Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
The Donkey Man’s nickname is apt, party affiliations aside.
Showing the same, stubborn tenacity as his favorite four-legged creature, Tom Bauer—the one-time Ward 24 alderman, well known for campaigning with his pet donkey—is running for the position once again, more than a decade after first being elected, and after losing in 2005 and 2007 to current alderman Bill Waterhouse.
For Bauer, the ride has been a long and bumpy one. Six years ago, 61 percent of the ward’s voters recalled the St. Louis attorney from the position for supporting controversial redevelopment efforts in Dogtown, one of which, allegedly, involved eminent domain. Bauer later sued convenience-store owner Randy Munton and 7-Eleven, Inc. for displaying an anti-Bauer campaign flyer. In early January, Bauer won the libel case and $150,000 in damages.
“After a whole week of trial, I think essentially the jury vindicated me, so I'm ready to go again,” he explains. “People recalled me based on entirely false information.”
If he gets re-elected, Bauer says his main focus will be on keeping the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dogtown, encouraging higher development standards in the community, and pushing a return to K-8 neighborhood schools with a bill he calls the “St. Louis Student Bill of Rights.”
This time around, however, Bauer won’t be running with a certain steed: his pet donkey—first, Scotty, who died in 2001, and later Dan. In fact, when Bauer was on the ballot in 2005, he ran as an “independent Democrat” with the donkey as his mascot. The term and symbol cost him misappropriation trouble with the St. Louis Central Committee; a week before the 2005 election, the parties reached a settlement that he drop the term “Democrat,” but could keep the donkey.
For this year’s primary, March 8, Bauer is running as a Democrat—but Dan the donkey remains at pasture
