French twist: Blogger making surprise bid for alderman
French
Antonio French, a Democratic committeeman and the muscle behind the PubDef political blog, this morning took the lid off of his future aspirations: He’s running for alderman.
French, 31, said in a statement today — the last to join the March 3 municipal primary — he’s entering the race in the 21st Ward, where he’ll challenge incumbent Bennice Jones-King.
“I get calls every week from people in my ward — especially seniors — looking for help. They need financial assistance for repairing their homes, or they need a dilapidated house torn down because of safety concerns, or they need a stop sign installed at the end of the block to slow down the cars that go speeding down their street,” French said. “As a committeeman, I have very little power to help these people. These are the duties of the alderman. “
Taking on a sitting aldermen is never easy, especially in the 21st, where politics can be a contact sport. No one knows that better than French, whose late grandmother, Myrtle, was the ward’s Democratic committeewoman for many years.
In August, Antonio unseated her long time sparring partner, veteran Democrat committeeman Arthur “Chink” Washington. That victory no doubt played a key role in French’s calculus to run again in March. His entry into the aldermanic race adds to the mix of seats up in the air: Crowded contests have also emerged in the 3rd, 23rd and 25th Wards.
Sorry, grandmother formerly had the job. Political Royalty. End political royalty in America, Now!
JJK, my grandmother was never alderman. She served as Committeewoman, without pay and with very little public appreciation, for more than a decade. I am proud of my family’s record of service in our community. It’s not about “royalty”, it’s about showing up. And very often, we are the only ones that do.
My campaign is about the future of our ward and of our city. Anyone wishing to help out by volunteering or make a much-needed financial contribution can do so at http://www.21stward.org.
Thanks,
Antonio
Antonio-
Aren’t committement the ones responsibile for helping turnout and GOTV work? Didn’t St. Louis city have some of the lowest turnout in Missouri, especially compared to Republican strongholds like St. Charles? Didn’t Obama lose Missouri by so few votes that an effective GOTV operation in the city could have brought us victory? Good job….
On another note, didn’t you support the thug Rodney Hubbard is his expensive and ultimately failed bid to become the St. Louis city Senator? Another good job there…
Mel Carnahan was never Secretary of State, the office doesn’t matter. Sorry, I am no longer supporting the scions of political families. One only needs to luck at Bush, Blunt, Clay, Kennedy, etc. to see that the best possible guy for the job isn’t serving. They say a family business usually can’t last more than three generations (AB was an exception, but ultimately, the theory worked), but political royalty keeps moving on. I saw Herbert Hoover’s grand daughter pontificating on Fox News the other day. An Eisenhower granddaughter was all over the news endorsing Obama, like anyone cares about her. While precinct committeeman is the lowest and most thankless job in politics, I cannot support the concept of politics as a family business. Perhaps no one shows up because its a family business and they know they aren’t related.
So, ban everyone from politics who has a family member in elected office…..Right.
Antonio is correct, it’s about who shows up. No one in my family is an elected official and I never intended to be one myself, yet circumstances showed me that if I wanted to make things better, I needed to show up. If you don’t like your choices, step up to the plate. If you vote for the person with the most name recognition or the most money, and you vote only for those reasons, then you are supporting political royalty. Make your vote count, learn about those running, and decide based on facts and issues, not on who sends the most flyers to your mailbox.
Let me get this straight. Antonio French failed “miserably” at running a tiny newspaper. Now he has a tiny website which gets updated very little, yet constantly has a new look. He’s worked with the St. Louis Argus (which is about to go under) and its owner Eddie Hasan, who is now in jail and is a felon. He was the campaign manager for Rodney Hubbard and totally turned his back on Hubbard for selfish reasons, and Hubbard lost the election. He was in charge of getting voters out in the city which had 70% vs. 85% in St. Charles, which caused Obama to lose Missouri. All in the last five years. WOW, that’s a lot of unsuccessfulness in 5 years. Yeah, you go Antonio!!!
I’m sure he is a nice guy, however, at some point America has to decide whether we want to be a democracy or a monarchy. I thought we settled it a long time ago, but the professional political class has driven us into a ditch. As a matter of principle, I will not vote for anyone off-spring of a prior politician. You may find it unfair to him, however, I think on principle, the country will be better off with new blood. I believe political royalty is antipodal to a healthy democracy. I don’t live in the City, so it is moot, but I call it out every time I see it.
DOW - Good analysis. Yet because he’s a radical left-winger (he ran with Lizz Brown until she vanished), he gets listed in the Post-Dispatch blog roll.
This is the first time that I have heard Antonio characterized as a “radical left-winger.” Certainly little of his writings support such a characterization, nor does his work for Rodney Hubbard, whose politics are often characterized as centrist and who frequently garners the animosity of more liberal Democrats.