August 7 Primary: Contested City Seats
August 7th is the Missouri primary election. Voters will be selecting their party’s candidate for various state offices that day. But locally we’ll also be be selecting candidates for our party to face an opponent in other parties in the November general election. The reality is locally the winner of the Democratic primary rarely faces an opponent from another party in the General election. This year there will be a few races not finalized until November.
Uncontested: Circuit Attorney, Public Administrator, various committeeman and committeewoman positions within the Democrat, Green & Republican parties. The complete list of candidates can be found here:
Offices:
Sheriff:
- Vernon Betts faces incumbent James W. (Jim) Murphy and David (DA) Mosley.
- The winner in the Democratic primary will face Republican Robert V. Sternberg on November 6th
Treasurer:
- Democrats: Alfred J. “Fred” Wessels Jr., Brian Anthony Wahby, Tishaura O. Jones and Jeffrey Boyd face each other, incumbent Larry Williams isn’t seeking another term thankfully.
- Greens: Don DeVivo and Anthony Stevens face each other.
- The winners of the Democratic & Green primaries will face Republican Tim Bachman on November 6th.
Committeeman & Committeewoman:
Ward 1/Democratic:
- Committeeman: Sterling Samuel Miller vs Azim Azid
- Committeewoman: Sharon Tyus vs Althea (Haywood) Harris
Ward 2/Democratic:
- Committeeman: 4-way race between Larry Middlebrook, David (DA) Mosley, Terrance “Terry” Buchanan, and John Saxton
Ward 3/Democratic:
- Committeeman: 3-way race between Johnnie Saddler, Calvin L. Garner, and Anthony Bell
Ward 4/Democratic:
- Committeeman: Edward McFowland vs Offong R. Ahmed
- Committeewoman: Tina Sparkling vs Norma Leggette
Ward 5/Democratic:
- Committeewoman: Penny V. Hubbard vs. Tonya Finley
Ward 6:
- Democratic Committeeman: John Maxwell vs Damon A. Jones
- Republican Committeeman: John L. Hubb vs Matthew Hanses
Ward 8/Republican
- Committeeman: Michael A. “Mike” Chance vs Robert J. Shelli
Ward 9/Republican
- Committeeman: Daniel Morgan vs Christopher W. Rowley
Ward 15/Republican
- Committeeman: Michael W. Huett vs Nicholas Willard
Ward 16/Republican
- Committeeman: Jake Koehr vs. Frederick A. Hodes
Ward 21/Democratic:
- Committeeman: Kerry D. Wilson vs Michael Watson
- Committeewoman: Jamilah Nasheed vs. Audrey Larkin
Ward 22:
- Green Committeeman: Don DeVivo vs Barry Watkins
- Democratic Committeeman: Nora “Tumaini” Neal vs Angela D. Miles
Ward 26/Democratic:
- Committeewoman: Kay Ross Gage vs Shameem Hubbard
Are there seriously separate offices for committeeman and committeewoman in each ward?
ridiculous, huh? why don’t we go ahead and have separate white and black offices as well.
Yeah, and there are probably a lot of vacant Republican committee seats!
and what exactly do these committee people do?
Committee people are unpaid. All are elected by their constituency. Most of them are wanna-be alderpersons who don’t have the organizational skills to initially put together a campaign, or to follow up with tasks on a large-scale, as would be expected of an alderperson. Some are relatives of reigning alderpersons, or former alderpersons. They’re like “elves”–Santa’s helpers. Most would love to be high-ranking elected officials, but that’s unlikely to ever happen. They campaign for alderpersons at election time, and they organize ward meetings, begging beer and refreshments from local businesses (in exchange for…?), and they’re in charge of cleanup after the meetings. If anyone needs a ride to the polls, it’s up to the committee person to either arrange for or provide the ride.
Very good description but you forgot they help to discourage anyone from running against the current alderman if they are buddies or work to undermine the current aldermen if they are foes.