One second after Tuesday's polls closed, and before the votes were counted, St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley launched his first full-throttle campaign attack against Republican Bill Corrigan.
Dooley's campaign has set up a website that attempts to tie Corrigan to the federal bank bailouts, since he sits on the board of such a bank. Dooley's campaign explains on the site that it is focusing on Corrigan's non-political activities because his campaign is pouring through all of Dooley's actions, which his campaign concedes are "public record."
The web site then demands a series of answers from Corrigan about his role as a bank board member.
Dooley and his campaign have come under fire repeatedly from Corrigan and other Republicans (click here and here for samples). Tuesday's successful ballot measure that calls for an elected county assessor was proposed by Dooley, after area Republicans in the Legislature and Corrigan have pressed the matter for some time.
Corrigan, by the way, collected more votes in his GOP primary win than Dooley received in his Democratic victory. Corrigan received 65,495 (88.59 percent of the GOP votes case) to Dooley's 47,651 votes (75.82 percent of the Democratic votes cast).
The tallies reflect the fact that more county Republicans went to the polls Tuesday; the GOP cast 53 percent of the county votes cast. In recent general elections, the Republican vote often has been in the 40-45 percent range.
Democrats point to their lack of statewide primaries, but the county vote is no doubt heartening to state Republicans, who have been concerned about their decline in St. Louis County.
In any event, Corrigan marked his primary win in the more traditional way, by calling for debates with Dooley.
Corrigan's campaign said it "is calling on Charlie Dooley to provide citizens with a deeper look into the platform, experience and leadership of the candidates through participation in face-to-face debates."
" 'I’ll debate Charlie Dooley, anytime, anywhere and regarding any issue important to moving the County forward,' " Corrigan said in a statement. He added that such debates should be held "in north, south, mid and west counties to give voters the best opportunity see the candidates together in person and judge for themselves who is best qualified to lead this county into prosperity."
This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon.
