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Michael Butler can’t wait for the ‘unsexy stuff’ if elected mayor of St. Louis

Michael Butler isn’t the only candidate in the race for St. Louis mayor running on a platform of improving basic services.

But he says he’s the only one of the four with the skills to implement that platform.

“I’m most excited about doing that unsexy stuff if I become mayor,” he said recently on Politically Speaking. “I don’t want to be a ceremonial mayor. I want to dive deep into our city government and use my experience to improve it.”

Butler has a business degree from Alabama A&M University and a master’s in public administration from the University of Missouri. In his six years as recorder of deeds, he said he expanded the office’s online services and centralized the pickup of vital records like birth certificates.

“I’ve increased revenue in that office by $700,000 a year. I’ve increased staff productivity by 25%, all while decreasing the number of full-time employees in that office,” he said. “I want to spread that to the rest of City Hall, and I know I can.”

In addition to his political career – he was a state representative for six years and chair of the Missouri Democratic Party for a little more than two years – Butler spent five years as the part-owner of Open Concept, a bar in the Grove that made headlines for its all-you-can-drink pricing structure.

Though he knew the process as an elected official, Butler said, it still took him nine months and visiting three different buildings to secure a liquor license.

“I believe in 2025 you shouldn’t have to go to City Hall to access city government,” Butler said. All of those health department and liquor license business license processes should be brought online so that people can access their government from the comfort of their home.”

Butler closed the bar late last year to focus on the run for mayor. He said he also learned other lessons from his time as a business owner.

“People do want to come to St. Louis,” he said. “They do want to move back to St. Louis. And we can do that if they satisfy what they need.”

The needs are concentrated in three key areas, Butler said – better schools, better housing options and public safety.

To address housing, Butler would boost the marketing of consumer incentives such as help with down payments or closing costs that the city already offers. He would also look to incentivize contractors to build infill housing in parts of north and southeast St. Louis.

In the public safety sphere, Butler would use funding from the settlement over the departure of the Rams to Los Angeles to get the department needed basic equipment. He would also push for enforcement of traffic laws and keep many of the programs in the Office of Violence Prevention that address the root causes of crime such as poverty but move them in-house rather than contract them out.

And while the mayor’s office does not have any control over the schools, Butler said the city can provide funding for wraparound services like full-time nurses and social workers.

Butler says the city should take on these roles despite not meeting the basic needs of its residents like street paving, trash pickup or snow removal.

“The city government is not efficient, [but] it could be with the right leadership,” he said. “We have to do more than one thing. We can’t make excuses as to why we can’t get things done for our citizens.”

Rams dollars

Earlier this week, a compromise plan to spend the $290 million in Rams settlement money fell apart in spectacular fashion – something Butler attributes to a mayoral administration “that is excited about press conferences and announcing things without having confirmed the work.”

“In order to have a big legislative priority, you’ve got to include all stakeholders and all voices,” he said.

Butler agrees in general that some of the funding should go to the city’s central business district. But he would focus instead on housing. The deal that collapsed included $74 million for downtown. While the money could be spent on housing, it was not required, though there was a dedicated funding stream for sidewalks and street repair.

That doesn’t really address the population loss, Butler said.

“While we absolutely want the retail vacancy and the graffiti to go away, we have to build a customer base of folks that want to come downtown,” he said.

Entering the race

Voters in the March primary can choose none, some or all of the four candidates in the race under a system known as approval voting. The top four advance to the general election in April.

Butler was a big supporter of Proposition D, which implemented nonpartisan approval voting in the city. He said he would not have run for mayor without it passing.

“It allows you to talk about your plan and that policy stuff and not about the personalities or the individuals in the race,” Butler said.

He added that his successful 2018 race against a popular incumbent, Sharon Carpenter, taught him to “attack the policy and not the person.”

“In this current race, there’s some easy negative talking points that people want you to lean in on,” he said. “But I’m more interested in what people are interested in, which is what are you going to do differently, and what are the policies and plans you have for our city.”

Editor’s note:  Tishaura Jones, Andrew Jones, and Cara Spencer have all previously appeared on Politically Speaking, which is available at stlpr.org. 

Michael Butler can’t wait for the ‘unsexy stuff’ if elected mayor of St. Louis
https://www.stlpr.org/podcast/politically-speaking/2025-02-07/michael-butler-cant-wait-for-the-unsexy-stuff-if-elected-mayor-of-st-louis
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In second run for mayor, Cara Spencer makes pledge to get St. Louis back to basics

Politics was not part of 8th Ward Alderwoman Cara Spencer’s plan in school.

