04.08.2009 3:02 pm
Ward breakdowns show home turf came up huge for Slay
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS — Ward breakdowns released this morning by the city Board of Elections show that Mayor Francis Slay’s base came through in a big way on Tuesday.
Slay, who clinched a third term, carried more than 90 percent of the vote in the 12th, 16th and 23rd Wards, which includes the southwest neighborhoods of St. Louis Hills and Lindenwood Park.
Slay also scored nearly 70 percent of the vote in the 7th Ward, where his nearest rival, independent candidate Maida Coleman, calls home.
Though Coleman had a strong showing in north St. Louis — she won 77 percent of the in the First Ward — it was not nearly enough to overcome Slay’s 10,000 vote advantage.
Click here for the tallies in all 28 Wards.
The similarity in almost every single ward between Slay’s percentage of the vote versus Smith in March and his percentage versus Coleman in April is striking. As in each of his previous elections, Slay won big in most of the southside wards, and carried the central corridor comfortably. He lost the northside wards pretty badly, but still did better on the northside than his opponent did on the south side.
There really does seem to be an “anybody but Slay” contingent that makes up about 30-35% of the city’s electorate. Slay’s effective organization (combined with a rather inept campaign by his opponents) allowed him to win just about everybody else (among those who bothered to show up).
Anyone who had tried to win would have had 45% easily. Many voters stayed home rather than vote between mainstream-brand establishment Democrat Slay and opposition-brand establishment Democrat Coleman.
It is fundamental to a political system with political parties that the party organization should be 100% loyal to the party and its candidates. Sure, individual citizens should be and are free to deviate from their party over matters of conscience, but those voters shouldn’t be part of the party organization or leadership.
That is relevant to this election because, while Coleman didn’t carry very many wards, she carried the ones she won handily. Margins that big don’t happen without the complicity of the wards’ Democratic Party organizations. One test: In many of the wards that Coleman carried, most of the absentee ballots are solicited by the ward’s party organization. How did Slay and Coleman fare among the absentees?
Democrats who think it’s important for its committeemen and committeewomen to be loyal to the party and its candidates should seriously consider some form of sanctions or other disciplinary action (e.g., reduced funding and maybe less patronage) against those turncoats in their own party organization.
You seem to be making the same mistake that so many others made in the lead up to this General Election. You’ve forgotten that MAIDA COLEMAN IS A DEMOCRAT!
Frankly, I don’t care what letter was behind who’s name on the ballot. Based on dedication to and advocacy of the issues in the party platform, Maida is the by far the better Democrat.
Slay campaigned on veterans, charter schools and small businesses. Those are Republican issues. Anyone who is honest with themselves knows that if Francis Slay lived in the county, he would be a Republican.
So, regardless of what the central committee (controlled by Slay stooges) wanted, those that voted for Maida are the one’s that remained loyal to their party.