What is a "mandate" at the Times Newspapers?

It is interesting to note in one of the Times publications, the South County Times, that Mr. Svoboda's impressive win of Sunset Hills’ Mayoral race this last week is reported as a "mandate" from the people. The count was 1,248 to 574. I do not think anyone with any political sense could deny that a 2.1-to-1 victory has the true ring of a "mandate." Especially since with usually over 6,000 registered voters in Sunset Hills, the community had around a 30% voter turnout.

But, for some bizarre and unknown reason that concept of a “mandate” is not the case in the Webster-Kirkwood Times.

Kirkwood voters in November 2003 even more soundly defeated a ward proposal 3.2-to-1. The facts are 5,405 Kirkwoodians said "NO" to wards while only 1,667 said "YES" with a turnout of over 36% of voters.

Sounds like an even greater “mandate” to me. This is even more the case given the fact that the issue was researched and debated in Kirkwood for an entire year. Plus, the community as a whole spent over $50,000 campaigning and voting on the issue.

Yet, on February 29, 2008 the Times Editor-In-Chief and a Sunset Hills resident, Don "Scoop" Corrigan wrote an editorial pushing for wards in the community of Kirkwood.

I know it is hard to believe, but in a time of our community trying to heal from the unbelievable tragedy of February 7th, Scoop’s editorial brilliance is to rehash the 15-year-old bone of contention his newspaper has fostered in Kirkwood.

He ended his callous and uninformed editorial by saying,

“Folks in Kirkwood and Webster Groves defend at-large elections as appropriate because the towns are too small and close-knit for wards. Maybe. Then are wards wrong for even smaller towns like Des Peres, Crestwood and Sunset Hills?”

The question in our community is not about if wards are right or wrong as Scoop tries to present. This is not the question that any community would need to answer when deciding the issue. It is a question of which is better for our community.

The facts are the voters of Kirkwood clearly gave a “mandate.” In November 2003 voters once again overwhelmingly chose ... to use the better at-large system ... to elect our City Council. Facts Scoop chose to deny for some bizarre and unknown reason.

So, the question that needs to be asked of the Times…

What is a "mandate" Scoop?


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