November 2004

November 30, 2004

Dueker goes back to Stinson

Jane Dueker is re-joining Stinson Morrison and Hecker.

Metropolis considers restructuring

The out-of-the-box plan includes convening a Wisdom Council.

If development suddenly halts in a couple of wards tomorrow, you know why

Greg Carter, Jennifer Florida, Dionne Flowers and Mike McMillan will be on their way to Indianapolis tomorrow to take part in the National League of Cities conference.

They hope to learn lots of tips and lessons from other cities.

November 29, 2004

Jeff Smith is outta here...

At least until next summer.

The going away party is Decemeber 16th at Blueberry Hill.

MISSING: CopTalk

Ran into a subscriber yesterday who alerted me that CopTalk has disappeared. Perhaps an early Christmas gift from the SLPD?

I'm interested about the circumstances. Anyone know anything about how/why/where this happened?

Coming December 11: The "Stellas"

Gallery Urbis Orbis
419 N. 10th Street (one half-block south of Washington in the 10th Street Lofts)
Saturday, December 11 @ 7:00 p.m. (doors @ 6:30 p.m.)
Suggested donation of $3.00
Information: 314-776-6929; or write: thomascrone@yahoo.com

The Stella Burlacu Kick Ass Awards are coming to St. Louis, after a successful debut in Austin, TX, during January of this year. Twelve of the SBKA Awards will be given out at a public reception at Downtown’s vibrant Gallery Urbis Orbis on Saturday, December 11.

Celebrating those who contribute to the community on a regular basis, without always receiving just due, the Stella Burlacu Awards are named after a remarkable St. Louis woman. The Awards, though, were founded by Austin writer Spike Gillespie, a St. Louis expatriate. She met the namesake due to Stella’s working at a Webster Groves coffeeshop, one of her multiple jobs.

As Spike says, “Sometimes up to a year, or even longer, will pass between my visits to Stella. So I’ll see her for three or four days and then not. And surely she waits on thousands of people per year. But she never, ever has forgotten me. I walk in after being gone a long time, she sees me, she doesn’t hesitate, she lights up, she clasps my one (usually cold) hand in her two hands and asks how I’ve been. And then tears spring to my eyes at this small kindness and I can hardly tell her what I want. At some point, I decided I wanted to start the Kick Ass Awards in Austin, where I’ve lived for fourteen years now.

“So last winter, to celebrate my 40th birthday, I decided to turn the tables and celebrate other people, people who make a difference in my life and in the community but who don’t always get recognized for it. I designed this trophy at my local trophy shop; on one side of the pedestal is a horse’s ass and on the other is a karate guy. For the first awards, I had maybe 15 or so made and my friend Erin wore an evening gown and I announced the winners and it was a really big time. At the start of the ceremony, I told the story of Stella. By that time, I’d found out more about her. Hardships in Romania, the loss of her first husband… which just made Stella’s kick assedness all the more kick ass. I sent her a trophy, too.”

November 24, 2004

Sorry so long without a post

Been incredibly busy.

New issue was at the mailers yesterday, with a little luck, subscribers should see it before Thanksgiving.

Rodney vs. Roddy: a preview of the 17th ward coming aldermanic race. by Dave Drebes.

Pole Position: Who's waiting in line for the November 29th filing date. By Christine Stroer.

Here we go again... Or not: A review of the SLPS' ups and downs so far. By Larry Handlin.

Suburban Crawl: a Tale of superstore shopping. By Rachelle L'Ecuyer.

Wishlist: What do the movers and shakers want for this holiday season.

Theatre Spotlight: An interview with Todd Schaefer. By Claralyn Bollinger.

The Permanent Campaign. By Will Winter.

Looking Around the Corner: spring aldermnic match-ups. By Will Winter and Dave Drebes.

Final Word: The Apple of my I. By Lucas Hudson.

Arch City Adventures: Morganford Blues Bar. By Lucas Hudson.

Plus My Thoughts Exactly, Letters to the Editor, Who Knew, Ends and Odds and more.

November 19, 2004

Youngblood to DC

Kathleen Youngblood, a Senator Bond staffer here in St. Louis, is leaving at the end of November to become Bond's Scheduler in DC.

Stoll takes Festus job

As rumored, Stoll is taking the Festus city administrator job. I wrote last week in the Business Journal that the candidate that the Democrats choose for the special election is a signal about the direction of the Democratic party.

Rick Johnson represents the traditional Democratic positions on social issues (guns and babies), but would be vulnerable to a Republican challenge.

Another candidate, presumably pro-life, would represent a "big-tent" willingness to compromise on those issues to keep rural seats.

November 18, 2004

Tick tock tick tock

Although Circuit Clerk Mariano Favazza says many people have asked him to run for mayor, he tells the ACC that he won't have any decision or announcement until filing begins, November 29th.

Political Eye questions Post headline

I asked the very same question to my wife that morning while we were having coffee reading the NYT and the Post.

Same article, much different headlines.

The Post headline made Gonzales being Hispanic the news though it wasn't until the fourth paragraph that the Times article mentioned that fact.

2006 Senate Seat

Via Combest, The National Review's crystal ball has Jay Nixon or Carnahan (Robin) vs. Talent in 2006.

November 17, 2004

Another reason for charter reform

Parking Fines = $30
Additional Penalties = $130
We have your car and we can charge you whatever we want = $180

Total cash outlay before Noon = $340

November 16, 2004

After the election, many elections...

What do politicos start doing after an election? Start planning for the next election.

The St. Louis American's Alvin Reid has reportedly been approached about the possibility fo running for the Kirkwood City Council.

Former 3rd CD candidate Jeff Smith, likewise, is said to have been asked to consider running for St. Louis Board of Education.

Both confirm being approached and both deny that they are going to run.

The search goes on...

November 13, 2004

Amy's second of Bill's email

It appears Amy has left the board majority.

Amy Hilgemann's email as forwarded by Bill Haas:

Bill: You did an excellent job in describing what happened last night at the emergency let's fire Floyd Crues board meeting. Vince wants to be Superintendent soooooooooo bad he had Ken Brostron write Floyd's contract so "the Board" has to approve (prior to any and all employees are hired) who are there to "assist the Superintendent carry out his duties." Well looks like Vonce is mad because the Superintendent is not taking all his orders from Vince via Darnetta, like he had planned. And then the proposed by-law changes that Vince has prepared to strip all power from board members who are not in the majority...(even to the point of denying them their First amendment rights) and to leave the Superintendent without any power at all to carry out the responsibilites empowered by state statute to run the largest school district in the state of Missouri.

It's been discussed all over town in many different circles that Vince Schoemohl came to the Board with his three other blind, thoughtless, careless, puppy dogs, to destroy the institution called St. Louis Public Schools. And the reason he wants to do that is because he thinks the (black) employees we have are stupid, lazy, and political hackerie from the Honorable Wm. Clay days. Let me quote Vince's remarks from the Board's last retreat....."I do not care about the teachers, I care about the outcomes." If you do not believe this is a quote just request a video tape of that retreat from this past September 27th........Vince goes on to proclaim that the job of the board (and he really just means the job of him as the King Pin of the board....) is not just policy, but as coaches to the administration....... How can Vince Schoemohl be a coach to an educational system when he knows little if anything about and a district that he wants to destroy. He has been in maybe three schools after 18 months, he know few employees, and probably he couldn't even name 10 schools and where they are located. But Vince is the expert. Like I say, he really wants to be Superintendent. And since this town would go balistic if he were to be the Sup (and they don't have the votes to make him such) he wants to run every little detail behind the scenes. He protests toooo much when these kinds of reality statements are made. After Sylvester Brown hit the nail on the heaed in one of his articles about how Vince is running it all......Vince set Darnetta in motion. When ever Vince gets bad press he gets his puppet number one, Darnetta, to try and blame everyone but them for the problems and lack of credibility they have in this community. The best thing that could happen to SLPS is for the four of them to resign. Nothing is going to get any better. They will never find a superintendent to come to this district and be told when to stand up and when to shut up and when to take the blame for their f***-ups. remember, who ever comes to St. Louis, they will probably be fired in one year and then walk away with all the money.........Another Vince give away.

