Third party, two candidates: Green Party gets mayoral primary
McCowan, left, and De Vivo
While attention has been focused on who will challenge Mayor Francis Slay in the Democratic primary, the Green Party today added some intrigue of their own: A contested primary.
Mayoral hopeful Elston K. McCowan, a union official and preacher, put his name on the ballot this morning as a Green Party candidate. He was followed about an hour or so later by Don De Vivo — a perennial Green Party candidate who has previously run for sheriff, treasurer and Board of Aldermen president — who also filed for mayor today.
It is probably the first time in St. Louis’ Green Party history that they have had a primary, let alone one for the city’s top elected post. But, the party has never won in a city general election either, which, De Vivo says, shows they have nothing to lose.
“If the Green Party’s never won anything, than why stick with the same plan?” De Vivo said. “You can’t tell me this isn’t going to generate publicity.”
These two chumps (along with I. Smith) need to get the hell out of Maida’s way. All three candidates have no chance of winning a primary or general election. Makes me wonder what thier intentions truly are. The only thing that can be accomplished is taking primary votes away from Coleman, the only real challenger to Slay.
People, think about it. Give the bag of money back to Slay and get the hell out of the way.
I don’t think any of the Greens are in Slay’s pocket. I wonder about Irene Smith though.
There were two contested Green Party primaries at the close of filing in 2004, and DeVivo was involved in one of them. However, the contested primaries were avoided when competing candidates (Chris McClarren and Michael Allen) withdrew before the deadline for doing so.
If neither McCowan nor DeVivo withdraws, the Green Primary will attract voters who otherwise would have probably voted for a foe of Slay in the Democratic Primary. But there won’t be many votes in the Green Primary, so the Democratic Primary would have to be really close in order for those votes to matter in the outcome.
If Slay wins the Democratic primary, plenty of his opponents’ voters will defect over to the winner of the Green Primary in the April general election.