St. Louis’ 2011 municipal election season starts in less than a year
Author:Steve Patterson December 24th, 2009
Every two years brings municipal elections in the City of St. Louis. In 2011 we will elect half the Board of Aldermen (14 even numbered wards) as well as the President of the Board of Aldermen. Four members of the St. Louis School Board are also elected at the general election. For more detail see the St. Louis Board of Elections page on How to Declare Your Candidacy for Any Federal, State, or City Office.
I ran for alderman in the 25th ward in 2005 and lost to the then incumbent, Dorothy Kirner. Participating in our electoral process as a candidate was a tremendous experience. In 2007 I moved downtown. My loft is located in the 6th ward represented by Kacie Starr Triplett. I will not be running in 2011 as I am generally pleased with Ald. Triplett’s performance so far. Her communications with constituents is among the best. Also, as long as many in St. Louis call their alderman about fixing potholes, requesting stop signs and other such non-legislative tasks I don’t want the job anyway. My hope is we can begin to get away from pothole politics so our elected reps can set policy, leaving potholes to the bureaucrats.
I would like to see a number of the other 14 aldermen from odd numbered wards replaced with new blood. A year from now we need at least 15 people having filed to seek office. Since we go through the trouble and additional expense of having a partisan primary and a general election it would be nice to see contested offices in the primary and general election. If all the candidates are Democrats it will prove my point that we don’t need to waste money pretending we have multiple parties in our municipal elections.
Important dates:
- Filing opens at 8am on Monday November 28, 2010 (”Filing for municipal offices opens at 8:00 A.M. on the date that is 100 days prior to the date of the applicable Primary Municipal Election.”)
- Filing closes at 5pm on Friday January 7, 2011 (”Filing for municipal offices closes at 5:00 P.M. on the date that is 60 days prior to the date of the applicable Primary Municipal Election.”}
- The partisan primary will be Tuesday March 8, 2011.
- The general election will be Tuesday April 6, 2011.
Resources:
With filing less than a year away, if you are thinking of running for office in the City of St. Louis, you’d better start firming up those plans now.
- Steve Patterson