Academics and Achievement is supposed to be the product of SLPS. Interim Superintendent Crues is focusing on that with less than one tenth the fiscal costs that this board spent last year on Roberti and all his contracts. Vince is mad, and he has the other three ready to go for Floyd's juggler because Floyd didn't say...mother may I hire so and so for assistant superintendent....mother may I hire so and so for Public Relations. For all of you out there who think Floyd is running the district like Vince says....I guess you are wrong....They are ready to fire him because he is making his own decisions.....Oh well.

Anyway stay tuned, as Ken Brostron does his investigation of Floyd for hiring employees without Vince's prior approval........Maybe Bob Archibald can get his motion on the floor to fire Interim Superintendent Floyd Crues for violation of the boards right to tell him everything what to do. Then we can have Vince become Interim-Interim Superintendent!!!!!!

Bill Haas gives his side of the story (though he wasn't there)

The Post story didn't say much and was without a by-line.

Here is Haas' email:

I dont know what you'll read in the Post Dispatch tomorrow morning, since it seems their job to protect the reputation of Fran Slay and his hand-picked gang of four "hoodlums" on the school board, and I dont know the details first-hand since I attended the first hour of the meeting by phone and then had to return to work, but at an inappropriately designated "emergency" meeting of the Board Friday evening to scapegoat Superintendent Floyd Crues, for the recent story about executive salaries, in order to protect their homeboy Fran Slay in an election year, when Vince and Darnetta know about everything that happens in the district before it happens (heck, I knew pretty much all about the salaries and appointments -they had been in our consent agenda for several months), according to reports to me from Amy and Veronica, when Vince Schoemehl saw, in my opinion, that their witchhunt wasnt going to fly, even tho they had 4 votes for it, he seems to have "lost it" and gone over the table at Amy, and then when Veronica stood up to protect her, he went after her, and Darnetta had to pull Vince away from her, and then the police were called and are investigating. The Post Dispatch confirmed to me that they were there, so we'll see what they write.

I should point out that Vince has previously tried to attack me, and though I calmed him down, I filed a police report about it with the downtown police district and the captain said she'd talk to Vince. I told her that the next time someone was in my face (Ron Jackson had previously come over a table at me, tho later apologized), someone was going to get hurt, and I didnt much care who it was, but that was pretty much going to be the last time someone shook their hand in my face. For Vince to try to attack two women may have been smarter than coming after me again, but is still wrong. And it's a good thing I wasnt there, because to get at Amy and Veronica, Vince would have had to go through me and that wouldnt have been pretty.

I care for Vince as a person, and he is often likeable and smart, but since he seems not to be able to control his temper, and has now attacked or threaten to attack three board members, two of them women, by separate open letter to Vince I am going to ask him to step down from the board for his own good and that of the district, whether or not he is charged with any crime from last night. Last night's actions in my opinion have brought disgrace to the board and the district. What was good enough for Rochell Moore with respect to violence, should be good enough for Vince, and he should step down without the necessity of a court action to remove him.

I am sending this email at the request of Veronica and Amy, because, they said, my email list is longer, but I did not witness this fiasco, as I've said, so for a first hand account of what happened you will need to talk to them. Perhaps they can reply to all those on my list with their first-hand accounts.

I should also add, that Vince, Darnetta, Ron and Bob came to the meeting ready with a motion of what they wanted to do, without any discussion, so it seems clear to me that they had previously discussed it in violation of the sunshine law, and I believe that Amy and Veronica will be joining me in a sunshine law complaint to the Missouri Attorney General's office. This, too, should be grounds for removal from office of the four of them.

And for those who have criticized Amy and I for failing to stand up for what's right in the district, I wish you had been there to see and hear our vigorous opposition to the gang of four's attempt to scapegoat our fine acting Superintendent for what was essentially the actions of Roberti and Vince and Darnetta that the board had known about and approved. This stupid non-emergency meeting (like it couldnt have waited until our regular meeting Tuesday?) was an attempt to cover up their own actions and that of their puppeteers at City Hall following the unflattering article in the Post about appointments and salaries. Whatever one feels about those, what they tried to do tonight to Floyd was wrong and a disgrace. Amy may have tried to work with them at the beginning, but she's been a fine warrior for the people against them the last several months. And Veronica's fine performance has been, I like to think, partly the result of the encouragement and education from Amy and I. I remember once when Veronica first got on the Board and I was complimenting her performance at a public board meeting, I was shouted down by a few members of the community. Maybe if they would spend less time shouting, and more time listening, they'd catch on better to the good job Amy, I and Veronica are doing. Although outnumbered we're fighting valiantly against the forces of evil and darkness, occaionally joined by Ron Jackson (but not tonight, and never by Bob Archibald, who I am told wants to fire Floyd over what were essentially board and Roberti actions! what a disgrace! Maybe some of the other warriors for the district should start to complain to the Board of the Missouri Historical Society about his inappropriate use of Historical Society personnel and resources for School Board business, and we'd have a chance of getting rid of him, too, but that's an aside.

All for tonight.
Respectfully submitted, your public servant Bill Haas

November 12, 2004

Green buildings

There has been a small effort underway to get the City to insist on LEED standards for construction receiving city subsidies. It hasn't gone anywhere.

November 10, 2004

New issue in mail

In this issue

Murdered!: How the Charter Amendments Got Creamed by Dave Drebes.

City Grocers Debut Downtown by Christine Stroer.

A Prescription for the Future (How Democrats can avoid becoming a permanent minority party) by Jeff Smith.

Living and Dying by the Cities: Election Analysis by Will Winter.

St. Louis International Film Festival Preview by Thomas Crone.

Blogging Pundits Give their Perspective on the Election by ArchPundit, Diatriber and St. Louis Oracle.

Election Night Parties by Dave Drebes.

The Final Word: Cardinal Sin by Lucas Hudson.

Arch City Adventures: Beale on Broadway by Lucas Hudson.

And much more...

November 09, 2004

David Brooks' advice to Democrats

I'm embarrased I'm just looking at today's paper now. Anyway, I try to keep the focus local so, in that spirit, please note that he mentions St. Louis.

May require registeration.

Brooks' advice to Democrats: Get out into the sprawl.

November 08, 2004

Another Blog to start checking

Urban Review

Watching Missouri from the DNC Headquarters

The new issue is at the printers. We ran out of space in this last issue for all of our content. So here is a piece by Larry Handlin we couldn't fit in about his experience watching election returns. (Note to Handlin fans: The new issue does have a different piece by Handlin.)

Watching Missouri from the DNC Headquarters
by Larry Handlin

After raising money for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee I won a chance to watch the elections from the internet strategy office for the DCCC on election day. Given early November is a rather miserable time in St. Louis for me due to allergies I chucked plans to work around town and headed east.

The War Room as it is called isn’t nearly as glamorous as it sounds, but it did contain a smart group of folks who developed one of the most effective web strategies during the campaign cycle and Joe Trippi’s team used on the Dean race was there working on the race.

After some sight seeing we settled down in the office to watch the returns come in and let folks know what we were hearing from around the country. Talking to people involved in Get Out the Vote efforts in St. Louis and St. Louis County, I knew there were huge numbers of voters at polling places and that turnout was through the roof. Dale Fisher barely had time to talk as he was being dispatched to pick up voters.

