Capitol Calling

The St. Louis Police Officers Association is suing over a ballot item abolishing a governor-appointed board overseeing the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. It’s the issue commonly referred to as ‘local control’ of the STL Police Department.

More from St. Louis Beacon reporter Jo Mannies:

According to the association, the suit “alleges that the ballot language and the cost projections associated with the initiatives are unfair, deceptive and misleading.” It also asserts that state Auditor Thomas Schweich “did not comply with statutory requirements” because his office, according to the group, failed to provide an accurate ballot statement on the financial impact of the proposals.

The initiative petition proposals earlier were filed by James Deutsch, a lawyer aligned with wealthy financier Rex Sinquefield, who supports local control. “We’re simply not going to be intimidated by City Hall or their millionaire friends,” said St. Louis Police Officers Association Business Manager Jeff Roorda in a statement.

Nancy Rice, spokeswoman for the group “A Safer Missouri” (bankrolled by Sinquefield) that is advancing the initiative petition effort, said the suit was expected. “I am not surprised and I’m not concerned,” she said.

Click here to read more of the story.

Officials concede that St. Louis City’s population did largely drop by about 29,000 people over the last decade.

That’s according to David Hunn of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

At first, city officials thought they had identified a glaring discrepancy between the number of homes in city records and the number the census counted. They believed the census had listed about 5,000 fewer housing units in St. Louis than did city assessor data, among other sources. That could have meant 12,000 missing St. Louisans.

They also pointed to at least a dozen surprising errors in the most detailed data the census has yet released — the block-by-block population counts — fueling their beliefs that the census had screwed up.

For instance, the census had attributed seven homes and 25 residents to a bus stop on Gravois Avenue. It seemed to have skipped a 78-unit, 130-person apartment complex on Union Boulevard in the Central West End, a 16-unit complex south of Forest Park and an entire square block of homes northeast of Ninth Street and Allen Avenue in the Soulard neighborhood.

But those errors now look more like technological glitches, products of census workers mixing new computer systems with electronic maps. And the mistakes may make little difference in the population total.

On a positive note, at least St. Louis City didn’t lose roughly 25 percent of its population over the last 10 years. Wait a second, did I just inexplicably use ‘we’re not Detroit’ as a rationalization?

Click here to read the rest of Hunn’s article.

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay’s father - Francis R. Slay - died Wednesday morning.

Right before announcing $550,000 for bike and pedestrian trails in the St. Louis area, Gov. Jay Nixon said a few words about the elder Slay’s passing:

The former alderman, state legislator and recorder of deeds was 83.

U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis, told The Hill newspaper that he is committed to running for another term in Congress.

Not only is he running, but he is apparently willing to run against either U.S. Rep. Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, or U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Town and Country.

He also dispelled rumblings that he may forgo re-election and instead run for Lt. Governor.

From the article, via Combest:

With its population declining over the last decade, Missouri has lost one of its nine House seats through reapportionment. Observers believe that could it could be Carnahan’s St. Louis-area district on the chopping block. That district encompasses the area south of the city and could be merged into the other two metro-region seats.

That would see Carnahan in a potential head-to-head contest against either Rep. Lacy Clay (D) or Rep. Todd Akin (R). Carnahan said he was committed to running again, regardless of what redistricting brings.

“There’s a lot of speculation out there,” he told The Ballot Box. “I’m 100 percent focused on running for Congress in 2012.”

Carnahan said the 2010 Census has shown St. Louis making “substantial gains in population.”

“As did some of the suburban areas of my district, so I think there’s a strong case to keeping three whole seats for the St. Louis region. We have the population for that,” Carnahan said.

Is Carnahan safe or is his political career on ice? Find out more by click here.