Arch City Chronicle: Blog: Winning in 06 and 08

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Winning in 06 and 08

Finally swung by the Board of Elections to see April ward-by-ward break down.

We previously wrote about the March primary turn-out in the 20th ward being horrible. It was 8%. The next lowest was 14%. The bestward turn-out was 29% and the mean ward turn-out was 18%. We believe that for Democrats to win state-wide, they need to maximize voter turn-out in the city. We suggested that committeepeople should be held accountable for poor turn-out.

In previous comments about this on the blog, others have suggested that the committeman Mark Rice is nice and very hard working and not the problem. The problem, more than one poster suggested, is the demographics of the ward.

Mark may be both nice and hard-working. The demographics of the ward may be challenging. And, something's not working. In the April general election, the 20th ward was again last in turn-out - 5.35%. (The next lowest was 8.47%; the highest was 18.55% and city-wide the turn-out was 12.1%) The 20th ward has the least number of registered voters of any city ward and nineteen out of twenty of those registered voters didn't vote last election. Something has to change. Democrats need those votes.

Champions are made in the off-season.

Mark Rice told me that he doesn't like the Arch City Chronicle "because of our pro-gay agenda," and because I personally haven't lived in the city long enough to have an opinion. (I've only lived in the city about seven years.)

This leads me to believe that he may be a "nice guy" and hard-working, but if he doesn't like and doesn't want to include gays, new residents and who knows whatever other group, that may be part of the reason he's ineffective.

Democrats will need every vote in 06 and 08.

Posted by Dave on Tue., May 3, 2005 at 11:45 AM | 06 (216)

Comments

Is Mark Rice a carry over from the old 20th ward when it was in north city and Sharon Tyus was alderman?

Or was he elected after the new boundary was drawn?

Did he have anything to do with helping to draw the current boundary of the ward?

Of all the wards in the city of St. Louis, the 20th has the hardest one to "air-draw", but it sure would be fun to try!

Posted by rick on Tue., May 3, 2005 at 1:23 PM

Pro-gay agenda? You mean that notion of equal rights? Please. If this guy really believes this and is committeeman I've got more to worry about than voter turnout. - Steve

Posted by Steve Patterson on Tue., May 3, 2005 at 1:36 PM

As Yoda said, "Do... or do not. There is no try." (At least I think it was Yoda -- I've never seen any of the "Star Wars" movies.)

Elections are measured by results, not effort. It doesn't matter how many doors Mark Rice knocked on. Whatever he's doing obviously isn't working. It's time to try a different approach instead of making excuses.

Based on his other comments, it seems like Mark is one of the good ol' boys who's part of the problem, not the solution. You know the type. They think the city used to be great before all the gays, dark-skinned people and weirdos moved in.

Posted by Brian Marston on Tue., May 3, 2005 at 1:45 PM

Was Mark Rice committeeman for the old 10th ward?

Just as Craig Schmid was alderman for the 10th ward when it was moved to the Hill, giving Alderman Schmid dual status, both as the seated alderman for the tenth ward, and the "alderman in residence" for the newly relocated 20th ward.

Does Mark Rice even date back to the days when Michael Sheehan was the alderman for the tenth ward? That's going pretty far back.

Consider me "out of the loop", but I never heard of Mark Rice until the Arch City Chronicle mentioned his name.

Posted by rick on Tue., May 3, 2005 at 1:58 PM

Mark Rice lost the primary in the 59th state House district to Jeannette Mott-Oxford. The "pro-gay" remark could just be sour grapes.

Then again, based on the anecdotal evidence I have of the gay men and lesbians purchasing homes in the 20th ward, Mark Rice could be on his way out as 20th ward committeeman.

Posted by Jim Redmond on Tue., May 3, 2005 at 2:24 PM

Mark's not a carry-over from the days when the 20th was up north. He is South Side, through and through. Which is fine, except that the South Side is changing. And the 20th is one of the wards that is changing the fastest.

Yes, Dave - champions are made in the off-season. Steve Patterson, who posted above, made a valiant effort at the seat in the 25th. Let's hope some progressive challengers for various posts in some even-numbered wards across the city get started earlier next time around, and begin building on what Steve and others have begun.

Posted by Jeff on Tue., May 3, 2005 at 4:24 PM

What the? Marston has never seen any of the Star Wars movies?

There is a disturbance in the force, as if a thousand voices cried out at once, and then silence.

Posted by Joe Daus on Tue., May 3, 2005 at 10:49 PM

Shoot, maybe I should run for 20th ward committeeman! Mark Rice, I believe, became 10th ward committeeman when Allen Ura passed away; used to be Allen and Lorraine were husband-and-wife committeepeople, since the days not of crazy Michael Sheehan, but of ward boss Louis Buckowitz. Buckowitz (whose wife, Georgia, was parks director in the 70s) was probably committeeman before that, but I'm vague on the dates. They might be in Lana Stein's book; I recall a sidebar on Uncle Louie in there.

But one of the big problems with Ward 20 is the boundaries are so ridiculously screwy. Credit or blame for that goes to the Rainford team, for trying to create a Southside ward that was 60+ percent African-American. Since the neighborhoods are pretty integrated - white, AA, Hispanic, and Asian on the same blocks oftentimes - they had to really reach to make it work. So ward 9 - only about 40% AA - wraps around 20 on 3 sides, conveniently giving the entire waterfront controlled by Slay Industries to Ken Ortmann.

Joe Frank
Ward 10/Ward 20 resident since 2001

Posted by Joe Frank on Thu., May 5, 2005 at 10:18 AM

I wonder why citizens do not get a voice in the redistricting process through community meetings or public hearings. If that were the case, I doubt we'd have the 20th ward boundary we see today.

When they were redrawing the congressional district boundaries, there were a series of meetings offered to the public. Many city residents testified in favor of maintaining Congressman Gephardt's district in the city of St. Louis.

Posted by rick on Fri., May 6, 2005 at 8:44 AM

(1) There is little evidence that the legislative hearings preceeding the statewide Congressional re-districting had any effect on the outcome;

(2) There were, in fact, public hearings and public meetings preceeding the aldermanic redistricting in 2001.

And, an interesting side-note: the EZ re-election of 17th Ward alderman Joe Roddy in one of the new 60+ percent majority-minority wards. Another such ward: the 20th, which will be up again in two years.

Posted by publiceye on Sun., May 8, 2005 at 11:20 AM

I have heard so many different things describing how ward resdistricting works; it's very unclear. It's definitely passed as an ordinance though, right?

Posted by rick on Sun., May 8, 2005 at 9:00 PM

St. Louis City Ordinance 65377

Posted by publiceye on Mon., May 9, 2005 at 9:00 AM

Mark Rice i have known for years and not a better man do i know when it comes to equality and looking to better the future

tommy

Posted by tommy on Tue., May 24, 2005 at 10:53 PM

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