By Antonio D. French
Filed Tuesday, August 08, 2006 at 11:46 PM
With 94/94 (100%) Precincts Reporting... Labels: Election_Day
JEFF SMITH - 36.41% (6,755)
YAPHETT EL-AMIN - 24.89% (4,618)
DERIO GAMBARO - 22.97% (4,261)
AMBER BOYKINS - 12.72% (2,360)
KENNETH JONES - 3.01% (558)
UPDATE: Turnout was only 16.79%. We're hearing it was even lower in north St. Louis.
UPDATE 2: NEW VIDEO... thanks to Tom Weber for the audio. Hear Smith's full victory speech here on KWMU's website.
12 Comments:
This is abhorrent.
6k votes for the leader?
Whats our total population!!!
Do people not give a damn whatsoever?
8/09/2006 12:14 AM
Congratulations Jeff. This was an ugly race but Jeff and his army of volunteers showed St. Louis how to run a campaign. I hope this is the start of a new style of politics in St. Louis. The amazing film about Jeff's 2004 race is still playing at the Tivoli. If anyone wants to understand how he won this race so big go see the movie. It's not only entertaining but has a message for all of us. I am looking forward to seeing a lot more from Jeff in the years to come. Congratulations again.
8/09/2006 1:15 AM
Doug, just think about this:
Jeff spent $230,000 for just 6,755 votes. That's $34 per vote.
8/09/2006 1:18 AM
youngrepublican, you're leaving out Kenny Jones. More importantly, you're leaving out Jeff Smith, who certainly got a significant portion of the black vote.
8/09/2006 7:42 AM
As a sistah who voted for Smith, I resent the notion that black voters don't look at more than skin color. Jeff Smith is positive, professional and on it. I voted for him absentee and watched the results on this blog from New York. Yes the black vote was split. But look at the candidates. Yaphett was tacky; that press release was too much for me. And Amber was missing in action on the South Side. I contacted both of them on behalf of a non-profit while they were in office and they didn't return repeated calls/e-mails; many of their colleagues did. If Jeff Smith works that hard for votes, I expect him to work hard on my behalf, push a progressive agenda and return calls when he's in the senate.
Antonio, love your blog.
C-money
8/09/2006 8:30 AM
I didn't really expect him not to. The other candidates either campaigned along race lines, or didn't have what the voters were looking for.
Apparently, a large portion of voters still vote along race lines. The proof is in the returns. That said, there's always about 5% that can always look beyond race, and look at the issues, and the candidates character.
Perhaps Yaphett & Derio learned something yesterday: trying to divide the voters by race isn't a smart move, any more than campaigning to one race in a diverse senate district makes sense.
As to the embarassing turnout numbers; You'll find many of these people complaining about their plight, yet when given the opportunity to participate in a cornerstone of our country, the decided to go to the grocery store, sleep, wash the car, take the kids to park, etc, etc. So no, Doug, some folks, especially on the north side, just don't seem to care. It's easier and more convenient to complain about things, rather than participate in making changes.
8/09/2006 9:03 AM
This is just the sad reality of st. louis northside politics. We need to get together and choose one candidate to support. Yaphett could have won if Amber would have pulled out and stood by Yaphettes side against this Smith stranger. And what the hell was kenny Jones thinking! Smith doesn't now Sh*t about our community and we should have shown him that! Wake-up black voters and politicians we can't keep giving away our power then sit at home and complain about it. This election proves that we have a lot of (unifying?) work to do!
8/09/2006 12:00 PM
The ward by ward numbers are out and there are plenty of black votes for Jeff Smith in there. Clearly not all of Amber's or Kenny's votes would have gone to Yaphett. Along the same lines, without Derio in the race, there is no way Yaphett wins even with every one of Amber's and Kenny's votes. When I look at the numbers I see that Jeff accumulated votes in almost every ward.
The bottom line is that, Jeff Smith outworked every other candidate and earned the votes across the district to win the race. Blaming it on turnout, or blaming it on Amber is missing the point. To get votes candidates have to work for them. Driving around with a bullhorn and a truck just isn't good enough.
8/09/2006 2:10 PM
I agree with you in theory, juju. How exactly is Jeff blind to the African-American community? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it would seem on the northside, if Jeff Smith was born Black, you individuals would have voted for him droves. He seems to unlucky enough to have been born the wrong race. Must all politics boil down to race, and race alone?
As I recall, aside from the African-American candidates, He was the only to act as though his electors may have been other than white, or in the case of the African-American candidates, other than black. Any voter who approaches a candidate and bases the validity of the candidate on their sking color is simply racist.
It's a lame argument to assume because an elected official is White, they are deaf, dumb, and stupid to social issues affecting African-Americans. The same is true of Whites who assume that an African-American can't represent them. A persons patience can wear thin on a flimsy argument.
I didn't see El-Amin or Boykins reach out to White voters. I didn't see Gambaro reach out to African-American voters. Kenneth Jones, to his credit, did. Unfortunately he didn't have a strong showing.
Jeff Smith did, it paid off (I would have preferred a bit more space between himself and El-Amin, but that was due to the embarrassingly low turnout.
And I can't put it any better than our last Anonymous.
8/09/2006 8:50 PM
Now that Jeff Smith has won, I guess that Slay is more likely to get a bill passed in legislature allowing him to set up his own charter schools.
White people will finally get schools with boundaries that include mostly white residents, similar to the white police officer association attempt a few years ago.
Jeff may not have gone into politics to do this, but that is what the Mayor's office will ask him to support.
8/10/2006 7:16 AM
Brian Harris:
You should have called NPR and talked to Sylvester Brown.
8/10/2006 1:49 PM
BAD JUJU, BAD JUJU,...
Didn't anyone ever teach you to not give out bad juju vibes? The problem with north side politics is real simple...too much player hatin' going on. Imagine that, Lizz Brown putting on the other family of T.D. on the radio.
8/13/2006 11:58 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home