected to run for this open seat.
8th Ward
- Incumbent Stephen Conway (D) has filed for re-election.
- No challenger has filed.
10th Ward
- Incumbent Joseph Vollmer (D) has filed for re-election.
- Vollmer is the champion of ugly new vinyl-clad housing for his ward but who is buying?
- No challenger has filed.
12th Ward – Contested!
- Incumbent Fred Heitert (R — yes a Republican) has filed for re-election.
- Heitert has been in the board of aldermen longer than anyone else currently in office having been first elected in 1979.
- Former police officer Matt Browning has filed as a Republican to challenge Heitert in the March primary. This will be a very interesting race as Heitert basically hasn’t had to run for office in years (does he have any funds?) and he will be facing a former officer that lost both his legs in 2004 as a result of an accident while on duty. I had a nice phone conversation with Browning last night, a nice guy who will be elaborating on his platform.
- Will a Democrat, Green or Libertarian step up and file to run? The filing remains open until 5pm January 5, 2007.
14th Ward
- Incumbent Stephen Gregali (D) has filed for re-election.
- No challenger has filed.
- Please, someone file!
16th Ward
- Incumbent Donna Baringer (D) has filed for re-election.
- No challenger has filed.
18th Ward – Contested!
- Incumbent Terry Kennedy (D) has filed for re-election.
- Bill
HausHaas, former member of the St. Louis School board and previous candidate for Mayor, has filed to challenge Kennedy in the Democratic primary. - Can we please get a third candidate in this race!
20th Ward – Contested!
- Incumbent Craig Schmid (D) has filed for re-election.
- Galen Gondolfi of Fort Gondo Compound for the Arts has filed to challenge Schmid in the Democratic primary.
- This will be interesting!
22nd Ward
- Incumbent Jeffrey Boyd (D) has filed for re-election.
- No challenger has filed.
24th Ward
- Incumbent William Waterhouse (D) has filed for re-election.
- No challenger has filed.
- Ald. Waterhouse won the special election in 2005 to replace Ald. Bauer, who was recalled by the voters.
26th Ward
- Incumbent Frank Williamson (D) has filed for re-election.
- No challenger has filed.
28th Ward
- Incumbent Lyda Krewson (D) has filed for re-election.
- No challenger has filed.
- Krewson has to be pleased that CWE resident Bill Haus lives in the 18th ward and not the 28th.
Things to Remember if you are considering running.
- Running for elective office is a rewarding endeavor, even if you do not win.
- By running you are giving the voters something very important by all too often missing, choice. The odds are not in your favor but that is OK, the most critical issue is to not let the incumbents get too cozy and to bring up ward and city-wide issues for public debate.
- Filing is open and will remain open through January 5, 2007.
- The filing fee for aldermanic candidates running via a party (Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian) is $328 (1% of annual compensation).
- Those considering a run as an independent will need to collect signatures and petition to be on the ballot. You are required to collect 10% of the registered voters as of the last Mayoral general election. The last day to file your petition is February 12, 2007.
- The primary election for any contested party races is March 6, 2007 while the general election is a month later on April 3, 2007. Thus, running as an independent or a party other than the incumbent will give you an additional month to campaign (unless you face a primary opponent as well).
- The position of alderman is considered a part-time job. Indeed, a number of aldermen hold down full time employment elsewhere while others suggest it really is a full-time job.
- Incumbents in ward-level machine politics like to talk about “constituent service.” This is what has kept voters loyal for decades — the “Ald. XYZ was able to take care of my problem, so I’d feel bad about voting for someone else” BS that keeps us years behind. Never mind the bigger issues, you got your damn stop sign or new dumpster! Machine politics hates “issues” with a passion. They have zero vision other than empty statements such as “improve the neighborhood” or “support the residents.” What does that mean? Running an issue-focused campaign is not a guarantee of winning (in fact it will probably work against you in many wards) but it will bring up important issues that need to be aired in public.
With (4) out of (14) seats contested as of day one we are off to a good start — 28% of the seats are challenged. At least two more will see some challenge so that will put us near the 50% mark. I’d like to see at least (8) out of the (14) challenged, spreading the machine out thin. With a number of players weighing in on the race between Shrewsbury & Reed there may not be much help left for incumbent aldermen.
As I have previously indicated, I do not intend to endorse any candidate until after filing has closed and I’ve seen their campaign finance reports to know who is behind their money stream. That said, I am excited by the challengers in the 12th and 20th.
Some information from this post came from PubDef and the Arch City Chronicle.
Some related prior posts from Urban Review STL:
“18th Ward – Contested!
Incumbent Terry Kennedy (D) has filed for re-election.
Bill Haus, former member of the St. Louis School board and previous candidate for Mayor, has filed to challenge Kennedy in the Democratic primary.
