by Jan Dye
The April 2 election in Columbia, Missouri was encouraging. The Sierra Club Osage Group backed progressive candidates Karl Skala for the Third Ward against incumbent Gary Kespohl, and Ian Thomas in the Fourth Ward against Bill Weitkemper and incumbent Daryl Dudley. We were gladdened when both of our selections won their respective races, despite both Dudley and Kespohl receiving the endorsement of the Chamber of Commerce. These victories were due in part to a dedicated group of citizens who convinced the council to rescind the blight designation.
Our own Linda Green was a member of the citizens group and helped bring to light the potential dangers of designating a large swath of Columbia as blighted. The council felt the blight designation was needed in order to qualify for a development tax incentive for businesses willing to settle in these areas. The citizens group maintained that this kind of economic development was not beneficial, that in fact, according to one if its members, "Columbia has the lowest unemployment rate in Missouri, is the hardest working town in the USA, and is among the top places in the country to live, work and raise a family and is far from blighted. Blight also opens the door for eminent domain abuse. . . there is no evidence that suggests that corporate welfare schemes create jobs." After this spotlight on the willingness of some council members to capitulate to the whims of the mayor and his big business cronies, it became much easier to get our progressives elected.
Not so in the mayor's race, however. We backed Sid Sullivan, another progressive, but Bob McDavid won his second term with 60.9% of the vote. One person at Sullivan’s watch party summed it up nicely, "There's been so much good debate, so much conversation, so much brought to light on current challenges in the community. . .That's the most important thing about having a challenger."
All in all, we were mostly happy with the election results; city council is now populated with a progressive majority; enough to keep our pro-business mayor in check.