Coleman’s disqualification shocks City Hall
Campaign finance reports from Sam Coleman’s bid for state representative show he spent $75 on business cards last quarter.
Looks like he won’t be needing those - at least not this year.
Coleman, a St. Louis Democrat looking to move into Rodney’s Hubbard seat, was one of 14 candidates removed from the ballot Monday for failure to file a personal financial disclosure form on time.
The disqualification means that Coleman’s primary opponent, James T. Morris, a Methodist preacher, wins the seat by default.
Coleman’s technical knock-out came as a shock at City Hall, where he had several key officials in his corner.
Hubbard was backing him as a successor. License Collector Mike McMillan opened up his election war chest and political contacts. Coleman shared a campaign consultant with Alderman Kacie Starr Triplett, and had a packed house at his October campaign kick-off.
Coleman had already raised a total of $20,000, and had just under half of that on hand at the beginning of the month.
Is kicking a candidate off the ballot for failing to file a routine form a tad Draconian? Tough to stay.
Seems like it would be easy to argue that voters should not be denied the ability to decide a race because of a paperwork oversight. But, on the other hand, if a candidate can’t take the basic steps necessary to run, it does raise questions about their fitness for office .
Coleman will probably appeal his disqualification in court, but that will be an uphill battle. Meanwhile, he will likely encounter lots of disappointed faces - except, of course, for Morris, whose campaign strategy just got a whole lot simpler.
Coleman: Off the ballot
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Our campaign finance laws are based on the premise that voters’ ability to decide depends, in part, upon being aware of the candidates’ sources of financial support. It is Coleman’s failure to file, not the law itself, that compromised voters’ ability to decide.