I am very sad tonight. I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut.
I learned from an email — and then The Star — that political consultant Steve Glorioso, a friend for about 45 years, died today.
Steve was one of the best political consultants to ever roam the political tundra in Kansas City. He knew politics at every level — city, county, state and national. He had the pulse of the voters, and he had incredible political instincts.
He was a chief strategist on many big campaigns, including Kansas City’s successful $800 million general obligation bond election last spring and, in 2004, the hotel-and-rental-car tax campaign that fueled construction of Sprint Center, a key component in then-Mayor Kay Barnes’ successful crusade to rejuvenate of Downtown.
In the Sprint Center campaign, Steve managed to make the Enterprise car rental company, which largely financed opposition to the tax proposal, Public Enemy No. 1. He deftly painted Enterprise as the ogre from across the state (it is based in St. Louis) that sought to block Kansas City from having a state of the art, Downtown arena.
I remember being so mad at Enterprise that I vowed to never again rent from Enterprise. (A few years later, however, I found myself renting once more from Enterprise, whose commitment to customer service is hard to top.)
Steve wasn’t just a high-profile presence around election time, though. On an everyday basis, he was the go-to-guy for political and government reporters (and sometimes this blogger) who needed a good quote — a quote that was lively and summarized a situation in a few words. Steve was that guy; he could always be counted on for a quote, or for inside information about what was going on behind the scenes.
Pat O’Neill, a fellow political consultant, put it best when I talked with him tonight:
“His stock in trade was information,” Pat said.
The last time I spoke with Steve at length was a week ago yesterday, Sept. 6. I hadn’t talked with him in probably two months, and I wanted to pick his brain about the airport committee’s surprise recommendation of Edgemoor, over three other firms, including Burns & McDonnell, which had been the favorite for weeks.
As usual, Steve gave me a lot of good background information, and I quoted him off the record. (Just so you know, when you quote someone who later dies, the off-the-record commitment goes away because it is impossible for the information dispenser to suffer any repercussions.)
When I asked him what Burns and Mac’s biggest mistake had been, he said, “Trying to jam through a no-bid contract.”
He went on to say that Burns and Mac had attempted to engineer “the biggest scam in the history of Kansas City.”
Then he offered up this plum: The company’s attempted coup was so brazen that…“Tom Pendergast would have blushed.”
We both laughed heartily at that, and he said he was tempted to let me use it on the record because he liked the line so much. His fear of incurring the wrath of Burns and Mac overrode his infatuation with the line, however, and he held it off the record.
**
In that same conversation, Steve told me he was retiring and he didn’t expect to be involved in the November airport election — if it, indeed, takes place as scheduled. The campaign will be run by The Dover Group, which is based in Chicago and has been Mayor Sly James’ consulting group of choice since he was first elected in 2011.
I think one reason Steve was planning to “retire,” or at least sit out the airport election, is that he got crosswise with one or more Dover strategists during the $800 million general-obligation bond campaign. A mutual friend told me the strategist or strategists rejected recommendations of Steve’s that, in hindsight, turned out to be correct.
…Steve also told me in that Sept. 6 conversation that he’d undergone major intestinal surgery three weeks earlier and that he had been in Research Medical Center for a week. In the surgery, the doctor had removed an abscess from his stomach and a section of colon several inches long. Steve told me he was recovering well, however, and he sounded good. He did say toward the end of our conversation, which must have lasted about 30 minutes, that the conversation was wearing him out. I apologized and we rang off.
I talked to him briefly one more time, a day or two later, and again he sounded good and didn’t indicate he was experiencing any problems. He signed off on that conversation by saying, “Always good to talk to you, Jim.”
That line stuck with me because — good guy though he was — gracious and genial personal comments seldom came out of his mouth. He was always preoccupied with and focused on developments in the news and how political situations were playing out. Information and using it to his advantage animated his whole being.
So, it was nice to hear him say, “Always good to talk to you.”
To the best of my recollection, I responded by saying, “You, too, Steve.”
…Steve had a setback over the weekend and was readmitted to the hospital within the last several days. Then sepsis set in. Sepsis is a complication of infection that leads to organ failure. The University of Michigan Health website says anywhere between one in eight and one in four patients with sepsis die while hospitalized.
That’s what got Steve.
I’m really going to miss him…and so will Kansas City.
This is a major, major loss. Even when he was on the opposite side of an issue from the one you favored, Steve’s knowledge and dedication were unmistakable. He was a valuable resource for this city and a truly good guy. My sincere condolences to his family and to all of his many friends. He leaves a tremendous legacy. I will miss his many contributions.
I am sorry for your loss, Jim. I enjoyed listening to his input on Ruckus every Sunday. They will need to find a replacement for him, mmm…, maybe you!
Nice tribute, Fitz. He’ll be missed.
Thanks for your comments and readership, Karen, Bill and Janet.
Jim, a great tribute. He certainly was involved in many things here in KC and helped get some things done that helped move the city ahead. He certainly had to look back and be proud of how the Sprint Center campaign turned out – a rare, public-money-making arena that helped get downtown moving again.
That was his all-time favorite campaign. The last few times I spoke with him he talked about it. As I recall, the polls showed early on that it would lose, but he and Pat Gray were able to turn the tables, largely by whipping up public outrage at Enterprise. It was a nifty piece of work.
…a notice to all opinion makers, political deep thinkers and journalists…the sands of time have impermanence…power today, death, and influence tomorrow are a mirage…the fireworks are over, only the smoke remains…soon, the breeze will blow…for all of us…take heed of what is truly important, now.
Put another way — the way I heard a wise Catholic priest once express it in a homily: “We are all hurtling toward our ultimate mark on the horizon.”
I think you captured him wonderfully. I am sure he struggled with not being identified as the author of the Pendergast quip. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Cal…With your background, you understand better than most people how a turn-of-phrase artist wants to get his best lines in the paper — preferably with his or her name attached!