Energy, strategy won state Senate race for Jeff Smith

Energy, strategy won state Senate race for Jeff Smith

By Jake Wagman

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

08/13/2006

Watching Jeff Smith's victory party, it was hard to tell whether he had won a race for the Legislature or for student council.

 

College-aged kids were drinking beer and chasing each other with water guns. A live band belted out "Freebird." And there was Smith - playing the drums.

 

St. Louis, meet your next state senator.

 

Smith, 32, faces no opposition in the general election in November. When he is sworn in next year, he will be the youngest member of the Missouri Senate. He also will be among the most liberal, and, at 5-foot-5, probably among the shortest.

 

Yet this week, Smith is standing tall atop the city's political stage, having delivered a convincing victory Tuesday in a crowded primary fraught with racial divides and negative campaigning. Even days after the polls closed, two of the candidates are still involved in a court battle over sample ballots.

 

"I'm honored, and I have huge shoes to fill," said Smith, who replaces veteran legislator Patrick Dougherty in the state's Fourth District. "I can't wait to get going."

 

Smith, a Democrat, exploded onto the political scene in 2004 with an insurgent campaign for Congress that nearly defeated U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan. The effort spawned a documentary - "Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?" - which, conveniently or not, was still playing at the Tivoli last week, in the final days of Smith's campaign. The screening has been extended into this week. Although the movie ended in his defeat, the congressional run gave Smith momentum for a happy sequel. One early supporter of Smith's Senate race was Francis R. Slay, the mayor's father and patriarch of the city's Democratic Party.

 

On Wednesday, Smith showed his gratitude by bringing Slay a bottle of wine.

Slay, in turn, put his arm around Smith and guided him in a victory lap of handshakes around the Cedars banquet hall. The hall, run by Slay, is the preferred Wednesday lunch spot among the city's politicos - especially the day after an election.

 

Many of those powerbrokers will be watching Smith's career closely.

Missouri Democrats, who are running recycled candidates for U.S. Senate and governor, are thirsting for a way to break the Republican's hold on the Legislature and governor's office. Expectations will be high as Smith seeks to convert the buzz surrounding his campaign into legislative victories.

 

Slay, for one, thinks Smith is up to the task.

 

"My mind was made up from the moment he ran against Carnahan," said Slay, whose early endorsement of Smith gave the campaign an immediate advantage.

"I said, 'There is no one else I can be for besides Jeff.'"

 

Smith graduated from Ladue Horton Watkins High, where he was co-valedictorian of his class. He's coached basketball at the boys club and tutored student athletes in the city. Though his charisma and stature have earned him comparisons to Bobby Kennedy, he's also been accused of being a "carpetbagger" for seeking to represent a district he moved into only last year.

 

One of Smith's keys to success was mixing old-school, retail politics - such as door-knocking and paying homage to traditional party leaders such as Slay - with a youthful enthusiasm. While canvassing, he would literally run from house to house to greet more voters before the sun went down. It was that energy that helped attract many young supporters.

 

"You listen to the guy for two minutes and you can hear how excited he is,"

said Paul Moinester, 20, a Washington University student from Memphis who worked on the campaign.

 

Smith's Senate bid was fueled by a dozen young interns and more than 200 volunteers. Many were college students or recent graduates whom Smith, a political science instructor, had taught. They wore flip-flops and shorts and dined on pizza and Chinese food.

 

But the campaign's summer-camp feel belied a meticulous organization that reached out to nearly every corner of the district.

 

Interns were appointed field organizers and assigned wards. They answered to a field director. He answered to the campaign manager, who in turn answered to Smith. Potential supporters had delivered to their door before Election Day cards with their name and polling site on it. Those who did not vote by midday received a friendly phone call reminding them to head to the polls.

 

The campaign was influenced by techniques Smith learned from working the Iowa caucuses, where every vote is vital.

 

"People want personal contact," Smith said last week. "They don't want anonymous automated phone calls."

 

Smith says his Senate campaign staff knocked on tens of thousands of doors in less than three months, braving high temperatures and inclement weather.

 

"It's 110 degrees and we're outside going door to door and doing lit drops in north city," said Meggie Devereux, 22, a recent Mizzou graduate, who worked on getting votes for Smith in St. Louis Hills.

 

"We put our blood, sweat and tears into it," she said.

 

Smith himself was bitten by a dog while campaigning in, of all places, Dogtown. Even with a bandaged hand, he stopped along the campaign trail to challenge neighborhood children on the basketball court. He later hosted a hoops tournament fundraiser. (Smith worked on the presidential campaign of Bill Bradley, the former U.S. senator who played for the New York Knicks.)

 

Another volunteer, Dave Zucker, said Smith had told workers not to wipe away the sweat and rain while campaigning - it showed their dedication.

 

"It underlined the spirit of the campaign," said Zucker, a political science major at Washington University. "We are working hard, and we shouldn't be afraid to show people."

 

Before he heads to Jefferson City, Smith will teach a fall course at Washington University: PoliSci 341, "American Electoral Politics."

 

"I imagine," said Zucker, "There are going to be some good stories for the kids in that class."

 

The reporter of this article can be reached at jwagman@post-dispatch.com