The question was whether evangelical radio which was all Bush all the time for the last few months was also motivating enough Republican voters to get to the polls as well. In retrospect, we know that effort was incredibly successful, but the Democratic effort was quite impressive as well.

Early polling started to come in and all the sources available to us indicated a Kerry lead. Much has been made of these numbers being ‘wrong’, but they weren’t. They just hadn’t been analyzed in terms of relative turnout and so they weren’t fully representative of the voters. Networks later take the numbers and then analyze them and perform some basic manipulations so they fit the turnout. Not having time to run through those, everyone took them for what they were and got back to talking to people and checking sources for what was going on out there.

The first sign of trouble was an e-mail that Russ Carnahan’s campaign thought that Federer would get no more than 46% of the vote. In a district with a wide Democratic advantage this made everyone look around at each other and wonder what the hell happened. Federer ended up with 45% of the vote. Bekki Cook’s people were reported to be panicked, but no one could figure out why.

As soon as polling closed and St. Louis County results came in, it was clear that Charlie Dooley had won with a 5% gap that couldn’t be closed in the afternoon. Of course, I was so busy that a friend had to e-mail me the explanation because I had not even thought through the implications.

That was a momentary boost. Then we started to notice huge turnouts in Florida, where one wouldn’t expect huge turnouts including Brevard County, which includes Cape Kennedy and lots of ex-military. That number told us that Florida was a lot closer than anyone expected.

Turnout by Ward

Ward 23 - 79.5%
Ward 28 - 79.03%
Ward 16 - 78.5%
Ward 12 - 78.06%
Ward 24 - 75.2%
Ward 13 - 75%
Ward 14 - 74.3%
Ward 15 - 73.5%
Ward 8 - 73.4%
Ward 7 - 72.8%
Ward 6 - 71%
Ward 10 - 70.56%
Ward 17 - 69.99%
CITY-WIDE - 68.02%
Ward 11 - 66.58%
Ward 25 - 66.1%
Ward 2 - 65.7%
Ward 27 - 63.9%
Ward 19 - 63.8%
Ward 21 - 63.5 %
Ward 26 - 63.5%
Ward 5 - 62.6%
Ward 9 - 62.09%
Ward 1 - 60.9%
Ward 18 - 60.8%
Ward 4 - 59%
Ward 20 - 57.6%
Ward 22 - 57%
Ward 3 - 56.4%

November 07, 2004

Democratic Strength in City - by Ward

The usual disclaimer, I should have mentioned yesterday: These numbers come from unofficial results, and my work with them involves a fair amount of scribbling, eye-balling, and rounding. So don't live and die by these numbers.

Okay...

Ward 1
Democratic Straight Ticket 75%
Kerry 97%
Farmer 94%
McCaskill 95%
Robin Carnahan 95%

Ward 2
Democratic Straight Ticket 70.8%
Kerry 93%
Farmer 91%
McCaskill 91%
Robin Carnahan 93%

Ward 3
Democratic Straight Ticket 76.5%
Kerry 96%
Farmer 93%
McCaskill 93%
Robin Carnahan 94%

Ward 4
Democratic Straight Ticket 72.6%
Kerry 96%
Farmer 94%
McCaskill 93%
Robin Carnahan 94%

Ward 5
Democratic Straight Ticket 71.2%
Kerry 93%
Farmer 90%
McCaskill 90%
Robin Carnahan 90%

Ward 6
Democratic Straight Ticket 51.2%
Kerry 85%
Farmer 83%
McCaskill 83%
Robin Carnahan 83%
Russ Carnahan 79%

Ward 7
Democratic Straight Ticket 47.2%
Kerry 82%
Farmer 79%
McCaskill 78%
Robin Carnahan 79%
Russ Carnahan 74%

Ward 8
Democratic Straight Ticket 45.3%
Kerry 82%
Farmer 79%
McCaskill 79%
Robin Carnahan 80%
Russ Carnahan 75%

Ward 9
Democratic Straight Ticket 51%
Kerry 80%
Farmer 78%
McCaskill 76%
Robin Carnahan 78%
Russ Carnahan 73%

Ward 10
Democratic Straight Ticket 36.8%
Kerry 70%
Farmer 67%
McCaskill 68%
Robin Carnahan 69%
Russ Carnahan 60%

Ward 11
Democratic Straight Ticket 40.4%
Kerry 70%
Farmer 67%
McCaskill 65%
Robin Carnahan 68%
Russ Carnahan 58%

Ward 12
Democratic Straight Ticket 25.1 %
Kerry 56%
Farmer 55%
McCaskill 56%
Robin Carnahan 58%
Russ Carnahan 47%

Ward 13
Democratic Straight Ticket 31.7%
Kerry 65%
Farmer 63%
McCaskill 63%
Robin Carnahan 64%
Russ Carnahan 55%

Ward 14
Democratic Straight Ticket 36.5 %
Kerry 68%
Farmer 65%
McCaskill 66%
Robin Carnahan 69%
Russ Carnahan 59%

Ward 15
Democratic Straight Ticket 42.9%
Kerry 80%
Farmer 77%
McCaskill 76%
Robin Carnahan 78%
Russ Carnahan 72%

Ward 16
Democratic Straight Ticket 21.1%
Kerry 53%
Farmer 50%
McCaskill 54%
Robin Carnahan 53%
Russ Carnahan 44%

Ward 17
Democratic Straight Ticket 51.5%
Kerry 84%
Farmer 81%
McCaskill 81%
Robin Carnahan 83%
Russ Carnahan 86%

Ward 18
Democratic Straight Ticket 72.2%
Kerry 95%
Farmer 92%
McCaskill 92%
Robin Carnahan 93%

Ward 19
Democratic Straight Ticket 61.7%
Kerry 85%
Farmer 82%
McCaskill 83%
Robin Carnahan 84%
Russ Carnahan 86%

Ward 20
Democratic Straight Ticket 63.9%
Kerry 87%
Farmer 83%
McCaskill 82%
Robin Carnahan 85%

Ward 21
Democratic Straight Ticket 74.5%
Kerry 97%
Farmer 95%
McCaskill 94%
Robin Carnahan 95%

Ward 22
Democratic Straight Ticket 79.4%
Kerry 97%
Farmer 95%
McCaskill 95%
Robin Carnahan 95%

Ward 23
Democratic Straight Ticket 24.9%
Kerry 58%
Farmer 56%
McCaskill 57%
Robin Carnahan 59%
Russ Carnahan 50%

Ward 24
Democratic Straight Ticket 29.6%
Kerry 67%
Farmer 64%
McCaskill 63%
Robin Carnahan 66%
Russ Carnahan 57%

Ward 25
Democratic Straight Ticket 50.7%
Kerry 77%
Farmer 76%
McCaskill 74%
Robin Carnahan 77%
Russ Carnahan 70%

Ward 26
Democratic Straight Ticket 69.3%
Kerry 93%
Farmer 91%
McCaskill 91%
Robin Carnahan 92%

Ward 27
Democratic Straight Ticket 76.8%
Kerry 97%
Farmer 94%
McCaskill 94%
Robin Carnahan 94%

Ward 28
Democratic Straight Ticket 35.9%
Kerry 77%
Farmer 74%
McCaskill 76%
Robin Carnahan 75%
Russ Carnahan 64%

November 06, 2004

Where the chater amendments passed / failed

Charter Amendments A, B, C, D ("A Better City Design")

All failed to get 50% everywhere except:

Ward 6 : A, B, D over 50%
Ward 7: All over 50%
Ward 8: All over 50%
Ward 10: A over 50%
Ward 16: A, B, D over 50%
Ward 17: A, C over 50%
Ward 23: A, C, D over 50%
Ward 24: A over 50%
Ward 28: All over 60% - A 71%; B 66%; C70%; D 67%

Where Amendment 3 passed /failed

Amendment 3 ("End the diversion")

Passed in wards: 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28.
Failed in wards: 1, 3, 4, 5, 18, 21, 22, 27

Where K passed / failed by Ward

Prop K (for the Kids)

Passed in wards: 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28.
Failed in wards: 1, 3, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 23.

