Voters remove alderman from office

By Matt Sepic, KWMU

St. Louis – Residents of St. Louis' 24th Ward have fired their alderman.

During a special election Tuesday, 61% of voters chose to recall Thomas Bauer.

Judy McNamara is with the group that pushed for his ouster.

"We did this together," McNamara said. "It took a lot of people to do this. A lot of people with hard work, a lot of people with dedication, a lot of people with integrity and honesty."

Eminent domain played a major part in the recall campaign. Bauer proposed using the law to build a gas station in an area where there were several already.

But Bauer said his opponents just used the issue to scare elderly voters. He also blamed unfair local media coverage.

"We knew that it was going to be tough because we weren't really running a campaign against locals," Bauer said. "We were running a campaign against Channel 2, the Journal newspaper and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch."

"Eminent domain was never a real issue in Ward 24," Bauer added. "It was something that was used to take away votes, and the people on the other side of this campaign consciously tried to scare elderly people into thinking their homes were in danger, and that was a very effective technique."

Bauer said he will continue with his private law practice, but said nothing of future political plans.

A special election to fill his seat will probably take place in December. Bauer now has five days to resign his seat before he's automatically removed from office.