urbanSTL

Stl Public Radio - Former St. Louis aldermen Lewis Reed, Jeffrey Boyd, admit to their role in bribery scheme

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/governm ... ery-scheme

I certainly don't want to say everyone who supported Reed should be dismissed. He came across as a quite reasonable candidate, even if I disagreed with some of his positions. I honestly would never have guessed he criminally guilty, and I can completely understand why people would support him in an election. Even if I might back the other candidate. That said  . . . wow! (About Reed, Nothing wrong with Coatar's endorsement. Politically it made sense. I can't believe he would have guessed what was up any more than anyone else.)

Old enough to remember when Reed was the progressives answer to Slay

I liked Reed and voted for him several times, most recently along with Cara Spencer in the last mayoral race. He was a very good retail politician. I accepted that he was party to the "soft" corruption that comes with privately funded elections, e.g., donate to my campaign and if I'm elected then I'll consider your interests while in office. For better or worse, that's just how the game is played, and I don't hate the player for it.

I did not suspect, and will not accept, open bribery and bags of cash from developers or anyone else. Ald. Coatar, being an upstanding corporate attorney, surely knows better than that, or at least he hasn't been in power long enough to assume he can/will get away with it, as seems to be the case with Reed. But that soft corruption is almost certainly there, and he, like Reed, has never met a taxpayer subsidized development he didn't support. Maybe he wants to tighten up subsidies by removing Alderpersons from the process, leaving the decision to "experts," but that comes with its own problems, i.e., regulatory capture. Seems like a way of rearranging the deck chairs to appease the naysayers without really changing the balance of power and the outcomes it generates (tax giveaways to private interests).

Nothing above is an endorsement of Green.  I align with her ideologically, at least on this issue, but don't know much about her beyond that.

StlToday - Jack Coatar refunds $15,000 from controversial St. Louis developers

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/gov ... 9b918.html

Dude has been getting absolutely blasted on Twitter for the last couple years and just now decides to give it back because he "just now" found out about their sh*tty company and this "one" poor performer.  They also own other buildings in Downtown that have gone south.  Art Lofts anyone?

So I have not been following this race. Who is the frontrunner and is there any polling that would give the edge to JC vs. MG? 

^ the election is tomorrow and nobody is going to win tomorrow, both will be on the Nov 8th general where I think Coatar is a slight favorite 

^ Thanks for the info!

Tomorrow's election is basically a poll. 

^yes, I keep forgetting about the new voting structure. Thanks!

Biz journal really is something special.

Thankfully it seems like anything actually interesting in the Business Journal ends up posted to KSDK.

6.1% turnout today (piss poor turnout, but expected). Megan Green got 53.68% (6497 votes) and Jack Coatar got 46.32% (5607 votes). How much that changes over 56 days, we'll see.

Holding this particular election still seems pointless to me considering whoever wins has to run yet again come March and April. Is there something in the City Charter that says a vacancy has to be filled within a certain amount of time?

My prior was if Coatar kept it within 10 he was a favorite in November and I’m still at that, with the November electorate he is a 53-47 to 55-45 winner

^I'm not so sure I buy that. Generally liberals do better in on-cycle elections when turnout is better and conservatives are often more organized and more motivated, so they can often dominate off-cycle elections. This is just midterms, but November is more on-cycle than August. We will see, but I would be willing to bet against you on that one.

symphonicpoet wrote: ↑

Sep 14, 2022

^I'm not so sure I buy that. Generally liberals do better in on-cycle elections when turnout is better and conservatives are often more organized and more motivated, so they can often dominate off-cycle elections. This is just midterms, but November is more on-cycle than August. We will see, but I would be willing to bet against you on that one.

^ there are 35,000 gop voters in the city that didn’t vote today, why would they? They’ll show up in Nov and large share will vote Coatar with no GOP alternative on the ballot

^Sure, I get it that most people didn't show up. But I'm quite willing to bet that Green will get more of the didn't show ups than Coatar. I respect your opinion. You're a smart guy. But if you want to take a bet I really will put enough money for at least a beer on the other side. Care to make a friendly wager? Nothing that'd do either of us any harm. I'm not stupid. But I'm happy to spot you a drink if I lose. I bet Green will win. I'll buy if Coatar wins. Won't even worry about the margins.

Based on the flyer that was sent out concerning voting yesterday, comma splice, it seems like there was a large swath of the city that did not have their regular voting place available to vote.

I've thrown out the flyer apparently but if I recall there was about 12-15 places to vote. If someone could whip up a map that shows the polling spots that were open yesterday then you will see the gaping hole. Very strange.

I still think Coatar has the edge in November. Not just because of the 20% of STL city Republicans who didn't vote yesterday and will hold their nose and vote for Jack on Nov. 8. But also because the low turnout and fewer voting locations made this an election tended to make this election more favorable to the most committed and activist partisans in the Democratic party.

I compare yesterday's elections to caucuses in the presidential primary season. Those tended to favor candidates like Bernie Sanders while regular primary elections with higher turnout favored Biden.

It literally doesn't matter but zip codes 63101 and 63104 did not have a polling station yesterday. Just a bit odd.

https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/d ... UMP_981731

My wife could not figure out where to vote yesterday. That plus the fact that this election was mostly irrelevant convinced her not to do it.

leeharveyawesome wrote:It literally doesn't matter but zip codes 63101 and 63104 did not have a polling station yesterday. Just a bit odd.

https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/d ... UMP_981731

63101 is Coatar’s ward.

Green has a ceiling on how many votes she can get.