November 05, 2004

Sorry, more this weekend

Sorry no update yesterday or today.

I'll be throwing some stuff up this weekend and next week.

New issue next week looks good.

Meanwhile, I picked up the unofficial ward-by-ward breakdowns from the BOE.

Here a teasing taste until I compile them into something meaningful:

16th ward 78.5% turnout. Kerry 52.6% / Bush 46.5%; Carnahan 43.6% / Federer 54.2%; Charter Amendment Yes votes: A 55%; B 48%; C 52%; D 56%; E 46%.

November 03, 2004

File Under "Democratic Soul-Searching"

A note from Jeanette Mott Oxford to supporters:

Friends and supporters -

It has been a hard day for me, as I'm sure it has been for many of you. I've spent much of the day reflecting on Kerry and McCaskill's losses and trying to reach a place of understanding and peace that will offer a basis for moving forward. (I don't believe I'm going to reach peace about this in the first 24-hours of prayer and reflection - if you manage to do so, let us know what helped!)

For now, my sense is that we must call for a deeper discussion on this topic of "moral issues." My fear is that many voters meant "I don't want my child to be lesbian or gay" when they used the "moral issues" code phrase. I'm sure you agree with me that there are many issues that have moral dimensions beyond gay rights: workers living in poverty; homelessness; pre-emptive strikes as military policy; capital punishment; the influence of money in elections; sexual abuse of children by authority figures; and so much more. We must help our neighbors (and our communities of faith!) see the moral dimensions of these issues and demand that our society become more just.

There were a few pieces of good news in yesterday's election:
- Sara Lampe won in Springfield - despite her opponent's targeting her with ads highlighting the support she has received from PROMO for her stance on LGBT justice.
- Robin Carnahan defeated Hanaway for secretary of state.
- Proposition A won in St. Louis County, a sign of the deep anger citizens feel when elected officials give subsidies to sports teams.
- I received almost 90% of the 10,101 votes cast in my district, so will become State Representative from the 59th MO House District in January.

I thank you all for your support for me - checks, advice, hugs, words of
affirmation, volunteer hours, the many ways you helped! Bless your hearts.

My constituents and all interested campaign volunteers are invited to continental breakfast and discussion with me this Saturday, November 6, at Epiphany United Church of Christ's fellowship hall, 2911 McNair, St. Louis, MO 63118, 10 a.m. Please RSVP so I will have enough food.

Zoellner for Mayor

Looks like we might have a contested Republican primary for Mayor again, assuming that Chance runs.

Earlier today on the Stlouist, Chris Zoellner fresh from his debut defeat against Southside heavy-man Fred Kratky, hints at a mayoral run this spring.

He wrote, "I wanted to thank everyone who helped me on this race. While I lost I achieved my goal of 30% of the vote, which I consider a huge triumph for any party opposed to the City Democratic Machine. Moreover I did it on a shoestring budget, as an unrecognized first time candidate in Slays back yard. This has given me validation!... Take this as a blatant hint - I soon hope to be debating Mr. Slay in an open forum."

This is happening on the state level also

Democrats start intense soul-searching.

Elsewhere

Roy Temple pulls out Minnesota for Kerry. If he'd lost that after losing the Holden race, folks would be grumbling ala Rams fans at Martz.

And Artie Harris, the communications man from Jeff Smith's campaign, takes a second hit losing with Connealy in Nebraska. Hard to win as a Democrat in Nebraska.

The Kids are Alright

Press Release from Kids Voting Missouri:

Sen. John F. Kerry would be president if it were up to the more than 125,000 K-12 students in the St. Louis area who cast ballots Tuesday through the Kids Voting Missouri program.

Students chose Kerry over President George W. Bush by a margin of 62 percent to 36 percent, while third party candidates garnered 3 percent of the vote.

In the Kids Voting race for governor, Claire McCaskill garnered 54 percent of the vote compared to 41 percent for Matt Blunt, with third party candidates getting 4 percent.

In the secretary of state race, Kids Voting Missouri students, like adults, picked Robin Carnahan over Catherine Hanaway by a 47 percent to 37 percent margin, with third party candidates getting 17 percent of the vote.

And Kids Voting students, like adult voters, passed Constitutional
Amendment No. 3 by a vote of 63 percent to 37 percent.

Visit http://kidsvoting.umsl.edu for complete election results.

Marston finds silver lining

St. Louis is in good company, he says. The big cities all voted for Kerry.

St. Louis:
81% Kerry
19% Bush

Manhattan:
82% Kerry
17% Bush

San Francisco:
83% Kerry
16% Bush

Chicago:
81% Kerry
18% Bush

Finding the Answers

I wish I could just unload one long brillant essay about what happened and why. I can't. I'm running a bit slower than normal this morning - no coffee yet - and I don't have the answers.

So it will trickle out, one piece at a time and hopefully by the end of the day we'll have a pretty good sketch of yesterday's election.

For starters, St. Louis City turn-out was UP. 143,565 votes vs 124,752 four years ago. 15% increase. Also, the city went more Democratic 80% for Kerry vs 77% for Gore. 77.9% for McCaskill vs 72.4% for Holden.

St. Louis County was also UP. 541,333 vs 486,884 in 2000. 11% increase. The County also went more Democratic. 54% for Kerry vs 51% for Gore. 54.8% for McCaskill vs 49.3% for Holden.

Kansas City turn-out was UP. From 121,762 votes in 2000 to 138,451 votes in 2004. An increase of 13.7%. And again a little more Democratic. 73% for Kerry vs 72% for Gore. 75% for McCaskill vs 73% for Holden.

You can see this coming, but...
Missourians cast 2,722,469 votes yesterday versus 2,359,892 four years ago. An increase of 15%.

So the increase in urban voters kept pace with or fell behind an increase in turn-out in the stateas a whole.

More later.

Well...

Long night.

No closure yet, but we're getting there. Back tomorrow with some analysis.

Sleep well.

November 02, 2004

See you tonight

Thanks again to everyone who wrote and called in.

I'm heading out for the parties - starting at the Republicans, then to the No on charter amendments, then to the Yes on charter amendments and then downtown.

Hope to see you out there.

Thanks!

Twenty Minutes Left

The final phase of the big GOTV effort - line watching.

There are big lines at some polling places right now (Kappa House, 500 N. Vandeventer; Manor Apartments, 3131 Iowa). Canvassers head to the polls with lines and encourage the voters to stay in line until they vote. If you arrive by 7pm, you can vote.

Pam Ross: High Turn-out Among Young Black Voters

Pam Ross reports after working several north-side polls today that she was impressed by strong turn-out, especially among young black voters. Ross worked wards 18, 19, 22, 26. She reports seeing the usual number of black adults, but a lot more 18 - 23 year olds. They waited in line patiently with determination to vote. After voting, Ross reports, many appear giddy with happiness.

Kos has latest exit polls up

These numbers have Bush winning MO easily. but Kerry taking important swing states - OH, FL, PA

Zogby Agrees with Wahby

Kerry 311; Bush 213.

Report from Ward 7

Ward 7, Precinct 6: 45 - 50 minutes to vote. Prop K handing literature outside; Nobody from either side of the amendments.

Wahby: You Got a New President

Brian Wahby, Chair of the City's Democratic Central Committee says he's seen turn-out today that "outrageous." North-side turn-out has been "excessively heavy." He has a feeling in his gut from his political experience - "You got a new president."

