ST. LOUIS 鈥 City Treasurer Tishaura Jones and Alderman Cara Spencer advanced to the final round of this year鈥檚 mayoral race with different vote formulas in Tuesday鈥檚 primary.
Jones finished first in 18 of the city鈥檚 28 wards and Spencer, who came in second overall, led in the other 10.
Generally speaking, Spencer did her best in the wards with the biggest turnout. She won five of the eight wards in which more than 25% of their registered voters participated.
Those included three heavily white majority wards in far south 50度灰视频, the 12th, 16th and 23rd. Jones finished first in three of the eight highest-turnout wards.
Put another way, about a third of Spencer鈥檚 total vote of 20,649 came from four wards, including one in which she came in second to Jones, the 8th.
Jones鈥 support appeared to be broader across the city. In addition to leading in 18 wards, Jones finished second in seven others, including some in largely white south side areas.
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Less than 2% of Spencer鈥檚 total vote came from each of 12 wards, including 11 Black-majority wards in north 50度灰视频, Jones鈥 home base. Aldermanic President Lewis Reed, who like Jones is Black, finished second in the north side wards; Spencer is white.
Under the city鈥檚 new nonpartisan voting system begun at the primary, the top two citywide vote-getters 鈥 Jones and Spencer 鈥 will meet again in a runoff at the April 6 general election.
Reed and utility executive Andrew Jones, who finished third and fourth, didn鈥檛 finish first in any ward.
Ken Warren, a political science professor at 50度灰视频 University, said Tishaura Jones鈥 sound showing in most parts of the city, including several white-majority wards in which she was second to Spencer, bodes well for her general-election chances.
鈥淛ones did rather well in most of 50度灰视频, all over the place,鈥 Warren said.
Turnout citywide was about 22%, with the highest nearly 32% in the 16th Ward in southwest city.
Tuesday鈥檚 primary was the first employing the city鈥檚 new 鈥渁pproval voting鈥 system in which residents could vote for as many candidates they approved of for a given office, not just one.
The city Election Board reported that 44,538 voters cast 69,607 votes for mayor, or 1.56 candidates per voter.
Show Me Integrity, a group that petitioned to put the plan on the ballot, said in a statement that the new system worked well.
鈥淚t functioned just as it was supposed to 鈥 candidates with truly broad approval move from the primary to the general election,鈥 said Kathleen Farrell, a League of Women Voters official who took part in the effort.
In the past, candidates winning the Democratic primary, sometimes with far less than a majority in multiperson races, easily won the general election over Republican and third-party nominees in the heavily Democratic city.
Reed, however, sharply criticized the new voting system, saying it was a factor in his failure to make it to the runoff. In an interview Wednesday on radio station KMOX (1120 AM), he called the new system 鈥渇lawed鈥 and said a better option would be to let voters rank their choices as is done in some parts of the country.
He also alleged that there was an organized effort by some Jones backers to get people to vote for her and Spencer because they believed Spencer would be easier to defeat in the general election. 鈥淚t becomes really easy to mislead the voters,鈥 Reed said.
Defining 鈥榩rogressive鈥
Jones and Spencer, in interviews with the Post-Dispatch, reiterated their commitments to change at City Hall but offered few new specifics.
鈥淰oters were excited about our message of hope and a real path through some of the things the city is facing,鈥 said Spencer, 42, referring in part to 50度灰视频鈥 violent crime problem and the need for economic growth.
She pointed out that she started the campaign lesser known than Jones and Reed, who both had run citywide several times.
Jones, 48, said she tapped the same 鈥渕ultigenerational, very diverse coalition鈥 of campaign backers and voters that was successful in her three races for city treasurer, most recently last year.
Jones used a similar appeal when she finished a close second to Lyda Krewson in the seven-way 2017 Democratic mayoral primary; Krewson then won the general election.
鈥淲e used the same playbook,鈥 she said of this year鈥檚 campaign. 鈥淲e just activated people who already were used to voting for me.鈥
Both candidates are regarded as progressives, running to the left of more moderate Democrats such as Krewson and Reed.
Asked to define the term, Spencer said she wants 鈥渢o see progress and I want to see change in some of the underlying structures. That means shaking things up and doing things differently.鈥
On election night, she told supporters that 鈥渨e have turned our attention to the special interests that have run this city for decades.鈥
Jones, meanwhile, said 鈥減rogressive to me means supporting policies that move people forward.鈥 As an example, she cited her office鈥檚 offering money management seminars for the public.
Jones also took aim at what she called special interests in her Tuesday night postelection speech, saying she expects the city political establishment will 鈥減ull out all the stops to try to beat us鈥 in April 鈥渢o protect the status quo.鈥
It remains to be seen exactly how Spencer and Jones will make their case that they鈥檙e the change agent and their opponent isn鈥檛.
Asked about differences between the two, Jones said the biggest one is that she has governmental managerial experience and Spencer doesn鈥檛.
For eight years as treasurer, she said, she鈥檚 overseen departments in charge of city investments and parking operations. 鈥淚鈥檓 ready to lead on day one,鈥 Jones said.
Spencer cited her own 鈥渢rack record of getting involved in an enormous number of legislative issues鈥 on the Board of Aldermen, including fighting airport privatization, passing tougher rules for payday lenders and working to improve monitoring of air pollution.
Moreover, she said she has managerial experience in the private sector, working on multimillion-dollar projects for a health care consulting company before she was elected as an alderman.
Jones, meanwhile, cited her legislative experience in the Missouri House.
Josh Renaud of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
The candidates on crime, economic development, housing, public education, transportation and regional governance.