Lewis Reed, president of the city Board of Aldermen, knows his best (and only) chance to upset Mayor Francis Slay in the March 5 Democratic primary is a large turnout on the city’s north side.
We could be able to gauge just how enthused north-side voters are for the Reed candidacy over the next two Saturdays. There is a call out for 1,000 volunteers to canvas on behalf of the underdog candidate. A low turnout of volunteers would mean fewer doors will be knocked on, and it could also signal that voters will not flock to polls as they did last August and November.
While he will receive a decent number of votes from south of Delmar Boulevard, Reed will need a huge portion of north-side voters to side with him over Slay. That's likely to happen, but even so, Reed probably still needs to match the north-side turnout from the state Democratic primary last August.
Here’s the problem: That August turnout was in great part because of Congressman William Lacy Clay’s battle against challenger Russ Carnahan. Clay won easily because of turnout by interested voters. Reed didn’t back Clay, and Clay has responded by not only endorsing Slay, but also taping a lengthy radio commercial praising the incumbent. In fact, he thoroughly trashes Reed in a letter posted to Slay’s campaign website. If Slay does win, Clay’s gushing words about the mayor will follow him whenever the black community happens to perceive some racial injustice by the Slay administration in the future.
This past week also saw racial politics really flair in connection with River City Xaminer publisher Terry Artis’ release of his documentary Bootlicker. A flyer for the movie includes the cartoon above, which was immediately blasted by the Slay campaign: “It's an appalling contradiction to the Reed campaign's theme of ‘One St. Louis’ when they and their supporters demean, in the worst possible way, African Americans who support Mayor Slay."
Reed’s campaign says it has nothing to do with the documentary or the flyer, saying in a press release, "We condemn the overtones in this material. Francis Slay's record is enough for us to criticize without stoking the fire of racial politics."
The movie debuts at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 20, at the Tivoli Theatre in University City. Tickets are $10.
Artis and the online Xaminer support Reed. The publisher is very incendiary when it comes to Slay’s past years as mayor—especially when it comes to crime in black neighborhoods. He told KMOX’s Charlie Brennan that Slay only cares about crime now that it is an election year. Artis accuses Slay of using racial division and pitting one black against another throughout his three terms.
He shared similar thoughts with Fox2 News, stating, "We live in a city that's run like one big slave plantation."
Before I can condemn the image, I have to admit that many years ago, when I was working as senior editor of Emerge magazine, we ran a cover illustration with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in an “Aunt Jemima” do-rag. A few years later, after I returned to St. Louis, the magazine ran a cover image of Thomas as a lawn jockey.
To criticize the Xaminer would be the pot calling the kettle black.
Commentary by Alvin Reid