Lampe Report

Maggie Lampe reports that as of 4:30 the 25th ward has had 3,300 voters.

Report from the 12th Ward

Steady line of people from 2-4, virtually no wait. One woman registered to vote online, had her printed receipt but was not allowed to vote. The volunteers outside told her to go back in and cast a provisional ballot (why didnt any of the election officials tell her that?).

Two volunteers handing out NO on ABCD.

Thanks Everybody

This has been fun. Keep the updates coming. Either to dave@archcitychronicle or drebesd@yahoo.com or 314-865-4573. I'll be back in a hour and pass along any after-work scoop.

Oracle likes early rural New Hampshire returns

He says they bode well for Kerry.

Report from 28th Ward - slowing down

Didn't get a number as I voted (forgot to ask how many had come through). No wait to vote at 2:30 p.m., although two people separately told me the line had been one hour long at the lunch hour.

Report from Chesterfield

A large Wild Horse Township polling place reported 48% turnout at 11:30 a.m. This number apparently does not reflect absentee ballots. GOP needs HUGE margins in St. Charles County and West County to negate city turnout.

The Lampe Report

As of 2:00 approximately 2200 people have voted in Ward 25.

Report from 19th ward

Someone dropping by the Council Tower polling place (310 S Grand Blvd) about two hours ago reports that it seems that about half the registered voters had already voted. 50% turn-out at 1pm?

Report from 24th Ward

Here is what I found at my polling place at Ward 24 precinct 7--Dewey School. I had to stand in line at 11 am. I have never had to stand in line. People were saying in the 8 years or whatever time frame they never had to stand in line. Took about 20 minutes to do the whole thing. Obviously some were not prepared as they camped at the polling booth...lol. Same old people giving out the ballots. Nothing new there. Needing a valid picture ID seemed to throw some people but in general everything seemed to be going smoothly. Seemed odd there was no voting set up for handicapped. That was an issue. There were over 500 that had voted at 11. That is about it for me.

Report from 16th ward: High Turn-out or Precinct Consolidation?

One observer wonders how much is due to recent consolidation: Putting city turnout in context: This is the first general election since the city consolidated its precincts. In many cases, what used to be 2 or even 3 precincts have been combined into a single precinct.

Where I live, 3 high-turnout precincts were combined into one. They have two separate teams of election judges (serving A-K and L-Z), but that's still 50% more people for a single table to serve.

I voted in the 16th Ward (St Louis Hills) in the 10:00 hour, when a lull in voting usually takes place. Not today. I waited about 30 minutes to get my ballot and another 15 minutes to get to a machine, for a 45-minute experience. When I got my ballot at about 10:40, I was the 646th person to receive a ballot at that precinct (16.07 - St. Mark's Episcopal).

Voting Mayhem

Stelzer recounts his voting experience over on his blog, Media Mayhem.

Report from Diatriber

Diatriber called in from his van assignment.

He's driving North County working for the MO Dems. He's directed which neighborhood by higher-ups who are monitroing turn-out at various precincts. They are hitting the low turn-out areas and knocking on doors to find out if folks have voted yet.

If they need a ride, they are given a cab company's number that is ready to take people to the polls.

At 7pm when polls close, his team will proceeds to polls and if there are long lines, as expected, urge those in line to stay and wait and vote rather than become dispirited and leave without voting.

Report from Jefferson County

Turnout is brisk and probably very, very high. Tough to tell the mindset of the voters going into the polls though-- many of them have been so inundated with last-minute calls and what not that they're sick of the whole thing. Its cold, windy, a little wet, and people are impatient.

No major problems from what I hear.

Our Charter Government Petition signature collection is going well. With luck, by the end of the day we'll have our 10k signatures to send to the county clerks for certification, and a Charter Commission will be formed.

You guys'll have a lot of fun covering that process.

BTW theres a party at the Robert E. Lee Riverboat restaraunt in Kimmswick, MO
for Jefferson County Democrats, starting at 7 PM i believe

Another Lampe Update (ward 25)

Just took a nice lady to Ward 25, precinct 3 (Resurrection on Meramac) at about 1:15. Only a handful of people were present. She was in and out. One person outside with Democratic literature, and "NO" on ABCD. I'm told Ward 25 (precincts 1 & 4) are still very busy. It's been hard for people with wheelchairs and walkers to enter and exit with the narrow entrance. One person fainted from waiting in line for so long earlier, around 10:00.

Long lines = Long night

One observer: High turnout and long lines will mean a number of people still waiting to vote when the polls close at 7PM? That could mean a serious delay in picking up and counting ballots in City precincts, and a long night waiting to know results for charter amendments and statewide races.

Kerry has to like the early exit numbers

From DailyKos. Things look good for Kerry.

Jeff Smith is hearing anecdotal evidence of HUGE turn-out from the cities across the nation: Philly, Miami, Cleveland, Milwakee. He's feeling confident of a Kerry win.

Federer Low Blow II

Kurt Groetsch snapped this pic of Federer's mud campaign against russ Carnahan.

Report from Ward 28

Arrived about 10.35am, entered booth about 12.20pm. Apparently the division into three special and one general voting district and one, possibly two handicapped curbside voters held things up.

Excellent volunteers, one guy with a lot of energy went up and down the line explaining the reason for the delay. A policeman also pulled up and pointed out that New City and also Union were particularly slow, and that he was there to find out why.

Only two men giving out literature, one a "sample ballot" for the Dems, the other in favor of the Waterman-Lake special district historic lighting etc.

School band practice began as I entered the polling area. Cacophony of out-of-tune brass and percussion provided an interesting sonic backdrop.

Report from Ward 13

Ward 13:
Steady all day at precinct 2; precinct 4 has a long line, about a 30 minute wait.
All voting machine full.

Outside Jeff Winzerling is handing our pro-charter literature and a couple of MoveOn are outside as well.

High Turn-out good or bad for Charter Amendments?

Who knows is the answer.

From someone who works to know these things: "Impossible to predict. Nobody knows very much about a lot of the voters showing up at the polls today. Some of them are new registers, but many of them are registrers-but-don't-usually vote. Nobody really knows how these newbies get their information -- but, they probably don't get it from ward committees."

Report from Tom Lampe

Tom Lampe, husband of the new committeewoman in the 25th ward, sent in this photo from Scrugg Elementary around 7:35am and update:

Ward 25, Precinct 1 & 4 news. There was one guy handing out "Yes" flyers for ABCD. Said he was only going to stay until 9am, but left considerably earlier than that. Right now a few people handing out Democratic and "NO on ABCD" flyers, and one guy handing out Libertarian info"

88% Turn-out expected in StL County?

Tom Weber at KWMU tips that Judy Taylor of the St. Louis County BOE is predicting turn-out of 88% in the county.

Wow.

The defective ballot

James Grove snapped this photo of the ballot that was supposed to have Storch and Verde's names, but instead has Rodney Hubbard's.

19th ward flooded by students

19th ward alderman Mike McMillan says that in his 9 years as an elected official - alderman and committman - he has never seen such HUGE student turn-out from SLU.

Vans are taking students to and from the campus to the polls. At the polling places the students outnumber the local residents, a sight he has never seen.

During the last two presidential cycles, the students were hardly seen. Today they are out in force.

Report from the 8th ward

Lines varied by precincts. 9th precinct line short, 8th long, 7th non-existent. Passionate plead to vote NO on the charter amendments outside and someone distirbuting Yes literature. Seen inside: rocker/voter Adam Hesed, recent heart attack survivor and art guru Walter Gunn and St. Margaret of Scotland's Father Ron Chochol.

