Key local candidates deserving of your vote Aug. 7

All are strong supporters of workers; Labor endorsed

In addition to protecting your pay by voting NO on Prop A on Aug. 7, there are several races important to working families: the re-election of St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger, Missouri State Senator Jake Hummel, St. Louis County Councilman Pat Dolan and St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch.

STEVE STENGER (D)
St. Louis County Executive

Stenger, whose father was a union telephone lineman with the old Southwestern Bell, knocked on doors with his dad in the 1978 campaign to defeat so-called “right-to-work.” A lawyer and Certified Public Accountant, Stenger served eight years as 6th District County Councilman before being elected county executive in 2014. He has provided strong leadership for working families, including:

• Creating the first prescription drug monitoring database (PDMP) in Missouri (after the state refused to act) to track the sale of prescription drugs, including opioids that can cause addiction and lead to heroin abuse when overprescribed.

• Putting the opioid overdose treatment Narcan in every police car, saving over 150 lives to date.

• Spearheading passage of Proposition P, a dedicated law enforcement sales tax to add 100 county police, increase pay and retain qualified officers, enhancing community safety and providing new equipment.

• Creating the first accountability portal on county’s website so anyone can see where every dollar on Prop P is being spent.

• Championing policies to stimulate economic growth over the last three-and-a-half years, generating more than $5 billion in economic development, creating and retaining more than 30,000 jobs, including some 5,700 new jobs.

• Implementing rigorous senior services standards, earning recognition from the AARP.

• Cutting more than $30 million in wasteful spending with a county audit.

• Making investments in North County to re-open Northwest Plaza and re-invigorate Jamestown Mall, which are now anchors for re-development and growth.

• Providing body cameras and dash cameras for all police officers to ensure transparency and public accountability for both the public and the police officers

• Creating an Affordable Housing Trust Fund Task Force to promote equity, fairness and inclusion in the region and establish strategic funding priorities to address affordable housing and related needs of the citizens of St. Louis County.

• Achieving national ACT Certified Work Ready Community status –– the largest county in the nation to do so. With this tool, businesses know the skilled workers they need for a productive workforce are readily available in St. Louis County.

STATE SENATOR
JAKE HUMMEL (D)
4^th Senate District-St. Louis

Senator Hummel, a fourth-generation union member, uses his platform to advocate for working families on the floor of the Missouri Senate and as secretary-treasurer of the Missouri AFL-CIO. He is a journeyman electrician with IBEW Local 1 and previously served eight years in the Missouri House of Representatives.

Senator Hummel:

• Supports access to affordable education at all levels to make certain Missouri children have the opportunity to attain economic security.

• Prioritizes state infrastructure investment to ensure Missouri’s economic vitality is not threatened by crumbling roads and bridges.

• Fights against misguided legislation like Senate Bill 43 that passed in 2017, greatly weakening Missouri’s anti-discrimination laws for employment, public accommodations, and housing. Hummel has proposed legislation to unwind the changes and restore appropriate protections for Missouri workers and citizens.

• Advocates for working families by sponsoring legislation to increase the state’s minimum wage, supports bills to facilitate access to specialized training and job readiness programs, and fights against senseless attacks on prevailing wage.

• Champions efforts to support fire fighters and police officers by proposing expansion of the state’s workers’ compensation system to provide coverage for fire fighters who contract cancer in the line of duty and passing legislation to protect Social Security benefits for St. Louis Airport Police Officers.

• Defends LGBTQ rights and equality, recently receiving the endorsement of PROMO, Missouri’s statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization.

• Protects Missouri seniors by fighting against efforts to restrict access to the MO Senior Rx program, which provides access to affordable prescriptions to Medicare and Medicaid eligible individuals.

Senator Hummel is also an active part of his community, participating in countless town hall and neighborhood meetings and providing leadership for projects like Operation Brightside – a project dedicated to making St. Louis a cleaner, greener, better place to live – and the completion of improvements to Wilmore Park. He is a member of the Carondelet Community Betterment Federation, Holly Hills Improvement Association, Boulevard Heights Neighborhood Association, and the Dutchtown South Community Association.

PAT DOLAN (D)
St. Louis County Council –
5^th District

Pat Dolan, a 44-year member and current president of Sprinkler Fitters Local 268, is finishing his second term on the County Council, and previously served eight years on the Richmond Heights City Council. He is currently the Missouri AFL-CIO’s apprentice coordinator and serves as program facilitator for the St. Louis Building Trades’ Building Union Diversity (BUD) program, encouraging construction union apprenticeship for minorities, women and St. Louis.

