Several African-American elected officials and community leaders have asked supporters of the extremely well-funded Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures why so little of their budget is being spent with and on the black community.
“As we head into the final days before the November election, I believe that more emphasis should be given to the inclusion efforts of the Coalition,” wrote St. Louis Comptroller Darlene Green in a letter to Dr. William H. Danforth.
In the letter, written on Sept. 8 and recently obtained by PUB DEF, Green tells Danforth, who has often been the public face of the Stem Cell initiative, that more minorities should be added to the Coalition’s staff.
“If at the end of the day when the vendor list is tallied and African-Americans have been fairly represented, then this non-partisan initiative can certainly shine through as inclusive,” wrote Green.
The Comptroller isn’t the only one complaining about how little of the organization’s $16 million is trickling down to black political vendors around the state. Post-Dispatch columnist Bill McClellan recently wrote about a similar letter from Ald. Freeman Bosley, Sr. written to Brad Ketcher, the Coalition’s campaign manager.
PUB DEF has been told that that letter was not actually ever mailed. But Ketcher did receive a letter from the chairman of the St. Louis Black Leadership Roundtable. In his response letter, dated Sept. 14 and also obtained by PUB DEF, he said “more than $2 million has been expended or is committed to be spent for African-American outreach.”
Outreach? Is that money spent with black firms to reach black voters or money spent with out-of-town white-owned companies, such as Clear Channel Radio or Washington-based mail houses?
“The Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures has many African American vendors, consultants, staff members and volunteers on our team,” said spokewoman Connie Farrow. She told us to look on the campaign’s financial reports filed with the state. And so we did.
As of July 1, over $1.2 million to California-based Winner & Mandabach. $350,000 to Seattle-based Michael D. Meyers Co. for direct mail. $94,000 to Ketcher. $64,000 to Farrow. $75,000 to Sandra Aust from the University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing. $12,000 to the Kelley Group (that’s Robert J. Kelley of the Greater St. Louis Labor Council, AFL-CIO).
Oh wait, a black person: $6,000 to Rev. B.T. Rice for “issue outreach”. Not looking so good, Connie.
“The next campaign finance reporting deadline is Oct. 15, which we will meet. Our Coalition and supporters continue to identify opportunities to strengthen our efforts in the African American community,” said Farrow.
We will see.
[Editor's Note: PUB DEF contacted the Coalition for Lifesaving Cures last week about doing some advertising. To date, we have not heard back from them.]
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September 28th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
I am bit bewildered at what the post is trying to say. Black votes are for sale as long as the correct vendors are used? Not quite. Blacks deserve a share of the campaign money pie, too, because the black vendors can produce votes. Something along those lines, maybe. An inclusive campaign where significant dollars are spent on black vendors is the only type of campaign worth winning?
Maybe the game is all about the money. I fully expect to get flamed.
September 28th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
Anony, politics at this level is big business. $16 million is going to be spent with someone.
That money goes not just to political consultants, but to video production companies, actors in commercials, printers, newspapers, sign vendors, bumpersticker makers, t-shirt makers, radio stations and hosts, websites and blogs, canvasers, poll workers, envelope stuffers… A portion of $16 million can represent a significant economic boost to communities around this state.
Can you imagine a Democratic statewide campaign spending millions of dollars and not pledging to spend much of it with union vendors? Why shouldn’t blacks demand the same?
September 28th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
Antonio:
Hear! Hear!
For far too long iniatives, amendments, and Democrats have taken the African-American vote for granted. Unfortunately, we live in a society that is inherently racist. I really don’t believe that if the Stem Cell Iniative passes that African Americans will be provided information and treatment options equal that of our white counterparts.
Furthermore, history has taught us that African Americans will not be provided equal funding for future outreach efforts.
There should not have been any need for Comptroller Darlene Green to write a letter.
The St. Louis Argus should not have had a commentary about the lack of funding to African Americans.
With a $16 million war chest, and African Americans plastered all over commericals and advertisers–the campaign steering committee should have already known what to do.
In the 21st Century this is utterly ridiculous.
After all…Nia understands monetary exclusion.
September 28th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
Lets assume this technology actually is viable in 10 years and does cure xzy. Do you think it will be available to the poor? Probably not.
I doubt we will see generic ’stem cell’ drugs or Medicare paying for the procedure.
No one seems to be talking about that.
September 28th, 2006 at 8:27 pm
Doug,
First of all, embryonic stem cell research is more likely to lead to treatments, per se, rather than pills to be swallowed. But if there were stem cell-derived pills, what reason is there to believe that they wouldn’t eventually become generic, like most drugs, when the patents run out?
