By Antonio D. French
Filed Tuesday, March 14 at 7:04 AM
State Rep. Yaphett El-Amin has picked up some union support in her campaign for state senate. According to Jo Mannies, of the Post-Dispatch, SEIU, Local 2000; AFSCME, Local 2730; and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) are now supporting El-Amin.
[UPDATE: Mannies is now reporting that AFSCME has not endorsed El-Amin.]
One of El-Amin's four opponents, former Congressional candidate Jeff Smith, also picked up some labor support recently. The Smith campaign reported that local branches of the Iron Workers, Painters, Elevator Constructors, Glaziers, and Insulators and Asbestos Workers, all declared their support for Smith.There's only two weeks left in this fundraising quarter. Two weeks after that, campaign finance reports must be submitted to the state Ethics Commission. Local political watchers will be looking for answers to a few important questions in some high-profile races.
In the 4th District Senate Race: Will Jeff Smith have another near-$40,000 quarter and will he break the $150,000 total raised mark? Will Amber Boykins have another report pocked with small donations and a low total raised? If so, will that put more pressure on her to drop out of the race? And what about Derio Gambaro? Did he peak in his first quarter since entering the race or did his impressive fundraising continue into 2006? And last, but definitely not least, how serious in the candidacy of former alderman Kenny Jones? Only time (and money) will tell...In the 60th District State Rep. Race: Speaking of serious candidates, just how serious in Sharon Tyus about this state rep run? Her upcoming financial reports might give a clue. Many expect to see Tyus loan her campaign money as she did in her unsuccessful run for 1st Ward alderman last year. But it will be interesting to see how much in donations Tyus will raise, and from whom? And can she catch up to the lead of Jamilah Nasheed, who led that race with $10,000 on hand in January?
Other 60th questions surround the candidacies of the Shaun Simms, the current state rep (Amber Boykins)'s husband, and former state rep. Robert Bartlett. Collectively, the two had raised less than $1,000 on their last reports. If they don't show some signs of life on this next report, this 4-person race will quickly become a 2-woman race.License Collector Race: For the same reasons we enjoy picking up Forbes' annual listings of billionaires just to see where Oprah stands, we also look forward to admiring the campaign finance reports of Mike McMillan. Now that he's running for a citywide office, we can only imagine the numbers.
1 Comments:
It's not simply a case of he (or she) who has the most money wins. But getting good ideas from a candidate's lips to the voters' ears costs money.
The political reality is that in order to be taken seriously as a candidate for an office with a district as large as a state rep district, you need a certain amount of cash.
2:31 PM, March 14, 2006
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