Dolan has worked on a wide variety of issues to improve the lives of county families, including:

• Main sponsor of Complete Streets Legislation meant to ensure projects are not just focused on cars, but support a “complete street” to accommodate pedestrians, bicyclists, transit and motorists.

• Main sponsor of St. Louis County Non-Discrimination Act, protecting the LGBTQ community from housing, employment, and public accommodations discrimination. It also added sexual orientation and gender identity to the non-discrimination list for county contracts and added sexual orientation and gender identity to hate crime language, something state law does not include.

• Sponsored and passed legislation to streamline the process for farmer’s market operators and vendors, eliminating unnecessary red tape so our community can enjoy all the benefits of great local farmers’ markets.

• Instrumental in passing the state’s first Prescription Drug Monitoring Program launched in St. Louis County to fight the opioid crisis.

• A strong supporter of public schools and public safety, earning him the endorsement of Teachers Local 420 and the Missouri AFL-CIO.

• Fought for, and supported passage of Prop P to increase police officer pay, hire more police and improve public safety.

• Supported the “Prop P Accountability Act” to ensure Prop P funds are spent appropriately.

• Committed to public service as a member St. Louis County Drug Task Force board, president of the Missouri Network for Opiate

BOB McCULLOCH

St. Louis County Prosecutor

One of the most experienced, longest serving prosecutors in Missouri, and chief law enforcement official of the largest county in the state, Bob McCulloch has crime fighting in his heart. His father, a police officer, was killed chasing a kidnapping suspect when Bob was 12. His brother, uncle and cousin were city police officers as well.

A St. Louis University law graduate, he clerked for a Missouri Appeals Court Judge Joseph G. Stewart and in private practice. He later served as an assistance prosecuting attorney and in 1991 was elected St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney, a post he’s held ever since.

A no-nonsense prosecutor, leading a team of 62 attorneys, he’s at times been controversial because of his tough stance on crime.

Some of his major accomplishments include:

• A firm stand against Prop A. “I’m voting NO, so there’s no misunderstanding on how I feel about this terrible law.”
• Participating in special courts for drug treatment, veterans and individuals with mental health challenges.
• Eliminated the use of cash bail for low-level crimes.
• Establishing Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Teams known and highly respected for their thorough investigation and prosecution of cases involving the physical and sexual abuse of women, the elderly and children.
• Forcing “dead beat dads” to pay over $30 million a year to support their children. He has also collected nearly $100,000 a year in restitution for those who have received bad checks.
• Leading the effort to keep criminals in jail and stop them from becoming “repeat offenders” by initiating and successfully fighting for Missouri’s Truth in Sentencing Statute that prohibits parole for violent criminals until they have served at least 85 percent of their sentence.

McCulloch also serves as president of the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, a member of the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA), board member of the NDAA Metropolitan Committee, chairman of the NDAA National Advocacy Center oversight committee, a member of the Advisory Board of Legal Advocates-Abused Women, the Children’s Advocacy Center and several other victims’ rights organizations.

[box style=”4″]

Mark Mantovani: closet Republican?

Incumbent Democrat Stenger has earned your vote

Is Mark Mantovani a closet Republican running in the Democratic primary for county executive next Tuesday to help Republican policies take control of county government?

One has to ask when looking a several key facts:

• Mantovani donated over $20,000 to disgraced governor Eric Greitens who pushed the anti-worker Prop A (“right-to-work”) through the Republican-controlled legislature as its first order of business this past session.

Even after Greitens published a pamphlet citing his RTW agenda, Mantovani held a fund-raiser for Greitens at his Ladue home.

• He supported a number of key Republican national races prior to the Greitens donation.
• At least three key pro-Prop A Republicans have donated almost $15,000 to Mantovani’s campaign: Dave Spence, former Republican gubernatorial candidate ($5,000), Mark Milton, former Republican state representative ($200) and Bert Walker, former President George Bush’s cousin ($10,000).
• While worker-endorsed incumbent County Executive Steve Stenger created an entire TV commercial making it clear he stands in opposition to Prop A (RTW), Montovani simple included a single line in his TV commercial professing to be against RTW, and saying little else, and then, not very convincingly.

This is in addition to the fact that he moved his business from the county into the city, which he has every right to do. But if he wants to grow jobs in the county, as his TV commercials profess, why take jobs out of the country?

A lot to think about when you go to the polls Tuesday to vote NO on Prop A and vote to re-elect County Executive Steve Stenger, a true Democrat who has been one of worker’s strongest supporters in that position.

[/box]