Checking In On The Less Popular Ward Races

With everyone, including myself, looking at the city-wide race between Jim Shrewbury and Lewis Reed, the hotly contested 3-way race in the 6th ward and the potentially interesting 20th ward race, I thought I would turn some attention to the other challenged seats. With their 40-Day before election reports all in we can see how they are doing at least from a financial perspective:

4th Ward:

Incumbent O.L. Shelton doens’t even have a campaign committee set up at all. Challenger Sam Moore has a committee but only raised $200. These two have no choice but to be grass roots.

12th Ward:

Incumbent Fred Heitert, a Republican, is facing fellow Republican Matthew Browning in the March 6th Primary. Heitert, first elected in 1979 (yes, in the age of Disco), has been filing “limited activity” reports for years. Finally we know how much he has coming into the race, a tad over $3,600. In November he lent his campaign $15,000. Browning is getting a slow start having raised only $50 bucks but he too is willing to spend his own money having lent his campaign $5,000. The winner of the Republican primary will face Democrat James Pree on April 3, 2007. Pree has just established his committee so it is hard to judge how he will do against either Heitert or Browning. Just the fact we will have both a primary and general contest makes this an interesting race to watch.

18th Ward:

Incumbent Terry Kennedy raised $4,300 but he only started with $100. He’s spent $3,657 so far. Challenger Bill Haas who, until recently, was also running for the school board, filed a “limited activity report” which means expense & contributions were limited to $500 or less.

22nd Ward:

Incumbent Jeffrey Boyd, who voted with Jim Shrewsbury against the BJC Lease, didn’t raise much cash but he started off with a tidy sum, after expenses he has over $35K on hand. Challenger Jay Ozier raised $700 and has $111 left. Can you say “uphill battle?”

24th Ward:

Incumbent Bill Waterhouse, who won a 2005 special election after challenger Tom Bauer was recalled from the job, has raised over $11K for this election cycle and has just over $12K on-hand. Meanwhile, Tom Bauer has raised only $200 and has lent his campaign $5,150.

26th Ward:

Incumbent Frank Williamson raised only $375 this period but since he started with over $15K he probably didn’t feel the need to push for much more. Challenger H. Lee Willis has raised around $1,300 plus a loan of another $300.

What I find most interesting is the differences from ward to ward. Some incumbents have massive amounts of money, which is part of the reason you don’t see anyone running against them. Other wards seem to be on less than shoe-string budgets.

State Rep. Mike Daus Begins Blogging

Missouri State Representative Mike Daus (D-67th) has started a new blog, 67thdistrict.blogspot.com covering issues in his state house district. Daus has two years left on his term in Jefferson City so expect to see speculation about him seeking another office. But why wait for the speculation, I’ll get it started.

Daus lives in the 4th State Senate District where Jeff Smith was just elected in 2006 so that leaves out a run for another job in Jefferson City unless he were to attempt a state-wide office. Daus ran for 15th Ward alderman in 2001 against Jennifer Florida, who narrowly defeated him by something like 20 votes. Will Daus return to the aldermanic arena after having served eight years in Jefferson City? Interestingly, campaign finance reports for both Florida & Daus show them each having roughly $19,000 in their respective campaign accounts.

To learn more about blogging see my FAQ About Blogging.

Gondolfi Outraises Incumbent Schmid in 20th Ward

Three term 20th Ward alderman Craig Schmid has been filing “Limited Activity” reports for so long it was unclear how much money he had around for campaigning. With the most recent reporting we can see he came into the election with just shy of $2,000. However, he has managed to raise only $725 between October 1st and January 20, 2007. Among the contributors was fellow alderman Fred Wessels (D-13th).
Meanwhile, challenger Galen Gondolfi didn’t begin his campaign until late November, 2006 and through January 20, 2007 he has raised nearly $4,000. Challenging an incumbent takes more than simply cash, we’ll see on March 6th if Gondolfi is able to defeat Schmid who is widely credited with helping to rid neighborhoods of problems.

Of course, he who raises the most money is not necessarily the best leader for a ward or city. It would be interesting to see these two debate before the elections so everyone can get a better idea of who they are and what they bring to the table for the next four years.

Here are the candidate’s reports:

• Schmid
• Gondolfi

Veronica O’Brien Should Resign Effective Immediately

I’m done with St. Louis School Board President Veronica O’Brien. The school system has many differences of opinion and issues to resolve and her presence is only complicating matters. The school board president, in my view, should be the leader that all respect to help guide the district through the rough times. Veronica O’Brien is not that person.

So, I’m asking her to resign as President effective immediately. I’m asking all of you to do the same by signing an online petition I have created. Click here to read the petition, sign if you agree.

UPDATE 1/31/2007 @ 9:30am – I have verified that current SLPS VP Bill Purdy has signed the petition (#7).

UPDATE 1/31/2007 @ 1pm – Fox 2 has interviewed me regarding this issue, look for the story in the 5pm-6:30pm time slot. Also, just to clarify — I am asking that she resign as President of the board, not necessarily resigning from the board altogether. I belive we need one of the other members to step up and show leadership where Ms. O’Brien has not. Added image to post from press conference announcing Dr. Bourisaw as acting superintendent on July 17, 2006.

UPDATE 1/31/2007 @ 2:30pm — Further reading:

Suburban Journals:

• O’Brien skips workshop on being a better board member
• Board Splits O’Brien’s Power to Sign Contracts
• School board declines to conduct survey on takeover

PubDef Weekly:

• Highlights from Public hearing on 1/30/2007
• School Board to Meet to Protect the District from O’Brien’s “Sabotage”
• iPods for O’Brien
• O’Brien Aside, Bonner makes $75K

Campaign Contributions in the 6th Ward Race

The three candidates in the 6th ward aldermanic race have raised the following cash through January 20th:

• Triplett, $13,715
• Saller, $7,370
• Cacchione, $7,330

Someone is bound to look at Cacchione’s 40-Day before the election report and tell me I am wrong, his report shows $8,580 raised. Well, yes and no. If you look closely you’ll see three (3) contributions totaling $1,250 received the day after the reporting period. Without knowing what the other two candidates, Triplett & Saller, received after the close of the reporting period it is impossible to include these in a comparison.

Cacchione has also put $5,000 of his own money into the race, a classic method of the underdog to show he is serious about a race. I advised Republican Pat Herod to do the same last year when he ran against Mike McMillan for License Collector.
Saller has received quite a bit in the way of in-kind contributions, however, the above figures include neither in-kind or personal loans. As such, we see Triplett out ahead of the other two by a large margin with Cacchione trailing immediately behind Saller. Triplett received $2,000 from a single donor while another donor gave money to both Saller & Cacchione.
It remains to be seen if receiving the 6th Ward Democratic endorsement will help Cacchione attain more contributions during the next reporting period (January 21- February 22) or if he will remain in third place behind Triplett & Saller, respectively. Saller’s strong showing will likely help him as the campaign enters the final month.

Of course money has nothing to do with issues.  Hopefully we will see a good discussion of issues at the 6th ward debate to be held at the main library next Monday, February 5th.  The event starts at 6pm with the debate starting at 7pm.