And even assuming for the sake of argument that what you posted is true, is that a reason not to support the initiative? I’m hard pressed to think of how it would be.
God willing, I will never need a cure developed by embryonic stem cell research. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t support it. You seem to be calling support into question on the basis that it might not help “everyone.” The fact that it might help “anyone” means we should support it.
September 28th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
Antonio and Nia:
Not everything is about race. Black voters should be targeted as much as they represent of the voting population, as every group should be. And as far as vendors is concerned, race should be no part of the selection, only the firm’s ability to deliver the message to the voters, which should be greatly higher for a black company in a black neighborhood. As soon as we can move beyond got-to-get-mine mentality, then we can start to address some of the divides in our city.
On a personal note, I think any campaign in this city that doesn’t advertise here and through the syndicate is overlooking two good outlets.
September 29th, 2006 at 2:16 pm
I support stem cell research however I am skeptical of who it will directly benefit. Lets say that I am not really a big fan of the pharmaceutical industry.
September 29th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
Travis:
Give me two areas; instances in our society. Oh, more specifically, St. Louis City–where race is not a factor.
As I previously stated, if race were not an issue than the Stem Cell Initiative Campaign would not have received a letter from Comptroller Darlene Green
September 30th, 2006 at 8:36 am
nia, nia, nia…
As you know, a lot of people do a lot of things for a lot of different reasons that may not appear to be their objective on the face of it.
But, to answer your question, when choosing candidates, friends, employees, employers and neighbors, race is not a factor for me. I wish others could join me in my color-blind world.
September 30th, 2006 at 6:38 pm
Travis,
I have joined you in the color-blind world. It shouldn’t matter the color of skin, what should matter is the content of character. I am Afro- American, no I haven’t forgotten my past, I’m just embracing my future using color blind tactics.
September 30th, 2006 at 6:49 pm
The stem cell people have chosen to use every politically connected consultant in the State of Missouri, both Democrat and Republican. Somehow they have chosen to ignore or reject African American vendors. By the end of the election they will have spent over $20,000,000. If this initiative will have the economic benefit to this state as promised does that mean that the African American community will also be left out on jobs and business opportunities? What about the socalled scientific benefits? Are Blacks going to be left out there? Stem Cell will not pass if Blacks will not vote for it. It seems to me that the leaders of the effort have chosen to make racist decisions to exclude Blacks. Maybe we should exclude stem cell!!!
September 30th, 2006 at 10:47 pm
Travis:
This sounds so refreshing….idealistically speaking of course. Do you remember former Mayor Clarence Harmon and his color-blind society?
Furthermore, you failed to answer my question…give me an instance in the City of St. Louis where race has not been a factor.
ANON:
Hear! Hear!
After all…Niaknows separation, segregation, and inequality.
October 2nd, 2006 at 8:07 am
Nia,
you sound like a child, calm down, Saint louis is very racist, but from my experience its more so if your black living in the black community and not from whites. I think most blacks have a serious problem, they will blame a white person for smacking a black person, the whole community will be in an uproar. But let that drug dealer keep destroying your neighborhood or let the same group of kids keep terrorising your neighborhood and you’ll hear very very little about stoping it from the black community. Blacks would rather go blame the police and the whiteman for the state of the black community instead of take personal responsibility for the actions of there own kids!!! Forget the police station, just walk across the street to the parents and build a relationship and try to influence them to teach and train there kids better! And blacks have a far far, by far more racist outlook on saint louis than there really is. There are plenty of blacks doing wonderful things in this city with whites! But there is a problem, but to us blacks the problem seems bigger because not only do we blame whites for “what they really do, 30% of the stuff” we blame them for the other 70% which we bring on our selves, which they didnt have anything to do with! Check this out NIA… Can you think of any place on this big earth, or any race of people on this earth who wouldnt want to live with each other as a whole? germans live with germans, itailians live on the hill, Irish stick together, every group has there own commuinties and love to stick together, mexician, chinesse, arab, etc. But in the black community we want to leave, we get a good paying job and head out to where the white folks live! If blacks move in your community, most blacks feel like its becoming the hood! People feel like north county is going to be the next ghetto just because blacks are moving out there, so dont tell me about a rasicist city until your willing to accept some facts about how racist blacks are in the community. Take your finger and point it at yourself first and fix that plank of wood in your own eye and in your own commuinty first, then fix the whiteman. From what I see, the whiteman will accept blacks but blacks dont accept blacks, so what do you expect? Black women, “A large amount of them” arent a respectable group of women, Thou you maybe, so help the others, black men are a mess, thats why you dont have one and most cant find a good one, because you already kno “right NIA yu Kno!” that the brotha is a playa playa, and just like most women because they got a fat ass. which is so stupid, How in the world is a relationship suppose to work if I only like you for that fat ass and cute face, does that help me get to know you better?? So how could our families work and relationships that affect these kids be strengthen if this is whats going on, and guess what, as a black community, this mess is acceptable and its destroying us as a people, and we still talking about the whiteman……think about that!
