ST. LOUIS — You won’t see Mayor Tishaura O. Jones anywhere on the ballot this fall. But she’ll be there.
A year after voters chose a chief executive who promised to enact a bold progressive agenda reimagining public safety, development and social services, Alderman Jack Coatar is running to be aldermanic president, the city’s most powerful legislator, asking if the electorate has any regrets.
He paints a dark portrait of the city under Jones: one struggling to pick up the trash, trim trees, pave streets and fight crime. And he says as far as he can tell, Jones has no plans to fix it. “I’m going to shift our priorities back to basics,†he said.
Alderman Megan Green thinks Coatar’s got it all wrong. She says Jones is taking the right steps to deal with longstanding problems and making headway on the root causes of the city’s woes, like racism and inequity. “Doubling down on the status quo is not the solution to our problems,†Green said.
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The decision voters make in September and November elections could offer a barometer on the mayor’s strength about a third of the way through her term. It could also do a lot to shape what she does next: An ally could open up new possibilities for an agenda hindered by former president Lewis Reed, who resigned earlier this summer following his indictment on federal corruption charges. And whoever serves out the end of his term will be a presumptive favorite to win a full four years in the spring.
“It’s a big deal,†said Alderman Dan Guenther, who supports Green. “It’s a big opportunity.â€
And it’s a matchup with a lot of history.
Coatar and Green both won their first full terms on the board in 2015, and were both among the board’s youngest members. The similarities mostly ended there.
‘Cut your colleagues some slack’
When Green, who previously worked behind the scenes in progressive politics, co-sponsored a plan raising the city’s minimum wage from $7.65 to $11 per hour, Coatar was one of a handful against it, warning it would keep new businesses from opening in the city.
When Coatar helped push through plans to finance a new stadium to keep the Rams in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, Green alleged brazen bribery behind the scenes — an allegation ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ police later determined had no merit.
It didn’t end there. The next few years saw memorable clashes over the controversial tax breaks the city offers developers to win their projects. Coatar saw them as essential to getting things done, especially downtown, which he represents along with neighborhoods such as Soulard, Lafayette Square and Fox Park. Green called them “corporate welfare.â€
Her criticism grew so strident that when she briefly indicated she would support incentives Coatar sponsored for part of Ballpark Village in 2016, she said constituents reached out asking if she’d had a stroke. She listened, and ended up voting no.
Coatar got her back a year later. When Green sought incentives for an apartment project in her own ward, in Tower Grove South, he excoriated her as a hypocrite.
“You rail against incentive projects everywhere else in the city,†Coatar told her in a committee hearing, “but now you’re seeing if you want to do new construction in your ward, it’s pretty expensive. In the future, I encourage you to maybe cut your colleagues some slack.â€
The past few years have done little to bring the two closer. Coatar, a former assistant city prosecutor, pushed for more money for police; she pushed to cut their budget and spend the money elsewhere. He supported airport privatization; she fought against it. She endorsed Jones for mayor last year; he backed the more moderate Reed.
‘A city that works for everyone’
And those fights continued after Jones won, and worked her way through her first year in office. Then in early June, federal prosecutors announced grand jury indictments of Reed and two other aldermen on charges of taking bribes in exchange for development tax breaks. All three resigned, creating a vacancy at the top of the board, and an opportunity for Green and Coatar to go head-to-head.
Green announced first. In an interview, she outlined plans to kick the progressive agenda into high gear: go further on police reform, tie development incentives to support for affordable housing, use federal aid to remediate lead in every building in the city and build a universal child care system for families. “We need to build a city that works for everyone,†she said.
Coatar filed for the ballot a week after Green did. He cast himself as a straight-shooting moderate Democrat with plans to use federal aid and NFL settlement money to fill potholes and hire more police. “If we want people to move to the city,†he said, “we’ve got to be able to keep them safe.†He also promised to take on the corruption that brought Reed down by having city staff, not aldermen, handle development incentives going forward, and expand their use beyond the affluent central corridor.
The campaigns to drive those messages home are already well underway. Green spent her birthday last month raising money at a nightspot in the Grove. Last week, she unveiled endorsements from a slew of progressive aldermen, state representatives, labor groups and the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter, of which she is a member. She has a goal of knocking on 90,000 doors by November, and, with help, has already knocked on thousands.
Coatar’s doing the same thing. He kicked off at Union Station the day after the August primary, filling a sizeable portion of the impressive Grand Hall at Union Station with southside aldermen old and new, including former mayors Francis Slay and Lyda Krewson. The line for crab cakes and risotto balls also took in state representatives, developers and business leaders. Slay, who’s run six successful citywide campaigns, was impressed. “This is really good,†he said. “This is a big space. And there’s some money here.â€
The attacks have also begun. Green has highlighted donations to Coatar’s campaign from developers. The Jones administration responded to Coatar’s criticism with a statement that made sure to note Coatar’s close alliance with Reed, and Reed’s indictment on corruption charges.
What ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ wants
Both candidates and their allies say they feel good about their chances right now.
Alderman Tom Oldenburg, of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Hills neighborhood, said he thinks voters are frustrated with city services, and are primed for Coatar’s message.
“You just want your government to make your life a little better,†Oldenburg said.
Green’s supporters, on the other hand, see the wind at their backs with Jones’ win last year and U.S. Rep. Cori Bush running up the score on a moderate challenger earlier this month.
“Our city is ready to take things more progressive,†said Guenther, the alderman. “That’s what ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ is voting for.â€
Ken Warren, a political scientist at ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ University, said Guenther’s right about the trends. Green also enters the race with better name recognition, built during runs for aldermanic president in 2019 and state Senate in 2020. That could be important in a down-ballot race that’s being held outside of its usual time frame.
But Jeff Smith, a former state senator from ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ who supports Coatar, said the downtown alderman, a prolific fundraiser, will likely have an edge in resources he can use to get his name and his message out.
Ultimately, Smith said, voters will have a clear choice between a very progressive message and getting back to basics.
“We’ll see,†he said, “which is more important to voters right now.â€