Kirkwood looks strong

Reprinted from comments below:

I voted in Kirkwood this morning at Tillman School -- I got there at 6:10 a.m. -- and I was #141. The line was a little bit shorter when I finished at 7:05 a.m. -- but not much. Only poll workers were a guy for Moveon PAC (looked like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean) and a poll worker for Alan Cotten, who's run for state rep.

Long wait at Soulard

From ward 7, just spoke to a voter who spent 2 hours in line. He says turn-out is "HUGE."

Report from the 10th Ward: Republican school-children attempting to sway parents?

At ward 10, precinct 5 (Kennard School), one voter observes that in the wait to vote (it took her about 50 minutes to vote this morning) there are about 20 children's drawings of elephants - clearly designed to send a subliminal message!

ANOTHER 64th DISTRICT SCREW-UP

I'm in the 28th ( I vote at the Missouri History Museum Library Annex) 2nd precinct. I just got back from voting. The line was short and sweet, and everything seemed to go smoothly. But one really big glitch is that the ballot was set up in such a way that there was a hole you could poke through next to Rachel Storch's name, but not one next to Patricia Verde's name. I called the election judge over, and he said the ballot was screwed up (only in this one precinct, apparently), so if you wanted to vote for Verde, you had to write her in. Another more minor complaint: technically, if a Democratic election judge comes over to talk to you at the vote-o-matic, a Republican has to come with him. Only the one guy came over to talk to me.

As far as the charter amendments go, one of the stakeholders was outside encouraging folks to "think about A,B,C,&D" as they entered.

Report from Ward 15

Ward 15: I got to my polling place, Holy Family, at about 9:45 a.m. The biggest signs were for Kinder; they had a piece of paper attached to them that said "Pro-Life." Tom Braford was handing out "Yes for Home Rule" literature. There was a fairly long wait to get my ballot because the election judge for the L-Z line had to go outside to assist someone with curbside voting. People were getting pretty anxious, and the woman in front of me said, "If I weren't so passionate about my vote, I'd probably just give up and go home." Once I got my ballot, I only had to wait a few minutes to vote.

Report from Gordon Dymowski

I was fortunate enough to be at two polling places - one where I voted (Connect Care); the other where I was distributing literature on behalf of Proposition K (Hamilton School).

At Connect Care at 6:15 am, there already was a long line, about 20 people deep - however, no one was out distributing information. It took about a half hour to get through the line, and secondary lines were forming to get to the machines. There were individuals wearing "Specialist" name tags, and there was heightened activity.

At Hamilton School, there was one gentleman handing out pro-Charter Amendment information, and three handing out anti-Charter Reform information. Around 7:30, Frank Williamson, the alderman, showed up, chewing out one of the volunteers and encouraging the anti-reform individuals to motivate people not to vote. In addition, one of the volunteers was aggressively discouraging people from taking any of the pro-reform literature, even as far as encouraging them not to take any of mine. (I went and clarified that I was distributing literature for Proposition K[www.kforkids.org]). It came fast and furious between 6:30 am and 9:30 am, but began tapering off after that.

Encountered a small contingent for Nancy Farmer (who showed up at 6:30 am to vote, and who left at 7:45); however, once the cameras stopped rolling, the pro-Nancy group departed.

The few times I went inside Hamilton School, the line went completely around the gymnasium - however, it gradually thinned out as time progressed.

Florida: Consistently high turn-out

In a quick interview with 15th ward alderman Jennifer Florida she said that the Get Out the Vote effort was the "best organized effort I've seen in a long time."

Florida is helping run the GOTV effort for several targeted city precincts in wards 5, 6, 8, 17, 18, 19, and 20. She had slotted 45 volunteers and so far she has had 25 walk-ins who weren't even scheduled to volunteer. She expects that over the course of today there will be 75 volunteers working on her targeted precincts.

These volunteers are going door-to-door, knock on the doors of known voters - ask if they've voted, if they need to know where you vote? if they need a ride?

Everywhere turn-out is consistently high, she says, sometimes leading to long lines and waits. In the 17th ward she spoke to a woman who waited two hours to vote. Florida herself only waited 20 minutes in ward 15, though there were 40 people in line there.

Florida says her "hat's off to the coordinated campaign."

Reports from Clayton/Demun

We've received a report of very high turnout in Clayton. In some places, 300 people had voted by 7:30am.

A different report from Demun reports lines where there have never been lines before. People were patient. The mood was energizing.

Another Report from the 28th ward

I'm enjoying your updates from around the City. Keep it up!

I was distributing literature for the 28th Ward Democrats at St. Roch School (precinct 5) this morning. Things are much calmer than the reports from New City School. Turnout was brisk and steady. Voters reported short lines to check in, long lines to get to a voting machine. Typical wait seemed to be about 30-35 minutes. A few voters were leaving because of the lines and saying they would be back.

We had two Move-On volunteers, a Rachel Storch volunteer, a Yes on ABCD and a No on ABCD volunteer. Everyone was friendly and in high spirits. Several undecided voters stopped to hear both sides of the charter amendments.

Rachel Storch stopped by and reported that just before 6 AM about 50 people had been in line waiting for the polls to open at both the Carpenter's Hall and St. James School in Dogtown.

Precinct 6 at New Cote Brilliante Church of God (Skinker & Washington) had voted 256 people out of approximately 889 registered voters by 10 AM. Again,
wait times seemed to be about 1/2 hour to get to a voting machine.

Report from 28th ward

I arrived at my polling place at New Cote Brilliante Church, 6195 Washington Ave. around 8 a.m. There were probably 125 people waiting to vote. Apparently the line had stretched out of the building and down the block earlier in the morning. Only one person walked in and walked out while I was waiting. Vince Schoemehl, Jennifer Olmstead, and Steve Kramer were some of the familiar faces.

I stood in line with a young woman, a college student from Wash U. who was from upstate New York. It was her first time voting in Missouri. She had never experienced our system before and was concerned about lining the card up in the slot and then about the lack of privacy. In New York, you actually get a booth with a curtain and there are levers to pull, no chad! We did 3 verbal run throughs together before she went to vote, we had nothing better to do!

I saw one young man with a very well made Bush '04 Sweatshirt but that was the only indication that I had that someone there was not a Democrat.

I was at the polling place for about an hour. There are two precincts that vote there, Ward 28 precincts 3 and 6. Most people are 6 and there was only one book for the precinct. So people had to wait. That seemed to be the biggest slow down. Otherwise the process went very smoothly.

Outside the polling place there was not the hub-bub there had been in the primary. In fact it was very subdued at about 9 a.m.

Rachelle L'Ecuyer

Report from 14th ward

Ward 14, standing in line to cast a ballot, turn-out looks "very, very good."

Report from 19th ward

19th ward, precinct 7: Really long line. At 10am, 130 people had voted. Folks who arrived at the wrong place are being helped and everything is running smoothly.

Report from 5th Ward

Relatively heavy turn-out. One man handing out Anti-charter amendments lit; Another handing out glossy Pro-charter amendment lit featuring the St. Louis American endorsement.

Report from Ward 8

Ward 8, Precinct 9: Poll workers for both Yes and No on the charter amendments. Presence from MoveOn.org and Just Democracy.

"Interesting Calls"

Morning-

So I am working out of Robin's office today, and we've had some interesting calls... According to one call, there was a 'fake' ballot box outside Baden Branch Library in the City and people were handing out 'sample' ballots and encouraging voters to use that box instead of waiting in line for the real thing...

Also, there are some folks in the Airport Township in Ward 4/ Precinct 76 that have voted for years at Berkley Middle School, but this year they're supposed to go to Berkley Civic Center, but did not receive notification of the change in the mail...

That's what i have for now. And LONG lines everywhere!