She majored in math at Truman State University and got a job working for big businesses doing mathematical modeling.

“I’ve never taken a political science class in my life, not in high school, not in college, and it really wasn’t on my radar, “ she said of running for office.

That changed in 2015. Spencer had purchased a home in southeast St. Louis, an area of the city that she said was “up-and-coming but really had a lot of challenges. And so I decided to get involved in driving the solutions.”

Spencer beat a longtime city politician in her first race. She’s now got her sights on unseating another incumbent – Mayor Tishaura Jones.

“Our citizens have lost faith in the government, in the system,” she said on the Politically Speaking podcast. “What I keep hearing from people as to why they are leaving [the city,] city services is at the top of their list. You can see that disregard for the importance of just doing basic city services.”

Snow and trash issues

The January storm that left side streets and alleys covered in ice more than three weeks after the snow stopped falling is top of mind for Spencer, as it is for many city residents after road conditions led to delayed garbage pickups.

Her 13-year-old son cleaned out the family refrigerator to earn something he wanted and filled trash bags with expired food.

“He brings it out to the alley, and of course our dumpsters are overflowing,” Spencer said. “So we bring it back inside, doing our part by keeping garbage in our house. The failure to have any sense of urgency on these issues that make our city livable I think is clear to anyone and everyone,” she said.

After initially giving the city a grade of B- during an appearance on Politically Speaking, Jones later admitted the city had failed to adjust its response to the storm and hired two local contractors to plow and salt side streets and alleys. Between Jan. 24 and Jan. 26, refuse crews collected nearly 350 tons of trash from dumpsters, according to a post on the city’s Facebook page.

But Spencer’s concerns go beyond trash pickup and a failure to pivot and plow side streets.

Some people don’t believe the city’s crime statistics, she said, a point that Chief Robert Tracy has sharply rebutted. There is a perception of corruption in the city’s building division and at its economic development arm, the St. Louis Development Corporation, she said.

Spencer was on the SLDC’s board in her role as chair of the aldermanic budget committee when reporting by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch revealed that some of the north St. Louis businesses that had been selected to receive grants through the American Rescue Plan Act either did not exist or were not located in the city. She stepped down in response to the revelations.

“There was absolutely no path to oversight under the current structure of SLDC,” she said.

The organization’s current chief executive officer, Neil Richardson, is also the president of the SLDC board, which Spencer said is supposed to be the oversight mechanism.

“I’d show up to vote without having adequate information that I had requested,” she said. “It felt like this was really a sham of oversight.”

It’s for that reason that Spencer wants SLDC in its current form to have nothing to do with oversight of the $290 million legal settlement over the departure of the Rams to Los Angeles.

“But [with] restructuring, it could be a viable and maybe a more flexible path for distributing some of these funds,” she said.

Spencer was a co-sponsor of one of two bills that laid out different plans for spending the cash. Her proposal focused on development in economically distressed areas, including $98 million for downtown, which is in her ward.

“Fundamentally, we were awarded these funds because of the loss of the revenue from the Rams leaving St Louis,” she said. “And importantly, the revenue source was downtown.”

The central business district, Spencer said, remains extremely challenged. Vacancy rates are high, and rental prices have not gone up in 10 years.

A second proposal set aside less for downtown and included spending on day care and workforce development for city employees.

Spencer said she understood the importance of lower-cost child care as a single working mother.

“Day care is very expensive, but I just don’t know about expanding city services at this time when we’re unable to adequately scrape the ice off the streets,” she said.

Chaos at the Board of Aldermen, however, scuttled both of those proposals. Aldermen on Tuesday initially appeared poised to allocate $40 million to the city’s water department and leave the rest in the bank, but eventually moved on without taking any action on the Rams funding.

That likely means legislators will have to start the process over when the new session of the Board of Aldermen begins in April.

A split with the mayor

In 2021, the first year of approval voting, which allows residents to vote for multiple candidates, Spencer endorsed Jones as a second choice for her supporters in the primary. This year, while Spencer and the mayor remain ideologically aligned on many issues, she is not encouraging people to also support Jones.

Cara Spencer (left) and Tishaura Jones participate in a mayoral debate in March 2021.

“To see a stated set of values versus an enacted set of policies and procedures and service to the community has played out very differently than I think we all anticipated,” Spencer said. “And therein lies a big difference between the two of us.”

