Francis Slay has drawn his first challenger for re-election. Today Thursday at 11:00 AM in the Rotunda of City Hall, Green Party candidate Rev. Elston McCowan will announce his candidacy for Mayor of the City of St. Louis. Not quite the top-tier challenger people have been waiting for Continue Reading

Last week, the St. Louis Metro Evening Whirl, that fine urban publication which curiously endorsed my candidacy for Committeeman one week only to slam me the next week and which equally curiously features flattering PR photos of Francis Slay or Matt Blunt (all shot by one Gentry Trotter) on the front page of nearly every issue, surrounded, of course, by mug shots of the last week’s murders, robbers, and other villains plaguing our city — Anyway, last week, the Whirl lambasted a certain citywide elected official for daring to consider running against Hizzoner, Mayor Slay.

Using language typical of the publication, the anonymously written “Shadow” column called Circuit Clerk Mariano Favazza a “fat bastard” and charged that he’d been popping off at the mouth about how he’s thinking about taking a shot at Room 200.

Untrue, Favazza tells PubDef — at least on two out of the three charges.

First, “I can prove my parents were married at the time of my conception,” Favazza told us, laying to rest the “bastard” claim.

Second, as for the “fat” label, anyone who has seen the ten-year Circuit Clerk knows that he looks dramatically different in the last year after losing an astounding 143 pounds! “I am formerly fat,” says Favazza, who now boasts a 36-inch waistline.

But as for that last and most serious charge of possibly taking a run at the city’s highest office, how does the court clerk plead?

“I don’t rule anything out in my life,” says Favazza. “People have asked me to run. To date, no one has showed up with any money.”

Well, don’t expect a check from “The Shadow” or The Evening Whirl.  (It would probably bounce anyway.)

With less than a year before the 2009 Mayoral Primary, who do you think is the best candidate to run against Francis Slay as he seeks his third term in office?

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