Report from 15th Ward

Report from Ward 15, Precinct 1 at Fanning Middle Community Education Center:

6:05 a.m. - Lines were out the gymnasium door with wait voting in Precinct 1 line at an hour. Precinct 4 and 6 of the same Ward had shorter lines. Crowd was mixed. Some were clearly still in pajamas, others were ready to head to work. The ward is pretty diverse and so were the people in the lines. One woman stood outside handing out blue flyers naming Democratic candidates to be used as reference. No one was handing literature about the reform amendments.

Report from the 8th Ward

Friendly crowd of Shaw and Tower Grove East neighbors at Beauvais Manor on the Park. Experienced judges who greeted the regular voters. Claralyn Bollinger sitting in the corner marking down the names of voters. Arriving at 6:30 AM, the process took 45 minutes. Crowd looked larger at 7:15 AM.

The opponent of Proposition A,B,C, and D who put a yard sign in a landscaped lot at Russell and 39th Street should know that the maintenance of the 39th Street lots in overseen by the 39th Street Redevelopment Corp., whose board includes Home Rule supporters Anna Crosslin, Gina Ryan, and Dana Hines. "Something had to be done."

Where's Diatriber?

He's driving a van today. GOTV!

BOTH CANDIDATES LEFT OFF BALLOT - 28th Ward

Both Rachel Storch and her Republican opponent Patricia Verde were left off the ballot of 28th War, 10th Precinct special district ballots. Rodney Hubbard's name appeared in Storch place; there was no Republican name.

Minutes ago, officials arrived with new paper inserts that had the names of both candidates that would be used for the remainder of the day.

From the Shaw Talk listserv

I went out to my car today to find the daily unwanted flyer from the ACT campaign pasted to my windshield. Before anyone gets up in arms, I don't call it unwanted because I agree or disagree with anything they might have to say--I'm too busy constantly rolling up their unsolicited rubbish and throwing it away to notice what they might have to say.

In any case, the person who left today's rubbish on my windshield was kind enough to break my windshield wiper. Thanks ACT. You owe me a windshield wiper. I'm not picky enough to ask you to come to my house to pick up all the trash you've left there, although you might find plenty of it on the streets, as well.

I did notice today that ACT, which on an earlier flyer (I catch a line occasionally, usually while checking to see who is annoying me) claimed not to be funded by any particular political party, reminded me to vote for Claire McCaskill. Huh.

I also noticed that in addition to posting political signs illegally all over public and communal places, politicall parties think it is acceptable to use our US mailboxes as depositories for their flyers. I'm fairly sure those mailboxes are to be used for actual US mail delivered by an actual US mail carrier only, but I'm happy to be corrected on that front.

The good news is that the election will finally be settled by tonight...doh...or by some Thursday in mid-December, more likely.

Yours truly,
Disgruntled on Russell

Report from Ward 13

Here's my little report from Holly Hills. There was no waiting at 8:15 in Ward 13 precinct 2. My neighbors in precinct 4 however were in a line that stretched two walls of the elementary school gym. Go figure. I like to think my poll station workers were extra efficient. Word from early voters on my block (6a.m. folks, was that they waited 1/2 an hour.)

Reporting from St. Louis, I'm Maddie Earnest, signing off.

Report from 25th Ward

Just got back from voting in ward 25 precinct 4 (Cleveland Academy), and the turnout is huge. Long lines out the front door, but things seem to be moving quickly, considering.

Prior to that I was at ward 25 precinct 2 (Scruggs Elementary), and the poll checker was having some problems with a couple of the election judges not being compliant with letting them see the names of the voters. Democratic campaign headquarters has been notified. There was one person handing out "No" literature on the amendments and a Democratic ticket sheet.

Report from the 24th ward

24th ward, 5th precinct: 15 minutes to vote, lines managable for both the 4th and 5th precinct.

Report from 15th ward

At polling place, Holy Family, they started lining up at 6:01am, long lines. Taking people about an hour to vote. One person complained that he was voting underneath a picture of Pope John Paul II.

Report from 5th Ward

Reprinted from comments below:

5th Ward, Precinct 1 polling was quick and orderly as usual this morning at 7am, with only a very short wait in line for a booth. Everyone was friendly, there were less signs than even "less important" elections, and only one fellow handing out the "protect your right to vote" leaflets against ABCD. There was one woman standing outside with a bright safety vest, I expect she was an oversight official.

The diversity of voters across every measure you could think of was inspiring. As was the city's organization: I witnessed an inactive voter being verified against the massive registration book and being given a ballot.

Report from 28th Ward. STORCH'S NAME MISSING?

28th ward, precinct 10: Big lines spilling outside New City School, about 90 people outside. Rachel Storch is on the scene. Word is that her name is missing from some ballots. There are three special district ballots in that area and her name is apparently not on all of them.

Report from 25th ward

In ward 25, Precinct 4: Line of 50+ ever since 5:45am. Well over 500 voters so far this morning.

Polling Place Thread at the Porch

Here are more comments about turn-out/polling experience.

Report from Ward 7

Here's the report from Ward 7 Precinct 4........

..........steadily moving lines, competent judges, no problems.......
..........there was an unidentified man claiming to be with the church
who was preventing any campaign signs being posted on church property

Report from ward 8

Here is my rundown from my polling place at Sherman School, which houses the 8th Ward, precincts 3,5,6.

The entire process was finished for me in twenty minutes, which is shocking, considering that my face fell when I arrived at 6:30 am.

If I had been a 1st time voter, I would have been seriously confused and dismayed, because there was a long line as soon as I arrived through the MAIN door. At 630 am!!

It seems that the longest line upon my arrival were those folks whose names began with the letters L-Z in precinct 5. Eventually (2-3 minutes after I was standing in a line that barely moved), a judge came out to move people along in the right direction.

Precinct 3 had 4 booths and one provisional booth.
Precinct 5 had 8 booths and one provisional booth.
Precinct 6 had 4 booths and one provisional booth.

The lines to check in at precinct 3 was non-existant and two people were voting.
The lines to check in at 6 were about two people deep, with 4 or 5 in line waiting to vote.

When I arrived, the line to check in for precinct 5, A-K was 5 people deep, and the line to check in at pr 5 L-Z was about 30 people deep.

When I left, the line to check in for precinct 5, A-K was about 6 people deep, and the line to check in at precicnt 5, L-Z was about 15 people deep.

The line to vote for precinct 5 was, throughout my time there, about 30 people deep.

Considering all of the above (I voted in pr 5, last name starts with B), the experience was pretty good; it took me approximately ten minutes to get through the voting line, once I got there.

I arrived home at 6:50 a.m. (remember I live five doors from my polling place).

One or two interesting ballot comments:

I very nearly missed voting on Ammendment 3, becuase it was listed on the bottom half of the page immediately following all of the judges listings, which I had not researched enough and quickly flipped through. (I am hangning my head in shame, but I have focused on other issues this election).

The reason I caught this glitch, however, (since I was sort of in a hurry and did not mentally tick through my list of issues), is that my voting booth was a little funky. My ballot was mostly aligned with the platform, but it slid just enough to make me check my ballot (after I pulled it out), making sure that the numbers actually punched matched the way I voted.

As to folks "on the outside":

When I arrived, there was a white guy with the green sheet for the solid Democratic ticket who was assertive as he handed out literature.

There was a nicely dressed guy, African-American, who handed out the material (the 8page newsprint thing that came in the mail plus a simple green sheet) to vote FOR propositions ABCD. He was assertive w/o being aggressive and seemed approachable.

There was another white guy, in jeans, kind of hanging back who distributed a bright yellow 4x6 sheet that simply said: Protect your right to vote Vote No
Amendments ABCD November 2 (Citizens for Voter Rights, Tom Nash Treasurer). He gave me a sheet when I approached him, but my guess is he wouldn't have approached me.

