‘Clean up Independence’: Will voters choose ‘elitist’ or reformer for mayor?
In hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan’s “C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me),” raspy-voiced member Method Man raps, “Cash rules everything around me/C.R.E.A.M., get the money/Dollar, dollar bill y’all.”
That song helped cement Wu-Tang’s place in pop culture. But the album focuses on the dangers of street life in Staten Island, New York, hometown of the nine-member collective.
CREAM is an acronym for accumulating money by any means necessary, and in the race for Independence mayor, incumbent Eileen Weir has plenty of cash. The two-term mayor had at her disposal nearly six times the amount of money that her opponent in Tuesday’s municipal general election, Democratic state Rep. Rory Rowland, has to spend.
Independence City Councilman Mike Steinmeyer, running for mayor as a write-in candidate, is a long shot. But Rowland received 30% of the vote in the primary election in February, while Weir had 23%.
This election cycle, Weir had access to $141,813.01 and spent $70,435.61, according to a campaign finance report filed in February with the Missouri Ethics Commission. Weir had $58,100.40 on hand, but stopped campaigning after February’s primary election. She’s reported very little campaign activity since.
By comparison, Rowland raised $25,732.34 but spent $31,080.68, according to an eight-day report filed in March with the Ethics Commission. To get his message of ethics reform out, Rowland, a business consultant and paid speaker, loaned his campaign $4,900. “I was not willing to sell my soul for big campaign contributions,” he said. As of Tuesday, the campaign had $15,274.46 on hand.
Weir conceded the race in February but her name remained on the ballot. “People have told me they’re voting for me,” she said.
But, as the primary election showed, Independence voters may want to chart a different course. Weir will fill out her ballot on Tuesday, attend a close friend’s funeral and meet with another friend. “It’ll be a low-key day,” Weir said.
She hasn’t announced what she’ll do with campaign funds if she is voted out.
Money may rule politics at the state and national level, but in Independence, Rowland’s old-fashioned approach to canvassing seem to have positioned him to be the city’s next mayor.
“I don’t lose, my friend,” he said. “I don’t say that to be cocky, but no one outworks me.”
Federal agents are poking around Independence City Hall. Elected officials have been subpoenaed. The Star has previously reported on the FBI asking questions about several city projects, including the city’s 2017 vote to purchase the old Rockwood Golf Club. Just days before the vote, political action committees funded by a company involved in the project gave Weir $10,000 in campaign donations.
Rowland won a special election in 2015 for the Missouri House of Representatives 29th District, which covers parts of Jackson County and Kansas City.
Rowland campaigned on ethics reforms and campaign contribution limits at the local level. He capped individual donations at $1,000. Weir, who had no such parameters in place, has been labeled an elitist by some of her critics.
“I don’t understand why being from New York makes me a liberal or elitist,” Weir said this week.
On Tuesday, Independence residents will decide which candidate is better equipped to move the city forward, and how much money will matter.
This story was originally published April 5, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
