Election Night Watch Party Photos

I took the photos above at a couple of watch parties in the St. Louis area Tuesday evening. Turnout in the region was light as it typically is for April elections. The evenings results were disappointing.

Jesse Irwin, the Republican candidate for Alderman in St. Louis's 10th Ward, lost by 39%. Prop E, which would have repealed St. Louis's earnings tax had it been voted down, passed with a whopping 75% margin. Apparently, the citizens of St. Louis enjoy taxing people who come to the city to work while denying those workers any representation within city government.

Results in St. Louis county weren't any better. Chip Wood lost the Assessor's race to Jake Zimmerman by 27%. Rick Gans lost by 7% to the union backed Steven Swyer in the race for the Monarch Fire District Director. Mike Geller was running for one of three seats on the Rockwood School Board. He finished fourth, missing a seat on the board by less than 300 votes (about 1%).

Related articles

• Geller and Gans: The Taxpayer's Candidates! (rebootcongress.blogspot.com)
• St. Louis City: Arrogant, Anti-Freedom (hennessysview.com)
• Zimmerman heading to victory in county assessor's race (stltoday.com)

Jake Zimmerman's brand of Crony Capitalism

KMOX has news about the St. Louis county assessor's race this morning. The race pits Jake Zimmerman (D) who was elected to the state house last November against forty year real-estate veteran Chip Wood (R). (No word yet on what office Zimmerman will be pursuing on the August ballot.)

The flap involves Zimmerman's dad, Stu Zimmerman. Apparently, Charlie Dooley's minions in the assessors office were able to work a sweetheart deal for the elder Zimmerman:

Democrat Jake Zimmerman was asked about his father’s Clayton home, which is being re-assessed for tax purposes at a lower value, down 16.5% from $687,000 a year ago to $572,000 now. “I don’t think this is a legitimate question at all,” Zimmerman said. “I haven’t spent a minute’s time looking at that. I’ve got better things to worry about.”

As 24thState.com wrote last week, Charlie Dooley has been noted for squandering county tax dollars on nepotism again, so there's little surprise about this turn of events. Additionally, 24thState.com commented on the favorable assessment last week noting that Stu Zimmerman's new assessment of -16.5% stands in stark contrast to the assessments of his Clayton neighbors who saw re-assessments ranging from +4% to -4%.

While the issue originally involved the favorable re-assessment, Jake's response is problematic. If he genuinely does not think that this is a legitimate question, that implies that Jake would be unwilling to investigate why this favorable tax assessment came about. Perhaps this is a legitimate assessment of Stu Zimmerman's property. Perhaps it's the result of a clerical error. Or, perhaps, the assessor's office is an extension of Charlie Dooley's crony capitalist empire.

Jake's dismissal of the question implies that he's more interested in having his hand on the tiller than investigating who has a hand in the till. St. Louis county deserves better. St. Louis county needs Chip Wood.

Related articles

• L.K. Wood Makes His Case (hennessysview.com)
• L. K. "Chip" Wood for County Assessor (hennessysview.com)
• Chip Wood on St. Louis County Property Assessments (24thstate.com)
• Chip Wood for St. Louis County Assessor (rebootcongress.blogspot.com)

Chip Wood for St. Louis County Assessor

"Chip" L. K. Wood (R) met with myself and a few other members of the St. Louis Tea Party Thursday evening. Chip has stepped up to run for the office. He has a lifetime of experience as a realtor in the St. Louis area. Mark Reardon interviewed Chip and his opponent Jake Zimmerman (D) Thursday afternoon.

I plan to post video over the weekend.