最新杏吧原创

ST. LOUIS 鈥� Five candidates are vying in a special election Tuesday for Mayor Cara Spencer鈥檚 vacated downtown and south 最新杏吧原创 aldermanic seat.

And two of the top candidates are backed 鈥� separately 鈥� by the mayor and the president of the Board of Aldermen.

Shedrick Kelley, 44, a business analyst, has run unsuccessfully twice before for alderman. He is the pick of the city Democratic Central Committee and has won support from Aldermanic President Megan Green鈥檚 political action committee.

Jami Cox Antwi, 29, a banker and former Missouri House candidate, was passed over by the Democratic committee. But she has since been endorsed by Spencer, now the city鈥檚 top elected Democrat, and backed by Greater 最新杏吧原创 Inc., the region鈥檚 major business lobby. And Antwi has become by far the fundraising leader among the candidates.

That makes the race, in part, a test of the influence of Spencer and the business lobby versus Green and the city鈥檚 Democratic Party.

The race has also gotten contentious.

In early June, the Democratic Central Committee sued the city Election Board to get party affiliations included on the ballot. Getting a 鈥淒em鈥� behind Kelley鈥檚 name would typically be an advantage in a ward that, like the rest of the city, is heavily Democratic.

After a judge ruled against the Democrats, the committee tried again, this time to get Kelley鈥檚 name moved to the top of the ballot.

There have also been allegations of sign stealing and misinformation by campaign workers. And at one point, the city Democratic committee even blocked access to a voter database to everyone but Kelley, frustrating candidates who are Democrats running as independents.

Also in Tuesday鈥檚 race are:

• Jim Dallas, 63, a retired insurance executive and former president of the Soulard Restoration Group 鈥� a neighborhood association in the Soulard area.
• Alecia Hoyt, 46, who owns a photography studio and is a volunteer coordinator with a nonprofit women鈥檚 group focused on outdoor recreation.
• Cam McCarty, 37, the Libertarian Party nominee and a wireless network systems consultant.

Antwi, Dallas and Hoyt are Democrats who gathered signatures to run as independents. The city Republican committee didn鈥檛 nominate a candidate.

The candidates

The race is for the 8th Ward seat given up by Spencer when she was elected mayor in April.

The ward takes in much of downtown and stretches south along the Mississippi River to a small part of Carondelet.

The five candidates, in interviews with the Post-Dispatch, cited many of the same issues, such as expanding 鈥渢raffic calming鈥� efforts to reduce crashes and speeding, improving public safety and making trash collection and other services more consistent across the ward.

Antwi, whose banking experience includes working on housing and tax credits, said two of her top priorities would be housing and community development.

She said that includes being involved in an ongoing effort to overhaul city zoning. She said she wants to make sure 鈥渨e have a zoning map helping preserve historical integrity (of neighborhoods) and providing more affordable housing for people.鈥� She also proposes that the city sell bonds to help pay for tornado relief.

Antwi鈥檚 campaign reported raising more than $53,000. In addition, a committee tied to Greater 最新杏吧原创 Inc. spent about $12,000 to promote Antwi, and a National Association of Realtors fund spent more than $23,000.

Kelley, the 8th Ward Democratic committeeman, said he鈥檇 work to expand the city鈥檚 use of mental health workers on some police calls. To reduce traffic crashes, he wants to reduce the speed limit by 5 mph on some major streets in the ward.

In addition to the Democratic committee鈥檚 support, he has the backing of the 最新杏吧原创 Labor Council and the state LGBTQ+ Democratic caucus. His campaign reported raising about $9,800. In addition, Green鈥檚 allied political action committee spent more than $20,000 on his behalf.

Hoyt, who raised about $9,000 for her campaign, cited her involvement in the state Department of Conservation鈥檚 volunteer master naturalist program, among other things. She said it would help her planned push for more tree planting and improved parks and other green spaces.

Dallas, whose campaign raised more than $11,000, said he鈥檚 used to dealing with business executives and legal issues from his insurance career and is well-prepared to work with business leaders to improve downtown.

He said in his role with the Soulard neighborhood group, he led an initiative to expand a special taxing district that provides speed bumps, park lighting and other amenities.

McCarty, who reported raising about $1,330, said he鈥檇 push to eliminate various city fees for bars, boutiques and other small businesses and seek to undo city permitting restrictions passed in 2023 for short-term rentals.

All except McCarty said they鈥檇 support allocating more of the city鈥檚 Rams lawsuit settlement total to tornado relief than the $30 million already approved.

Court rulings

The squabble over the ballot stems from a legal oddity created in 2020 when city voters approved nonpartisan elections for alderman, mayor, comptroller and aldermanic president.

The measure, a city ordinance, also set up primaries in which residents can vote for as many candidates as they choose.

But a provision in the city charter says 鈥� for special elections called to fill aldermanic seats 鈥� political party committees get to nominate candidates. And the charter takes precedence over the 2020 ordinance.

Confusing things further has been the shifting stance of the Election Board: Since 鈥渁pproval voting鈥� went into effect, the election board has overseen four special elections for ward seats on four different days in 2022. For three of those elections, the board authorized political party designations on the ballots. But for the fourth, it switched and didn鈥檛 include them.

This time, Republican election director Gary Stoff said, election staffers asked the Board of Aldermen, which requested the election, to decide which type of ballot should be used and were told it should be one without party designations.

Aldermanic Chief Clerk Terry Kennedy disputed that, saying he only approved the 鈥渇orm鈥� of the ballot with regard to names and boxes.

On June 6, Circuit Judge Joan Moriarty ruled against adding party designations to the ballot. She said the Democratic committee hadn鈥檛 shown that the election board had 鈥渁 clear duty鈥� to include them, and the charter didn鈥檛 specifically require it.

Last week, city Democrats tried again, this time arguing state law says candidates should be listed on ballots according to how their parties finished in the last gubernatorial election, instead of listing them chronologically based on when each candidate鈥檚 name was submitted. The change would have meant Kelley would have been first on Tuesday鈥檚 ballot instead of fourth.

But on Friday, Moriarty ruled against that, too. She said because absentee voting for Tuesday鈥檚 election had been going on since June 3, it would be unfair to change the ballot at this point.

And the Democratic committee, she added, could have raised this issue earlier.