Historical February 1987 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
I want to make clear from the start that I have two purposes: to win the Democratic nomination for 28th Ward Alderman and, as Alderman, to stop the trade-off of city contracts and influence for campaign contributions.
I was appalled by the Post-Dispatch series about Mayor Schoemehl’s campaign contributions, but I’m enraged that my Alderman and his colleagues do nothing to make such dishonest practices illegal. I’m enraged that while we desperately need to improve our schools, no public official aided Michael Sheehan in showing that School Superintendent Jones can’t buy a dinner in St. Louis for under $100.
And I’m disgusted to learn that less than 5% of contracts for St. Louis’ recent tax-supported construction went to minority contractors. What goes on at City Hall now is not right.
The rich get richer while industry leaves St. Louis.
We lose skilled blue collar jobs and the new jobs created by tax-supported renovations downtown bring minimum wage: clerks, waitresses, maintenance workers. Often these jobs are part-time, temporary, or seasonal.
Sometimes now even people who work fulltime are below the poverty level.
The unemployed and part-time or seasonal workers have no benefits.
The need for good free health care is greater than ever.
This City administration made health care a political issue.
It gave us promises, but never gave us a good solution. I believe many problems remain unsolved because there’s no money in solving them. Keeping Forest Park fit, providing good health care, good public transportation, good crime protection doesn’t put money in the pocket of politicians, so there’s no top-level commitment to solve them. Did you know that unspent campaign contributions can go into the candidate’s pocket?
If a candidate raises $1 million and the campaign costs $500,000, that candidate personally can be $500,000 richer.
No wonder even politicians who aren’t running trade public favors for campaign contributions: they feather their nest. Maybe “campaign contribution” is just new way to say bribe.
The 28th Ward needs independent representation.
The problems facing the City are grave and the 28th shares all of them.
No problem with developers, safe streets, or unemployment is unique to the 28th Ward.
But what happens in this Ward has to make sense to its citizens. How can our current Alderman demand that?
His wife ran the Mayor’s campaigns.
She was part of his City Hall staff.
Her current job as a Regional Administrator depends on political backing.
For the sake of his Ward, does our Alderman oppose a force that keeps bread on his table and his children in parochial school.
He says his full-time job is being Alderman. That pays $12,500 a year. I’m not backed by any political faction. I’m not Schoemehl’s man or Clay’s man. I’m a physician who has always been his own boss.
If you wonder what kind of Alderman I’ll be, ask your friends and neighbors what kind of physician I am. I’ve treated many of them, their kids, their old people for 25 years. Ask them. I treat rich and poor with the same careful care. I’m available to them; I do what I promise; I answer phone calls. Being a doctor isn’t much different from being an Alderman. You do what is best for your people in the short and long run.
To do both jobs well, you have to be energetic, efficient, and in good health. I believe only private citizens serving in public office can keep politics honest. I don’t trust people who make politics a career. Their only livelihood depends on getting reelected. I’m running for many reasons: 1) With grassroots support, I can win. 2) The 28th Ward and the City need people free to oppose the administration, big business, big city developers, and others whose purpose is chiefly self-serving. 3) The City needs honest political office holders.
There are honest, independent, hard-working Aldermen on that board.
The 28th Ward needs to add one more to bring leadership and independence back to the 28th.
Original photograph caption
Dr. Edward Wolfgram. The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, February 1987, page 5. Photographer not credited.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, February 1987.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1987_02.pdf, printed page(s) 5; PDF page(s) 5.
