Humble Pie

All's quiet the morning after the primary elections, like the calm after a hurricane. Now it's time to survey the status of things and pick-up the pieces. Rivals of yesterday, are now comrades-in-arms heading into the November general elections. Maybe not yet, but in the making, or at least better be, or we Democrats won't do what is necessary to get our candidates elected at the state and national levels.

Reviewing last night's results, there are some surprises, at least to me. And, there are some upsets that might mean change is on the wind for some parts of town, if not the city as a whole.

Humble pie is on the menu this morning for breakfast. So, let's start with the race where I was wrong.

While it was very close, the 5th district state Senate race has been decided in state Representative Robin Wright-Jones' favor. During the race, in my support of state Representative Rodney Hubbard, I criticized Wright-Jones in two major areas. First, her campaign tactics, and those of her supporters, which used misleading and incomplete information to mischaracterize her opponent. And, for her inability to get legislation passed in the state capitol.

I support state Representative Robin Wright-Jones fully for her bid for the 5th district state Senate seat against her Libertarian opponent. Further, being a constituent of the 5th district, I will endeavor to assist Wright-Jones to getting her legislative agenda passed, however I can.

This is the first time a candidate that I endorsed has not won, which is due in large part to the homework I do before I back a candidate. I am very humbled by the experience, and take no solace in the fact that the race was decided by a difference of 111 votes. As a side-note, this is a perfect example of every vote counting and the necessity of every citizen to be an engaged voter because decisions are made sometimes in the slimmest of margins.

As for the rest of the races, the winners were pretty clear from the outset.

State Representatives TD El-Amin, Jamilah Nasheed and Rachel Storch will all be returning to the state legislature, re-elected by wide margins--26.44%, 49.98% and 64.80%, respectively. State Representative Michele Kratky will also be returning, but faced a much more narrowly decided race.

They will be joined by freshman state Representative-elect Mike Colona (there is no opposition in November), who, in a 5-way race, received an overwhelming 42.68% of the votes--a decisive win which gives him the mandate he will need to reunite the district after a very brutal primary.

Another decisive victory was won by state Representative-elect Chris Carter with a massive 65.14% of the vote.

State Representative-elect Tishaura Jones will also be joining the freshman class, elected by a respectable margin, although she did lose her bid to retain her Committeewoman position of the 8th ward.

It was, in fact, the committeepeople races that offered, while not upsets in terms of unforeseen wins, upsets in terms of changing of the guard. The freshman-class of new committeepeople could well mean changes for not only their respective wards, but also the St. Louis Central Democratic Committee.

The new additions to the Central Committee are Johnnie Saddler, 3rd ward; Tammika Hubbard, 5th ward; Cara Jensen, 8th ward; Greg Christian and Jan Clinite, 15th ward; Ellen Todd, 18th ward; Michael McMillan, License Collector, 19th ward; Antonio French, 21st ward; Andre Williams, 22nd ward; Angela Newsome, 26th ward; and Chris Carter, 27th ward.

Committeepeople James Clayborne, Norma Leggette, Lucinda Frazier, Fred Steffen, Tom Hayes, Louis Tonkovich, Jesse Todd and Joe Palm. The rest of the wards did not have contested races, including the 7th ward, which returned Central Committee Chairman, Brian Wahby, to his post.

Congratulations to all the winners. It's time to take-on the Republicans (or, Greens or Libertarians, as the case may be). Onward to November.