October 2nd, 2006 at 8:34 am
Brian, your self-hate would make you an interesting subject for a study in the area.
October 2nd, 2006 at 8:36 am
Self-hate, LOL,
October 2nd, 2006 at 9:53 am
While reading your post, I KNEW someone would say that to you Brian. I suppose Juan Williams and Bill Cosby are self-haters because they call it like they see it, and they see it differently than Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton pontificate on it.
If Brian, a black man, and I, a white guy, can have the same color-blind vision for St. Louis, it is time we all wake up and work for an all-inclusive, color-blind tomorrow. We jointly need to get beyond “I got to get mine,” and move toward we got to make St. Louis work better as a region–all voices at the table, all hands at the wheel, all peoples working together.
October 2nd, 2006 at 3:57 pm
Brian:
And the Discombobulated, Confused, ANGRY Black man Award goes to…drum roll please—
Brian Harris.
Uh, excuse me, I do recall that the conversation was about Stem Cell and my question was directed to Travis.
After all…Nia loves to focus on the topic at hand.
October 2nd, 2006 at 4:21 pm
All people in St. Louis love BBQ, Beer, the Cardinals, and talking about race relations.
We all love that!
So lets BBQ and get drunk while watching the Cardinals! Afterwards we can talk about race relations in the City! I bet our problems would be gone instantly!
October 2nd, 2006 at 10:30 pm
One thing I wish Nia Knew was that this is 2006 and not 1956; if you so crazy to think in a 1956 mindset then you stay down in the dumps by your own choice and blame whites and stay mad, while I get mine and grind and see 100 stacks before the end of the year, And then we have Mr. Anonymous, callin me a self hater, when Im all about self improvement but since he’s about self degeneration and intoxication of the mind “like nia” with that 1956 mindset I guess If I were you I’d call a guy like me a self hater too, you dont know better, so you dont do better, sonny boy. See since I got all the cheese you rats tryin to chip at this old block, see in your world “Nia and Anonymous” your still a slave, your still stuck in the black only section and when you see a black cross over then you get upset! Our grandparents and parents fought soooooo hard to get these things right and you come along and walk backwards and fuss at any black person who does, Your very understanding of the word black deals with a mindset instead of a skin color, you would call a white rapper black and call a 1st class, good grammer educated black person white or a sellout. I dont understand how people like you two fight so hard for blacks and keep this “ghetto-fied” deff. of what it is to be black! Like I said before, while you all are fighting battles from 1956 your kids are dieing in 2006 and our future as a people looks very grim. Lastly, Honestly, there really is no need for the KKK even to function in 2006 because the amount of blacks that have killed each other over drug deals and gangs from 1985 until 2005 “a 20 year span” and just in those two things not including robberies, car jackings, home invasions, random shootings or people with no gang killling each other, there were more blacks that killed each other between 1985-2005 than that were killed between 1825-1965 by the klan, a slave owner or random acts of white on black crime. So what in the HELL are you doing???? What in the HELL are you standing for??? What in the HELL is in your “little” mind??? Will you point the finger at yourself and start at home first. Blacks in the 1950’s and 60’s keep home, family and community together first and then fought injustice, today we are our own worst enemy, and we blame the whiteman, and of course nothing gets fixed because the finger is pointed in the wrong direction!
October 3rd, 2006 at 4:55 pm
Brian:
Why must I repeat the same thing over and over again? This is the 21st Century. We cannot be anymore “present” than that.
Comptroller Darlence Green sent a letter to the Stem Cell Iniative Campaign—not because she didn’t have anything better to do as the Chief Fiscal Officer of the the STL. She sent the letter because African Americans once again have been E-X-C-L-U-D-E-D.
Just for the record, get some sleep at night instead of bloggin’ you need it. Hypertension and strokes are devasting to the African American community–especially men.
After all…Niaknows “NO to Stem Cell”
October 3rd, 2006 at 10:50 pm
Whine, whine, whine…
How about all the black groups mobilize your people and create a viable, unified force instead of being splintered all over the place?
It’s a whole lot easier getting influence in anything when you can present a powerful, singular message.
Oh wait, that must have been an oxymoron.
Gummy
October 4th, 2006 at 12:46 am
gumout, Im saying the same thing, Nia, Im up late because I “work hard” hello. Ive got millions to manage baby… now how about that dinner