There was another older, bearded, white guy who had a clipboard and was busy talking to someone, so I skipped talking to him. On my way out, I stopped to chat, and he was from MoveOn.org, had a list, was checking folks to see if they had rec'd a call from MoveOn. I told him that I did get a call, but he didn't find me on the list, which didn't seem to matter, since I think his list had people that he was planning to call. Since I already had a call, he left things go at that point.

All in all, only one person left (she was in line at 5, L-K) without voting.

Report from Ward 16

Reprinted from comments below

From Busch Academy Gym – 5910 Clifton – just west of Hampton (Ward 16)

The Dawn Patrol

A little before 6:00 a.m. and still quite dark, I pull into a crammed parking lot and find one of few spots remaining. A long line of people is single file in the parking lot. At about 6:05, I assume doors are opened somewhere as the line begins to move. Out in the parking lot is the ever-gregarious Mario Favazza encouraging folks to vote “no” to A, B, C, and D. (Too bad I won’t be helping him out today.)

Enjoying my part of the Great American Experiment, in line immediately ahead of me is a man in a formal business suit and ahead of him is a guy with his Gas-Local-(whatever number) Union windbreaker. This is what it is all about! Of course there’s the “Hey; how are you?” to recognized parishioners and neighbors. There’s the usual good-dooby suspect, Kerri Bonasch working as an election judge, and less known, yet equally important folks like Our Lady of Sorrows’ Mike Hogan helping out. But despite the “hellos” and “good mornings” there does seem to be a sense of seriousness in the air, at least more so than many elections. I do see a gentleman in full sheriff’s regalia, a female police officer and a well dressed but intense looking election oversight guy milling about the gym (can’t remember exactly what his button said). The gym is quite crowded, but equally orderly and composed.

Its about 6:35 a.m. when I leave Busch and there’s Fred Kratky shaking hands, but where’s my tempting pain-in-the-tail-reason-for-simply-not-getting-a-pure-Democratic/somebody’s-gonna-pay-for-this-BS-Iraq War-ticket Chris Zoellner? Nowhere to be found! This is the thanks I get! My chance to shake hands with the epitome of greatness and he’s not here (equaling his appearances at neighborhood meetings). Sigh.

All-righty, y’all, that’s it. I got to get to work!

23rd Ward Report

REPORT from the 23rd Ward: Took about an hour to vote this morning. A hundred people in line, not stopping, getting longer. Unlike anything ever seen before. Bazillions of signs up, but nobody handing out literature (on account of the rain?). "Never seen so many police." They're making people take off button before they go into the polling place.

Here We Go

REPORT from 6th ward: An early voter, showing up at 6:05 at a polling place reports that there were already 27 people in line. When she left, there were 50 people in line.

REPORT from 9th ward: Election judges were late arriving to one polling place, making those early birds wait and wait. Finally, they voted even though not all the election judges were present. Can this be?

November 01, 2004

Across the StL Blogs

Take a tour across the blog-city:

The City Dems
St. Louis Oracle
ArchPundit
Diatriber
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New issue up over at The Commonspace

Check it out.

From an old political hand

He writes:

"I'm in Kansas City working for Claire -- helping with the message stuff.

"We're feelling a bit of a breeze at our back in Claire's direction but it looks to be awfully close. With Kerry and Bush, who the hell knows? (Nobody). If continued bad news for Bush beyond the control of either campaign continues through the weekend (like the Halliburton investigation, missing explosives, lower than anticipated GNP growth, etc.), it might give Kerry the boost he needs. Then we've gotta turn out all those people we've registered in the past six months."

Farmer hits Democratic haunt

REPORT: Nancy Farmer was out early pressing the flesh at the South City Diner around 7:50 am this morning.

Oil Market predicting Kerry win?

Most economists would argue that markets do a better job digesting and reflecting information than polls.

This article says that oil futures are falling on possible Kerry win.

What did we do before the internet?

From the NY Times, Post photo editor, Bill Keaggy, operates this website that scans in grocery lists.

Yes for Charter Reform Election Party

"The Charter Reform Watch Party at the Tap Room (7:00pm--?, upstairs). The same beer, snacks and friendly faces you might find at another election-night gathering, but without all the the-future-of-the planet-is-riding-on-this angst."

I guess it will be limited to the future-of-the-city angst.

Kerry call from up-state NY

REPORT: St. Louisans receiving out-of-state phone-calls urging Kerry supporters to help GOTV tomorrow. The last minute push seems to be coming from other places as well as from here, perhaps due to the fact that the Kerry team moved more resources out weeks ago.

Pundit contest at the Star

Pick a couple of races right and win an easy hundy in Steve Kraske's Pundit Contest.

City-County Merger

... in Albuquerque.

This memo from John Ginsburg:

You've got plenty on your plate in the next 24 hours locally when it
comes to politics, but I spent the weekend in my hometown of
Albuquerque, and learned there is a ballot measure tomorrow that
proposes unifying the governments of the City of Albuquerque with the
County of Bernalillo.

With the expansive growth of the City, the unincorporated part of the
County that surrounds it is getting smaller and smaller. All yard signs
and newspaper ads, both for and against the proposal, talked about
taxes, taxes, taxes.

Election Night Parties

Democratic Parties

The Establishment Party: Renaissance Grand Hotel, 800 Washington, St. Louis.

The Kids' Party: Rocket Bar, 2100 Locust, $1, 18+ until midnight / 21+ after, doors at 8 p.m. Presented by the League of Independent (Pissed Off) Voters, this throw down features an all-star DJ lineup including Anisto, Trackstar, Espi and a special appearance by Mike the 2600 King, who will be back in town from Minneapolis.

The Un-Party: There will be a lot of parties going on Election Night. If you want to be in a bunch of wonderful people who are tired, excited, loud, and some of whom will be inebriated, you'll find lots of places to be that night. But if you'd like to spend Election Night in a quieter atmosphere, surrounded by friends and allies, you may want to come to an "Un-Party" instead. We'll gather for a potluck dinner at 7:30 p.m. After dinner, we'll periodically check the vote totals (perhaps once or twice per hour), but we'll also sing, share favorite readings that speak of our hopes and visions for the future, and maybe play some games like dominoes or zonk (a dice game that some also know by the name of "greedy" or "farkle"). RSVP to jmo4rep@juno.com if you plan to attend. Bring to share: 1) a potluck dish, and 2) a poem, scripture passage, or brief reading that has spiritually fed you on your journey.

Republican Parties

The Establishment Party: The Frontec Hilton.

Election Day forecast

KSDK: A little light rain possible during the morning in the metro area...rain till likely southeast. Mostly cloudy with highs in the low 50s.

KMOX: Breezy. Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of rain. Near steady temperature in the mid 50s. North wind 15 to 20 mph with gusts to around 30 mph

KMOV: Showers, windy and cool weather is expected on election day.

KTVI: Cloudy...windy and cold...a few light rain showers HIGH: 49

Post-Dispatch: Mostly Cloudy with Showers, H 51 / L 38

weather.com: Mostly Cloudy, High 55°F, Precip 20%, Wind: N 14 mph.

Report: Highway Dept Removing Signs

The age-old practice of putting campaign signs all over the place (public space for example) is reportedly being fought by highway dept. An eye-witness emailed us that they are out removing campaign signs along highway 40.

A shift to Kerry?

Latest polls show OH, PA and FL heading Democratic. According to electoral-vote.com.

We begin our ear-to-the-ground, hand-on-the-pulse, street-level election coverage today

There should be pretty often updates here for the next 48 hours. ACC friends, tipsters and spies are encouraged to email their electioneering observations, or post in the comments section.

We'll try to capture the mood, momentum and flavor of this election.

go vote,
dave.

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