Can we please get a third candidate in this race! ”
Do you by chance mean Bill Haas? If so, you forgot to mention that he is a nut.
Look for Jay Ozier to challenge in the 22nd Ward.
^thanks, DB, for mentioning the reason that Lyda Krewson wouldn’t care if Haas was challenging her. To his credit, Bill is a really nice person, very passionate, and perhaps not as crazy as those currently serving on the School Board.
Speaking of which …. the School Board seats up for grabs are Archibald and Purdy?
Bob Archibald and Ron Jackson, the remaining two members of the original “Slay slate” or “Slayte,” are the two school board members up for re-election. Archibald is president of the Missouri Historical Society. Jackson works for St. Louis 4 Kids. Teachers union officials keep saying they plan to oust them from the board this time. I haven’t heard any potentional candidates mentioned.
In the 24th ward, I would expect Bauer to run again as an independent. I don’t think the Republicans will run anyone after Sharon Barnes lost in the special election. Rumor is that Josh Wiese, president of the Clifton Heights Neighborhood Association, who sought to be Democratic committeeman for the ward, might also run. Waterhouse had vacated the committeeman position to become alderman. Wiese lost out to Chuck Miller, who might also have aspirations to become alderman.
It is way cool that Christian and Galen are running. Good luck to them both.
What can Kazaks teach our local elected leaders? Besides building yurts for inexpensive housing, they’re smart enough to use modern forms of communication!
Kazakhstan’s embassy to the United States continues to make use of YouTube. Lesson? Be creative, use technology to get your message out, have a sense of humor, and don’t depend on the MSM (hint: nobody trusts them anymore).
Any story on the 25th?
Affton disincorporated in 1935. It has a fire district and school district but no other local government.
St. Louis County Council operates on an odd-even election cycle. The county munies have a two aldermen per ward structure. For most, each ward votes on one alderman one year, and for another one another year.
Circuit Clerk: Mariano Favazza just won an uncontested election.
Steve:
The Circuit Court Clerk is a “county” office, and as such, is elected in the Aug/Nov cycle, not the municipal cycle.
And as for your comments about “the machine,” contrary to your firmly held beliefs, there is no single political machine in St. Louis, such as Chicago’s Mayor Daly (former) or Kansas City’s Pendergast. If anything, St. Louis has fragmentation among the several coalitions of elected officials and their supporters. This is mostly due to the form of government in St. Louis requiring so many elected officials to sign-off on any given issue. That, more than a secret society of powerbrokers, is what makes progress difficult.
You’re right about the parochial nature of ward races causing “constituent service” to trump more ideological or city-wide issues, but on balance that’s still better than the alternative. Prior to 1943, the city charter provided a mechanism that put the focus on city-wide issues: all 28 aldermen were elected at large. Result: until 1943, every alderman ever elected was a white male. The first election under the new ward election system saw the election of the board’s first woman (in the 12th) and the board’s first African American (in the 6th, then based downtown and in the slums immediately west of downtown where the parks across from City Hall are now). Ironically, both of those pioneers were Republicans. (In fact, the first three African American aldermen were all Republicans, as was unsuccessful mayoral candidate Homer G. Phillips.) Things changed locally during the Truman Administration, catching up to the rest of the country.
Strange bedfellows? Ald. Reed showed up at the Lindenwood Neighborhood Association meeting last night with Ald. Florida in tow, apparently in support of his effort to run for President. (He did seem like a nice enough guy, with both some interesting ideas [supportive of good planning and development] and a lot of energy and enthusiasm.)
Alderman Florida is one of Reed’s first supporters. Anyone have a thought why she doesn’t support Shrewsbury’s re-election?
Shrewsbury’s pretty tight with the Tower Grove South folks. Maybe he’s grooming someone to run against her?
$328 X 100 = $32,800. That would be a pay raise for me and many of my friends.
Pretty bad for the city when an alderman’s salary, which is not very high, is still higher than that of most voters — and less than what the successful candidates made before running.
Just curious, if you look on zabasearch and cross-list with SLPL’s criss-cross directory, Bill Haas has two addresses and neither one places in him the 18th…
One address is in the 28th and the other is in the 17th…
From the St. Louis City Charter Article IV, Section 2:
“No person shall become an alderman except he be a voter and at least twenty-five years of age, and shall have been next before his election five years a citizen of the United States, three years a resident of the city, two years an assessed taxpayer of the city, and one year a resident of the ward from which elected”
Bill Haas is a very intelligent, well-spoken gentleman. He so deserves to hold a political office. His heart and soul are deeply engulfed in his tenacity to better the people of Saint Louis by representing their best interests. Hopefully, Bill will run again in the next election.
MariTheFinest
Bill Haas of St. Louis, I need to email you…what is your email address?
Mari
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