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.

Dow, according to you description, French sounds like he’d be perfect for city politics. Has anyone every thought of voting for a Republican in the city? Why don’t any Republicans ever run in the city? We have plenty of Democrats in the county. Why don’t you guys try something new?

It would be nice if Jake or anyone at the Post knew what a stalking horse is. I’ve mentioned this before. Do I have to do everything around here myself? A rhetorical question the answer to which is obviously “yes”.
“From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A stalking horse is a person who tests a concept with someone, or mounts a challenge against them, on behalf of a Third Party, who remains anonymous. It is a variant on the concept of testing the water(s).

If the idea proves viable and/or popular, the anonymous figure can then declare their interest and advance the concept with little risk of failure. If the concept is ’shot down in flames’, the anonymous party will not be ‘tainted by association’ and can either drop the idea completely or ‘bide their time’ and wait until a better moment for launching an attack.

Origin
The term stalking horse originally derived from the practice of hunting,[1] particularly of wildfowl.[2] Hunters noticed that many birds would flee immediately on the approach of humans, but would tolerate the close presence of animals such as horses and cattle.

Hunters would therefore slowly approach their quarry by walking alongside their horses, keeping their upper bodies out of sight until the flock was within firing range. Animals trained for this purpose were called stalking horses. Sometimes mobile hides are used for a similar purpose.”

No use of the way Jake always used it is mentioned. I’m not judging, just saying. Jake’s use may not be uncommon and no doubt may ultimately be accepted as an alternative meaning, for which no other suitable word (sobriquet?) currently exists to my knowledge. Peanut gallery?

ok, I put the previous post under the wrong thread; so many Jakes, so little time. Jake, my brother, feel free to remove from here. then remove this post, of course; you knew that, right? best,

Bill Haas, will you PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE spend your time on more productive things. You want our vote for this position, then that position, then another position, but ALL YOU DO IS COMB WEBSITES AND BLOGS WITH YOUR TIME. I feel very sorry for you. You are really embarrassing yourself. Stay off the internet BILL and do something constructive and stop with your long, long diatribes. You’re a good guy….but you have become a laughingstock. If you were in my family, an intervention would be in order. Please stop Bill, for your own good. Please.

I love this. Just check out the cast of “weak” characters you all have listed, what a shame for St. Louis, which is so near and dear to my heart:

Antonio French
Lizz Brown
Rodney Hubbard
Eddie Hasan
Bill Haas

St. Louis, I love you, but can we get any lower than a group of characters like this? So, so sad.