The mayor, Spencer said, has not kept her promise on government transparency. Too many people have died at the City Justice Center, and Jones was too slow to fire Jennifer Clemens-Abdullah as corrections commissioner.

And the city’s failure to address homelessness and to respond by fencing off City Hall to stop encampments, was “reprehensible,” Spencer said.

Jones beat Spencer by 4 percentage points in April 2021, due in part to wide margins of victory in north St. Louis wards. Spencer said she’s making inroads there with meet-and-greets and door-knocking.

“Not surprisingly, the issues are the same across the board – the potholes, the trash, deep, deep, deep disappointment in the failures of city government on those issues,” she said.

Editor’s note:  Mayor Tishaura Jones appeared on Politically Speaking in January. The episode with Andrew Jones was posted on Monday. An episode with Butler will air this month.

In second run for mayor, Cara Spencer makes pledge to get St. Louis back to basics
https://www.stlpr.org/podcast/politically-speaking/2025-02-05/in-second-run-for-mayor-cara-spencer-makes-pledge-to-get-st-louis-back-to-basics
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Andrew Jones believes third time's the charm as he seeks election as St. Louis mayor

Retired utility executive Andrew Jones is persistent.

The 2025 mayoral election marks the third time he has run for the office. He lost in the general election in 2017 and in the nonpartisan primary in 2021. He was also the Republican candidate in the 1st Congressional District in 2024, receiving 18% of the vote.

But Jones said on the latest episode of the Politically Speaking podcast that his consistent message will break through this election cycle.

“President Lincoln lost multiple times running for Senate,” he said. Running multiple times “gives you an opportunity to show people that you want to stick to things, and to solve problems, and you won’t give up.”

The path to victory, Jones said, is a straightforward message about change.

“When we talk to the people, they’re saying they want change, and if they want change, you only have one option … because all three are involved with the city,” he said of his opponents in the March primary.

He is running against the incumbent, Tishaura Jones, 8th Ward Alderwoman Cara Spencer and Recorder of Deeds Michael Butler.

Andrew Jones said change is needed to save the city.

“As things get worse, you don’t want to see the city perish,” he said. “We’re just hoping that at some particular point in time, before the light goes out, that we will be able to get our message across, and people will buy into it.”

Jones said he is using his own money for the campaign and is raising enough to have a creative digital strategy.

“And certainly, if you give me an opportunity to speak in front of any group of people, I certainly believe I win today, because our message is true, our message is sincere, and the person that’s delivering it does a good job,” he said.

Jones’ positions have not changed much since 2017. He touts his experience as a businessman, someone who can put together and implement an economic development plan.

“I still know how to solve problems,” he said. “I know how to help with community development as well, and I’ve certainly been supportive of the police.”

But Jones expressed doubts about the recent crime numbers, which show it down overall 15% in the city from 2023 to 2024, with homicides at their lowest level since 2013. Other offenses, however, like shootings, are up.

When asked what evidence he had that the numbers are wrong, Jones said, “My evidence is that I’m suspicious that they’re wrong.”

“I know the history of the City of St Louis and the corruption that exists in the City of St Louis, and it surmises that we should not trust those numbers,” he said. “Trust but verify. And I need to verify that.”

In response to similar allegations leveled by a state senator during a recent committee hearing over bills returning control of the department to a state-appointed board, Chief Robert Tracy called them “very disappointing.”

“You’re disparaging all the good work of these officers that have been doing day in and day out,” Tracy said. “I stand by my statistics.”

Chief Robert Tracy, of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, speaks on Friday, April 21, 2023, during a press conference regarding his first 100 days in the office at the police headquarters in Downtown West.

Snow removal

Jones was conciliatory to the mayor over the city’s response to an early January snowstorm that left side streets covered in ice more than two weeks after the snow stopped falling.

While the city could have had a better response, he said, had she made the decision to plow the side streets, people would have been upset about having to dig out their cars.

“You block people in, she would be the devil because of that as well,” he said. “I believe that people are trying to make sure that she gets out of office.”

He added that he would have improved the city’s response by working collectively with the county and bordering municipalities to get the side streets clear, similar to how crews from utility companies will help out after a natural disaster.

Rams settlement money

Jones was much less impressed with current proposals to use the settlement over the departure of the Rams to Los Angeles.

“We need to divvy this thing up and work on infrastructure,” he said. “Infrastructure is a big, big issue, and we can relax some of the spending notions related to it, but we certainly don’t want to spend all that money. It’s a windfall. I don’t really believe people really understand that this isn’t coming back again.”

