This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 5, 2009 - If Alderman Kacie Starr Triplett, D-6th Ward, had answered her telephone late Friday afternoon, she would have been the first to know about a political storm that was about to touch down at the city's Election Board offices. The caller was Denise Watson-Wesley Coleman, who was trying to let the alderman know that Coleman was on her way downtown to file for mayor in the Democratic primary.
The message seemed innocent enough, but it apparently shocked state Sen. Maida Coleman who had planned to announce that same afternoon that she would challenge Mayor Francis Slay in the Democratic primary. About an hour after Denise Coleman paid her fee and signed the filing papers, the state senator showed up, poised and dressed in black, and dropped a bombshell of her own.
Maida Coleman announced that she would file as an independent instead of a Democrat because she suspected somebody put the other Coleman in the race to confuse the public and siphon votes from Sen. Coleman. Slay and Denise Coleman have both denied the charge.
Slay's spokesperson said the mayor was as surprised as everybody else that Denise Coleman was a candidate, and Denise Coleman herself said she didn't decide until New Year's Day to enter the race, based on encouragement from her husband and friends she made among volunteers from the Obama campaign.
Campaigns in name only?
Still, it's unclear how serious the two Colemans are about running against a mayor who, notwithstanding the fact that he has alienated some influential black city residents, has a hefty campaign chest and endorsements on both sides of town. Despite their announcements, as of Monday, neither woman had opened campaign offices, put up campaign websites, raised any campaign money or announced any key endorsements.
While not as widely known as state Sen. Coleman, Denise Coleman, 62, does have ties to St. Louis. She came to St. Louis from Chicago with husband Steven Wesley, an educator. Coleman worked as a teacher at Cardinal Ritter College Prep, and the couple later divorced. Coleman's current husband, Robert Coleman, is manager of Allied Barton Security Co. here and an ordained minister as well.
After working at Cardinal Ritter, Denise Coleman eventually earned a law degree from St. Louis University and has worked over the years as a public defender, an assistant circuit attorney, in the comptroller's office and for the collector of revenue. Until recently, she was the clerk and attorney for the Board of Aldermen, and she continues to serve as a hearing officer for the Department of Public Safety. She is now in private practice.
While she has never run for public office, Coleman says her work in city government has given her a good grasp of how city government works. She says she first thought about running for mayor during the period when former Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. became the first black to win the office.
But it was the political rise of President-elect Barack Obama that "gave me the impetus to go for it," she says.
This happened after she went to Iowa as a volunteer for Obama and met and befriended other St. Louis volunteers. Shortly before Thanksgiving she said she became serious about running, and between Thanksgiving and Christmas her husband encouraged her to run.
"I had been told or was under the impression that Maida had already filed," Denise Coleman said.
Meanwhile, she says, the Obama volunteers told her, "this sounded like a good idea, and that I needed to let them know what I wanted them to do."
Even so, Denise Coleman has plenty to do before she becomes a viable candidate. However sincere she may be, Alison Gee, a Democratic 6th Ward official, said she had never heard of Denise Coleman until she read that Coleman had filed for the office.
"I didn't recognize her name," said Gee.
There are still plenty of campaign fundamentals that Denise Coleman has yet to master. Over the weekend, she acknowledged she needs to begin building ties to the community. She was unsure how much money she would need to run a strong race. She says she expects to pick up some political endorsements but couldn't say how many. By the end of this week, she says she expects to have a website up and plans to open three offices in north, south and central St. Louis.
Two Colemans, Similar Views
Both Colemans share remarkably similar views about what they see as shortcomings in city government.
Though Denise Coleman has taught in Catholic schools, she, like Maida Coleman, is a supporter of public education. Both dislike the fact that the city school system is run by an appointed board instead of an elected body and think the mayor should do more to improve the schools -- although the mayor has no control over either the public schools or the elected or appointed school board.
They also think the citizens, not Jefferson City, should control the Police Department. While both give the mayor credit for helping to revitalize downtown, they say he hasn't paid enough attention to neighborhoods, especially in the city's poorer sections.
The mayor's handlers, of course, are quick to point to new housing in black neighborhoods and the appointments of blacks to city government. Even so, Slay has been unable to overcome resentment among some blacks over his demotion of former Fire Chief Sherman George. The resentment over George's demotion was so strong a year ago that the mayor was booed at a Martin Luther King commemoration.
Denise Coleman adds that Slay deserves some blame for problems in the Police Department, ranging from the widely reported towing lot scandal to missing money in the department's evidence room.
On Friday, Jan. 9, at 7 p.m., Denise Coleman is hosting a community meeting at 933 Walton near Delmar. It's there that voters will be able to see for themselves whether Denise Coleman is ready for prime-time politics.
