I’m still staggering from the 58-to-42-percent thrashing Quinton Lucas laid on Jolie Justus yesterday.
I sensed in the last couple of weeks that Justus was slipping and Lucas gaining, but I had no idea her slippage was a mount-side avalanche.
Committed to Justus from early on, I took comfort in the fact that her campaign was raising the big bucks and that she had won the primary by five points. And when Lucas came out with a poll a few weeks ago purportedly showing him ahead, I waved it off as a “push” poll he had commissioned. (He did commission it, but I guess the ultimate outcome shows it was fairly accurate.)
As I said in last night’s post, the first indication I had that Justus might be in trouble was when she came out with those mailers, in conjunction with the carpenters’ union (what a waste of money on their part!), questioning Lucas’ trustworthiness. I couldn’t understand why she thought it necessary to go negative, especially so early.
Again I dismissed my niggling concerns, trusting in her political experience and the expertise of her consulting group, The Dover Group out of Philadelphia, which had guided Sly James to victory twice.
But I was also overlooking some fairly serious warning flags popping up in my daily life.
For Jolie, it’s back to taking care of her dog Wrangler
Many of my good friends were very strongly anti-Jolie, especially some living in her 4th Council District. They said she had become unresponsive to their concerns. They said she didn’t return calls. They said it was she who was untrustworthy, bowing to the development crowd on projects like that sky-shielding office tower at Westport Road and Broadway and the massive Quik Trip expansion on Westport Road just west of Southwest Trafficway.
And then there were the storm clouds under my own roof.
Our daughter Brooks, 31, who works at the Kemper Museum, was taking her time making up her mind. She had first seen and met Lucas at a neighborhood gathering I had organized before the November 2017 airport election. City Manager Troy Schulte and Lucas spoke that night, and I was grateful to both, especially because Geoff Stricker, managing director of Edgemoor, the airport contractor, failed to show.
Brooks told me today she Lucas struck her that night as “grassroots” and “relatable.” (This shows the value of politicians showing up at neighborhood meetings; three-term Mayor Dick Berkley always understood that.)
A member of the Young Friends of the Library, Brooks was later involved in helping stage a Lucas-Justus debate at the World War I Museum. She was impressed with both candidates then, but as time went on, she began drifting away from Justus because, she said, “she is more aligned with Sly James and bigger business.”
When she went to our polling place yesterday, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Meyer and Wornall, she voted for Lucas.
The clincher, though was my wife Patty. She’s a good judge of character and has great instincts on just about everything. After the carpenters’ flyer arrived in the mail bearing that horrendous “Uncle Tom” photo of Lucas, Patty said she was switching from Justus to Lucas…Judging from last night’s outcome, thousands of other voters reacted the same way.
And that left me pretty much sitting on my little Jolie Justus island. I had at least $1,100 invested in her campaign, and my island was getting smaller and smaller — just like hers.
So today here I sit with another losing mayoral hand, just like 2011, when I was “all in” for Mike Burke against Sly James.
In retrospect, it seems clear, Justus would have lost even without the carpenters sending out their racist mailer, but in the immediate aftermath of this personal disappointment I’m putting the finger of blame on the stupid, fuckin’ carpenters.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
There’s negative and then there’s negative where the negative actually offends a large segment of the population as I suspect the union piece did.
Fitz, you are the Giles Fowler of politics. If you love something, it’s terrible!
I guess people like to watch me stumble along, anyway.
Perhaps more voters simply thought he was the better choice for mayor, even without the carpenters’ mailing??? I know I did. I went to candidate forums before the runoff election, I was familiar with the records of the two finalists and I also saw how interested in and connected to the voters each of them was. Lucas was an easy choice for me. I was quite surprised at his margin — in fact, I was afraid he wouldn’t win — because I live in a neighborhood filled with Justus signs; my single Lucas yard sign was definitely an outlier! I was a big Justus supporter when she entered politics — I went to a house party for her in the next block when she first ran for office — and I had very high hopes for her. But I watched as she appeared to move closer and closer to the power brokers over the years and I lost all confidence that she’d ever again be a candidate concerned with the average voter. I’m delighted that Lucas won and I did appreciate your earlier column saying you thought he’d be a good mayor. (And being on the losing side is NEVER easy for me!!!)
You’re certainly right, Karen, that many more voters thought he was the better choice…Sitting on the losing side, I’m just looking for reasons why my candidate sank (and trying to have a little fun with it). I’m not discounting at all the outstanding campaign Lucas ran and the class with which he conducted himself. As you noted, I said last night he had the makings of a good mayor, and I said months ago he had the potential to make the biggest strides of all the candidates. He turned the potential into reality.
I don’t get the “stupid, fuckin” reference. Can you explain?
The racist photo on the mailer was intended to damage Lucas but, in fact, had the opposite effect. It completely backfired.
Not a real surprise to me. People are fed up with politicians like InJustus who sold out to the big money developer group. Mike Burke was a shill for Sly, too, and has profited nicely by ramming through all of their whacky tax-for-the-rich projects. I hope Lucas actually follows through on his pledge for affordable housing and does not (unlike Sly) completely forget the poorer parts of our city.
I hope he doesn’t get all puffed up, like Sly did, and start thinking he knows everything. If he can keep himself grounded and, as you say, Richard, work hard and effectively to improve the quality of life for the disadvantaged, he will be a godsend and will position himself to go a long way in politics.
Oooo ….. sounds like a bad case of buyers remorse.
I would rather have a mayor with the political administrative experience & contacts of a JJ AND the youthful enthusiasm and apparently heartfelt concerns of a QL. I picked/bet on the best race horse I could. And, QL is a better dresser AND looks/sounds mayoral. We’ll see how my bet on young Quinton pays off.
It will be fascinating to see how a politically/administratively inexperienced 34 yr old navigates management of the entrenched stakeholders of City Hall.
End of day it might be critical (more) to have a forward thinking city council. But with 6 newbies inbound WE will all learn on-the-job. Good luck to us all in the next 48 months.
Stay tuned. Party’s over.
How the relationship develops between him and Troy Schulte will be a key aspect of Lucas’ ability to “navigate” the institutional management.