The primary, in which the top two vote-getters will move on to the April 8 general election, is March 4. Early voting begins Feb. 18.

Editor’s note:  Mayor Tishaura Jones appeared on Politically Speaking in January.  Episodes with Butler and Spencer will be posted this month. 

Andrew Jones believes third time’s the charm as he seeks election as St. Louis mayor

https://www.stlpr.org/podcast/politically-speaking/2025-02-03/andrew-jones-believes-third-times-the-charm-as-he-seeks-election-as-st-louis-mayor
https://www.stlpr.org/page-not-found.rss
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Andrew Jones believes third time's the charm as he seeks election as St. Louis mayor

Retired utility executive Andrew Jones is persistent.

The 2025 mayoral election marks the third time he has run for the office. He lost in the general election in 2017 and in the nonpartisan primary in 2021. He was also the Republican candidate in the 1st Congressional District in 2024, receiving 18% of the vote.

But Jones said on the latest episode of the Politically Speaking podcast that his consistent message will break through this election cycle.

“President Lincoln lost multiple times running for Senate,” he said. Running multiple times “gives you an opportunity to show people that you want to stick to things, and to solve problems, and you won’t give up.”

The path to victory, Jones said, is a straightforward message about change.

“When we talk to the people, they’re saying they want change, and if they want change, you only have one option … because all three are involved with the city,” he said of his opponents in the March primary.

He is running against the incumbent, Tishaura Jones, 8th Ward Alderwoman Cara Spencer and Recorder of Deeds Michael Butler.

Andrew Jones said change is needed to save the city.

“As things get worse, you don’t want to see the city perish,” he said. “We’re just hoping that at some particular point in time, before the light goes out, that we will be able to get our message across, and people will buy into it.”

Jones said he is using his own money for the campaign and is raising enough to have a creative digital strategy.

“And certainly, if you give me an opportunity to speak in front of any group of people, I certainly believe I win today, because our message is true, our message is sincere, and the person that’s delivering it does a good job,” he said.

Jones’ positions have not changed much since 2017. He touts his experience as a businessman, someone who can put together and implement an economic development plan.

“I still know how to solve problems,” he said. “I know how to help with community development as well, and I’ve certainly been supportive of the police.”

But Jones expressed doubts about the recent crime numbers, which show it down overall 15% in the city from 2023 to 2024, with homicides at their lowest level since 2013. Other offenses, however, like shootings, are up.

When asked what evidence he had that the numbers are wrong, Jones said, “My evidence is that I’m suspicious that they’re wrong.”

“I know the history of the City of St Louis and the corruption that exists in the City of St Louis, and it surmises that we should not trust those numbers,” he said. “Trust but verify. And I need to verify that.”

In response to similar allegations leveled by a state senator during a recent committee hearing over bills returning control of the department to a state-appointed board, Chief Robert Tracy called them “very disappointing.”

“You’re disparaging all the good work of these officers that have been doing day in and day out,” Tracy said. “I stand by my statistics.”

Chief Robert Tracy, of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, speaks on Friday, April 21, 2023, during a press conference regarding his first 100 days in the office at the police headquarters in Downtown West.

Snow removal

Jones was conciliatory to the mayor over the city’s response to an early January snowstorm that left side streets covered in ice more than two weeks after the snow stopped falling.

While the city could have had a better response, he said, had she made the decision to plow the side streets, people would have been upset about having to dig out their cars.

“You block people in, she would be the devil because of that as well,” he said. “I believe that people are trying to make sure that she gets out of office.”

He added that he would have improved the city’s response by working collectively with the county and bordering municipalities to get the side streets clear, similar to how crews from utility companies will help out after a natural disaster.

Rams settlement money

Jones was much less impressed with current proposals to use the settlement over the departure of the Rams to Los Angeles.

“We need to divvy this thing up and work on infrastructure,” he said. “Infrastructure is a big, big issue, and we can relax some of the spending notions related to it, but we certainly don’t want to spend all that money. It’s a windfall. I don’t really believe people really understand that this isn’t coming back again.”

The primary, in which the top two vote-getters will move on to the April 8 general election, is March 4. Early voting begins Feb. 18.

Editor’s note:  Mayor Tishaura Jones appeared on Politically Speaking in January.  Episodes with Butler and Spencer will be posted this month. 

