Spending my Summer with Team Dooley

     As some of you may know, my first job was as an intern with St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley’s 2010 reelection campaign.  This was the best learning experience I’ve ever had, as I was responsible for recruiting, training, and maintaining volunteers for three offices, got to help prepare fundraising reports, hear the latest campaign news, in addition to all the voter contact stuff I’ve been doing for seven years.  At the end of a hard-fought campaign, with pretty much everything else I cared about getting destroyed, I was part of the team that held the county for Charlie.

                Now I’m canvassing for Dooley.  I wish I was doing more, but making money while working for a candidate in whom I truly believe is as good as this field gets, and I’m definitely happy for a genuine opportunity for fulfillment.

                The significance of Dooley’s administration can’t be overestimated- the fact that in a time when the two most important factors in one's success are possession of a reputable degree and being white, a Black American without a college degree has successfully managed a major metropolitan area for the last decade, winning two county-wide elections, is highly significant, though I think it’s more a testament to Mr. Dooley’s skills, charisma, and competence than to any emerging acceptance of racial or economic equality.  Frankly, Dooley’s record has a lot to offer a wide variety of folks.  At the top of the list (as always, this cycle) are the deficit hawks- St. Louis County has the state’s only perfect bond rating, which is not the sort of thing I’d trumpet, but Dooley has accomplished this without too many cuts to important public services- we’ve actually seen some noteworthy expansions lately.

     Most important to me is the Show Me Healthy Women state healthcare program.  This is a state program, so the county can’t take all the credit, but what is clear is that Charlie has committed to strengthening and expanding the program with a new health center, as well as increasing the variety of services it provides.  Our county has the only perfect rating from the MO Institute of Community Health, and has provided 84000 women’s health visits, now offering subsidized birth control as well as cancer screenings, and 53000 pediatric health visits.  Dooley has demonstrated a commitment to women’s health and birth control, which, if cautious and low-profile is certainly helping a lot of women make their own reproductive choices.  Aside from the principle of the right to choose, access to birth control swells the workforce and reduces income inequality, as fewer women have to take time off or quit due to pregnancy and childrearing.  Most tellingly, the breast cancer mortality rate for Blackwomen has fallen by 30% during Charlie’s two and a half terms in office.

     

     Dooley was also the driving force behind unifying county recycling services, bringing Single Stream to every household in this large county of 900,000 or more.  Not exactly a greenhouse gas reducer, but it’s an impressive victory in a state where any environmental effort, particularly recycling, is viewed by the Republicans as an offense against God and a menace to the community.  Look up Cynthia Davis for specifics.  Any county program that bears a hint of environmentalism is worthy of applause.

     Some meaningful civil rights bills, including a form of the ENDA, have passed the County council with Charlie’s support as well.  The county also is passing a plan to favor Minority-and Women-Owned-Business-Enterprises in contract awards, a vital tool in breaking the hold of the old boy’s network in the use of public money.

     Finally, crime rates in unincorporated areas have fallen precipitously over the past decade, due in large part to the expansion of the police department Charlie passed.  I know this makes civil protesting or any sort of nonconformity more dangerous, but the drop in crime rates helps everyone, and at the very least policemen are unionized, so I’m willing to mark it as a positive.  I’m also confident that Charlie’s experience as Mayor of a poor, north-St. Louis municipality would inform him as to exactly what the effect of a PD expansion would bring, so that’s another mark for it.

Now Charlie has a challenger who appears to be running on a simple deficit hawk platform while accusing Charlie of cutting budgets, and appears to have just abandoned his hardline anti-choice stance last Tuesday.  This will be an interesting test- already the challenger has significant resources and endorsements, but I’ve yet to see any of his people in the field.  We’ll have to see how much the older, whiter summer primary electorate favors him, but as I’ve said, Charlie has a lot to offer in his record, even to constituencies predisposed against him. 

     I have my reservations- like all St. Louis politicians, Charlie has had to court favors from Monsanto and Boeing, but we have seen real improvements in public safety, women’s health, and recycling programs, and we know he’s favorable to a lot of causes I hold dear.  Added to that he’s a competent administrator who can get stuff passed and implemented in an increasingly moribund polity, and I’m excited to work my heart out for him over the next five weeks.

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen

Genosse Graham