If, as Shakespeare’s As You Like It muses, “all the world’s a stage,” Francis G. Slay’s bid for a third term as St. Louis’ mayor prompts positively theatrical giddiness—especially given the Sturm und Drang of his mayoralty to date. As the March 3 primary for the office nears, we thus turn to the Bard for a few insights into potential drama among local Democrats:
“To business that we love we rise betime / And go to’t with delight.” (Antony and Cleopatra) • Did someone say … “business”? Our 45th mayor’s coziness with corporate St. Louis has allowed him to amass a reelection war chest large enough to beggar Timon of Athens. Ten grand here and there (petty cash!) from such companies as Clayco and Waste Management has swelled his campaign coffers almost to $1.5 million—a major chunk of change, especially in this economy.
“Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot / That it do singe yourself.” (Henry VIII) • Hizzoner’s October 2007 demotion of Sherman George, the city’s former fire chief, still angers many African-Americans. Now, political oddsmakers doubt that animosity alone could unseat Slay—but if nothing else, the last presidential campaign proved oddsmakers often err. So like the title character of Coriolanus, the mayor may find himself muttering, “The beast / With many heads butts me away.”
“She speaks, yet she says nothing.” (Romeo and Juliet) • Intriguingly, following a presidential election that featured female candidates for the two highest elected offices in the land, early buzz on potential Democratic opponents for Slay involved two women: Maida Coleman and Irene J. Smith. (Smith, a former alderwoman, did indeed file as a Dem; Coleman, a term-limited state senator, did not.) Given Slay’s war chest, though, Smith could probably combine the oratorical finesse of both Brutus and Mark Antony and still not bloody the Capitol.
Past Players
A scan of dramatis personae from Room 200 at City Hall shows other memorable mayors have trod the boards here
- Incredibly, William Carr Lane, the city’s first mayor, served more than eight terms … albeit at a time when a term lasted just a year. (Lane, incidentally, later governed the New Mexico Territory.)
- In the past century, surprisingly, five of 15 mayors in a city nowadays regarded as a Democratic stronghold have been Republicans—but the last such, Aloys P. Kaufmann, left office fully six decades ago.
- Only three former mayors—John Fletcher Darby (pictured), Luther Martin Kennett and Nathan Cole—continued their political careers at the federal level, all three as U.S. representatives.
