The mayor’s race isn’t the only rematch in city politics coming to a head on Tuesday. The aldermanic race in the city’s first ward will see a pair of familiar names on the ballot as well. Two years ago, incumbent Anne Schweitzer bested challenger Tony Kirchner by four points (essentially the same margin in the last mayor’s race in 2021). Now, Kirchner is taking a second crack at a board seat.
The Navy veteran and Bevo Mill resident says he’s the man for the job because, in his more than a decade as a sheriff’s deputy (a career that ended in flamboyant fashion earlier this year), he’s developed relationships with people working on the ground in virtually every city department, and he can leverage those relationships to deliver the thing that city residents are clamoring: basic services.
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“People just have lost kind of faith in the city services,” he says.
Kirchner’s argument about focusing on basic city services echoes other campaigns that, judging by primary results, have resonated with city voters this cycle. There are just two problems: Schweitzer has a pretty good track record vis-à-vis the basics, and Kirchner may himself not be the best messenger.
Schweitzer, who was first elected in 2021, has been key in recent improvements to Carondelet Park, where new traffic barriers prevent cars from doing donuts in the middle of the night and which now boasts the only mountain biking trail within city limits. At City Hall, two of Schweitzer’s biggest issues have been shoring up water infrastructure and streets. It’s because of her that utility companies can no longer leave giant metal grates protruding from streets after they’ve finished their work—about as on the ground as it gets.
“My reputation on the Board of Aldermen, I have a four-year track record of being incredibly responsive,” she says. Referring to Kirchner, she adds, “I am doing the job he keeps saying he’s going to do.”
Kirchner has also been tardy in paying for the same basics he criticizes city leaders for neglecting. He paid a past-due $963.88 water bill in December, the same month he filed for the race, according to the Collector of Revenue’s office. The bill’s delinquency would have prevented him from filing; the city had previously put a lien on his house to collect the money. He is also currently delinquent for a water bill from January and has been sued by the city over back property taxes.
“I come from humble beginnings,” Kirchner says. “Like most people, I’ve faced hardships.” He says unpaid bills are something a lot of people identify with. Voters tell him they’ve been there, too.
Two months before Kirchner paid off that water bill, campaign filings show that he loaned his own campaign $5,000. A mailer circulating in Ward 1 points out that the loan suggests Kirchner’s unpaid bills therefore weren’t due to a lack of funds.
Kirchner, for his part, says that mailer highlighting his unpaid bills (and his 2014 bankruptcy) was paid for by Progress PAC, a political action committee affiliated with Aldermanic President Megan Green. But Kirchner says the expenditure for the mailer hasn’t been disclosed in the PAC’s filings with the Missouri Ethics Commission. He’s filed an ethics violation over the matter.
A PAC spokesman says they have a “neat and tidy set of financials” and any expenditures not currently disclosed are just a matter of timing. “Tony should probably spend more time paying attention to his household financials,” the spokesperson said.
Kirchner has raised $21,300 this cycle, leading the other candidates challenging sitting aldermen in the city. Still, it’s far cry from Schweitzer’s $51,000. One Ward 1 resident dubbed the race the “battle of the yard signs.” On that front, anecdotally speaking, Kirchner seems to have a slight edge.
Schweitzer doesn’t seem particularly worried about it. “If vacant lots were voting I’d be in real trouble,” she says.
The Ward 1 race took an unexpected turn in February when it got wrapped up in one this year’s strangest stories in city politics. SLM broke the story of Sheriff Alfred Montgomery telling Kirchner, then a sheriff’s deputy, that he needed to roll a seven with a pair of gold dice in order to keep his job. Kirchner managed to roll the lucky number, but still got fired.
Kirchner’s attorney Talmage Newton said the incident represented “political collusion,” alleging that Kirchner’s meeting with Montgomery was triggered by Schweitzer sending the sheriff photos of Kirchner campaigning while in uniform, which is against state law. Kirchner’s own Facebook page contains photos of him campaigning last cycle while wearing a hat with “sheriff” emblazoned across its front. Photos of him in similar sheriff’s gear at community meetings have circulated among City Hall insiders as well. Schweitzer says constituents have told her that Kirchner showed up at their door campaigning in a sheriff’s hat, making them think they were in trouble with the law.
Following the golden dice story, Kirchner called a press conference to announce he was suing Montgomery. At the press conference, a reporter asked who Schweitzer should have contacted—if not the sheriff—if she believed a deputy was breaking the law. Kirchner replied that she should have expressed the concerns at the time the photos were taken, which would have meant bringing the issue to the attention of then-Sheriff Vernon Betts. Schweitzer says she did that. Kirchner said Betts (not exactly known as a stickler for the rules) encouraged his deputies to go to community meetings in uniform.
Schweitzer says when she knocks doors, the dice incident rarely, if ever, comes up. “It’s more of an online thing,” she says.
Kirchner says that when people bring up to him, they tend to say, “I’m so sorry, man. This is crazy.”
