The election for mayor of St. Louis is set to be held April 7th, between a Democrat, a Green, and an independent. Rev. Elston K. McCowan, the Green candidate, was the most “agressive,” according to the St. Louis Beacon. Last night, his van was firebombed. Here’s an excerpt:
The election for mayor of St. Louis is only a few days away: April 7. The first big face-off between sitting Mayor Francis Slay, Green Party challenger Rev. Elston K. McCowan, and “independent” Maida Coleman was Sunday, March 29.
The online Saint Louis Beacon reported that “McCowan was the most aggressive of the three, repeatedly challenging the mayor’s performance and accusing the mayor of doing more harm than good.” The story detailed how McCowan, a black minister who preaches a fiery environmental sermon, hammered away at Slay for snubbing a stimulus package meeting with President Obama so he could attend a Mardi Gras parade. McCowan, who is also Public Service Director for SEIU Local 2000, denounced the mayor’s role in attacking public schools and the teacher’s union as well as heightening racial tensions by unjustly firing the City’s first black fire chief, Sherman George.
Mayor Slay had insulted the black community by refusing to participate in the primary debates at the historically black Harris Stowe State University. Green Party supporters were elated when McCowan clearly got the best of the reluctant mayor on March 29.
Later that night, McCowan, his wife Joyce, and their children, Sikudhani (13), Janey (11) and Elston Jr. (10), were awaken as their van burst into flames 30 feet from their home. Next door neighbor Christopher Jackson, whose yard also sports a Green Party “McCowan 4 Mayor” sign, reported that he heard a loud “Boom!” and saw flamers pouring from the van and a white Malibu “flying” around the corner as fire trucks arrived.
You can read the full article here. Source: Counter Punch.
McCowan’s campaign site can be found here.
Ross,
The image and link have been changed. Matt Reichel, candidate for Illinois’ 5th Congressional District previously held by Rahm Emmanuel has replaced Rev. McCowan.
Thomas,
My dignity certainly does not depend on you or anything you say. You know nothing of me or my motives.
You have an opinion which you present as fact.
Gregg
wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Party_USA
website:
http://www.greenparty.org/index.php
negative:
http://web.greens.org/gpusa/
Who said that, batman? Of course some politicians get assassinated. It’s even likely that some get assassinated and this fact is not publicly discovered/acknowledged. But that doesn’t mean that every politician who does from something other than old age is assassinated, or that every politician from a nondescript background is secretly related to ruling families.
They split in 1991 according to wikipedia.
Gregg,
I have no objection to you “making the distinction.” That’s not what you did.
Removing the word “party” from the name of the organization, and then adding “not associated with GPUS” to your description of it as “a membership organization,” isn’t subtle — you were attempting to make people think that it wasn’t a political party. You know it, I know it, and everyone else reading this knows it. No biggie, and not worthy of extended whining, so why not move on while you still have some dignity left?
Green Ferret,
I don’t remember which year the Gateway Greens split up, but it wasn’t really over politics — it was over personality and over the disposition of some party money which somehow had ended up in a non-profit trust that couldn’t be used for direct politicking.
If you’re referring to a national split, GPUSA is actually an older organization than GPUS. I don’t know if GPUS was formed as a splinter from GPUSA or not, but if so it was quite some time ago.
Ross,
I believe that will be changed shortly. Several people have access to the inner workings of the site, as here, and apparently someone made a decision to put him on the front page.
G
Why’s he on the front of their website then? That’s weird.
I just heard from the national office in DC, and Rev. McCowan is not endorsed by the Progressive Party of Missouri, the GPUS affiliate in that state.
This is not an indictment of Rev. McCowan. I personally hope Greens across the nation will celebrate his efforts, and wish him good fortune in the election.
I may have been wrong in asserting that Rev. McCowan is not a GPUS nominee. His photo and a link to his website is on the front page of GP.org, along with Pete Karas, Green Party nominee for Mayor of Racine, WI.
I have a call in to the GP national office. Once I have more clarity I will post it here.
I don’t think there’s really an active “fight” between GPUS and GP/USA… altho there is probably some bad blood from old fights.
Far as I know, the split happened in 2004, when some Greens were incensed about the decision not to run a 50-state+DC presidential campaign. Now that the safe states strategy is history, can’t all the Green parties join forces, stop bickering amongst themselves and take on the big boys?
Thomas,
They refer to themselves as a “national membership organization”.
The original piece leaves the reader with the impression that the nominee is a member of the GPUS. All I did was correct this.
Again, directly from their website:
Any organization which runs candidates is a de-facto political party. I made no effort to try to deny their standing as a political party.
Why am I wrong for pointing this out? Shouldn’t your attention to detail have been directed at the author who didn’t make the distinction in the first place?
If someone were to run for Mayor of your berg as a petition candidate, calling themselves the “Libertarian” candidate when there was an actual Libertarian Party, would you think it inappropriate to point out the facts of the case?
I’m sure he just had a short on his spark plug or something. The geniuses here at IPR have already established that American politicians never ever engage in assassination or anything of the sort.
Gregg,
My position is that when you refer to an organization by other than its actual name by leaving out the word “party,” then call it a “membership organization” when contrasting it with an organization that you do refer to as a party, you’re pretty obviously trying to make people think of it as not a political party.
Like I said, I don’t have a dog in the GPUS/GPUSA fight — I have friends on both sides of it, and enemies (or at least people I don’t much like) on at least one side of it.
Thomas,
Direct from their website:
There are two “Green” parties in Missouri, Utah and Virginia.
My point was that these folks are not associated with the GPUS. I did not say they were not a political party.
Is it your position that I should have left the difference unstated?
Paulie,
GPUSA seems to have active affiliates in St. Louis, Chicago and Philadelphia. At a glance, it looks like St. Louis dominates their national commitee.
Close but no cigar. Gateway Greens are affiliated with Green Party USA. They’re not GPUS, but that doesn’t mean they’re not a party.
Who else is affiliated with them?
Gregg,
Close but no cigar. Gateway Greens are affiliated with Green Party USA. They’re not GPUS, but that doesn’t mean they’re not a party. And they’re apparently the Green Party with ballot status in the city of St. Louis (the GPUS affiliate in Missouri, the Progressive Party, has ballot status in some rural counties).
It’s hard to tell the players without a scorecard these days, but McCowan seems to be affiliated with Gateway Greens/GPUSA based on the names I see associated with his campaign (Zaki Baruti and Don Fitz, for example).
There’s a second Green Party organization operating in the St. Louis area, Two Rivers Greens, which appears to be affiliated with GPUS.
I don’t have a dog in the fight between GPUS and GPUSA, but pretending that one of them is a party and the other isn’t won’t cut it. Although GPUSA hasn’t done federal politics in some time (they were apparently bankrupted by FEC non-compliance fines), their local affiliate in St. Louis remains active (I attend some of their events, including — usually — their annual “Pesto Feast” fundraising dinner).
It should be pointed out that the Gateway Greens, based in St. Louis, are associated with the Greens USA, a national membership organization not associated with the Green Party of the United States.
Slight correction: The attack occurred the night of March 29th going into the 30th, not “last night” (March 31st going into April 1st).
The Greens usually poll fairly well in St. Louis city races, and Slay is also opposed by “independent” Democrat Maida Coleman and Libertarian Robb Cunningham (who polled about 15% last year when he ran in for Congress in a district that covers much of the north part of the city).
I doubt that Slay or his organization were behind the firebombing. Not that they’re necessarily above such things, but the last thing they’d want to do is call attention to Slay’s opponents. They don’t benefit from it, especially since McCowan is more likely to campaign harder now than he is to be cowed into silence.