Andrew Jones believes third time’s the charm as he seeks election as St. Louis mayor

https://www.stlpr.org/podcast/politically-speaking/2025-02-03/andrew-jones-believes-third-times-the-charm-as-he-seeks-election-as-st-louis-mayor
https://www.stlpr.org/page-not-found.rss
Page Not Found

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0.0/60votes
Voting statistics:
RatePercentageVotes
60%0
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10%0
0

Andrew Jones believes third time's the charm as he seeks election as St. Louis mayor

Retired utility executive Andrew Jones is persistent.

The 2025 mayoral election marks the third time he has run for the office. He lost in the general election in 2017 and in the nonpartisan primary in 2021. He was also the Republican candidate in the 1st Congressional District in 2024, receiving 18% of the vote.

But Jones said on the latest episode of the Politically Speaking podcast that his consistent message will break through this election cycle.

“President Lincoln lost multiple times running for Senate,” he said. Running multiple times “gives you an opportunity to show people that you want to stick to things, and to solve problems, and you won’t give up.”

The path to victory, Jones said, is a straightforward message about change.

“When we talk to the people, they’re saying they want change, and if they want change, you only have one option … because all three are involved with the city,” he said of his opponents in the March primary.

He is running against the incumbent, Tishaura Jones, 8th Ward Alderwoman Cara Spencer and Recorder of Deeds Michael Butler.

Andrew Jones said change is needed to save the city.

“As things get worse, you don’t want to see the city perish,” he said. “We’re just hoping that at some particular point in time, before the light goes out, that we will be able to get our message across, and people will buy into it.”

Jones said he is using his own money for the campaign and is raising enough to have a creative digital strategy.

“And certainly, if you give me an opportunity to speak in front of any group of people, I certainly believe I win today, because our message is true, our message is sincere, and the person that’s delivering it does a good job,” he said.

Jones’ positions have not changed much since 2017. He touts his experience as a businessman, someone who can put together and implement an economic development plan.

“I still know how to solve problems,” he said. “I know how to help with community development as well, and I’ve certainly been supportive of the police.”

But Jones expressed doubts about the recent crime numbers, which show it down overall 15% in the city from 2023 to 2024, with homicides at their lowest level since 2013. Other offenses, however, like shootings, are up.

When asked what evidence he had that the numbers are wrong, Jones said, “My evidence is that I’m suspicious that they’re wrong.”

“I know the history of the City of St Louis and the corruption that exists in the City of St Louis, and it surmises that we should not trust those numbers,” he said. “Trust but verify. And I need to verify that.”

In response to similar allegations leveled by a state senator during a recent committee hearing over bills returning control of the department to a state-appointed board, Chief Robert Tracy called them “very disappointing.”

“You’re disparaging all the good work of these officers that have been doing day in and day out,” Tracy said. “I stand by my statistics.”

Chief Robert Tracy, of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, speaks on Friday, April 21, 2023, during a press conference regarding his first 100 days in the office at the police headquarters in Downtown West.

Snow removal

Jones was conciliatory to the mayor over the city’s response to an early January snowstorm that left side streets covered in ice more than two weeks after the snow stopped falling.

While the city could have had a better response, he said, had she made the decision to plow the side streets, people would have been upset about having to dig out their cars.

“You block people in, she would be the devil because of that as well,” he said. “I believe that people are trying to make sure that she gets out of office.”

He added that he would have improved the city’s response by working collectively with the county and bordering municipalities to get the side streets clear, similar to how crews from utility companies will help out after a natural disaster.

Rams settlement money

Jones was much less impressed with current proposals to use the settlement over the departure of the Rams to Los Angeles.

“We need to divvy this thing up and work on infrastructure,” he said. “Infrastructure is a big, big issue, and we can relax some of the spending notions related to it, but we certainly don’t want to spend all that money. It’s a windfall. I don’t really believe people really understand that this isn’t coming back again.”

The primary, in which the top two vote-getters will move on to the April 8 general election, is March 4. Early voting begins Feb. 18.

Editor’s note:  Mayor Tishaura Jones appeared on Politically Speaking in January.  Episodes with Butler and Spencer will be posted this month. 

Andrew Jones believes third time’s the charm as he seeks election as St. Louis mayor

https://www.stlpr.org/podcast/politically-speaking/2025-02-03/andrew-jones-believes-third-times-the-charm-as-he-seeks-election-as-st-louis-mayor
https://www.stlpr.org/page-not-found.rss
Page Not Found

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Voting statistics:
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