Cara Spencer

Cara Spencer (born September 11, 1978) is an American politician from the state of Missouri. Since 2015, Spencer has served on the Board of Aldermen of the City of St. Louis representing Ward 20, which is located in South St. Louis and includes the neighborhoods of Dutchtown, Gravois Park, Marine Villa, and Mount Pleasant.[3]

Cara Spencer
Spencer in 2017
Alderwoman for the 20th Ward of St. Louis
Incumbent
Assumed office April 2015[1]
Personal details
Born	September 11, 1978
Political party	Democratic
Education	Truman State University (BS)[2]

Early life

Spencer grew up in South St. Louis City and St. Louis County. She received a degree in mathematics from Truman State University. Prior to becoming an elected official, she did mathematical modeling for the St. Louis-based company Tessellon.[3][4][2]

Board of Aldermen

Spencer was first elected to be Alderwoman of the city's 20th Ward in April 2015 after beating incumbent Craig Schmid, who had held the seat for two decades, in the Democratic primary election, and beating independent candidate Stephen Jehle and Green Party candidate Vickie Ingram in the general election.[5][1][6]

Upon taking office, Spencer worked to allocate resources to reopen the closed Marquette Swimming Pool, the largest outdoor public pool in the city of St. Louis, for the 2015 summer season.[7]

During her first term in office she was the primary sponsor of legislation which; enacted stricter campaign finance laws,[8][9] imposed stricter air pollution standards than state requirements on asbestos in demolitions,[10][11] required absentee landlords to pay fines for building code violations,[12] imposed fines on payday lending operators,[13] and protects victims of drug overdose by enacting the 1st municipal good Samaritan law in the US, granting immunity to drug possession charges to anyone calling 911 for help during an overdose.[14]

Spencer worked with fellow alderman Chris Carter III to co-develop and implement the "mow-to-own" program allowing residents to obtain an adjacent city-owned lot by mowing it for one year.[15]

In 2016, an ethics complaint was filed against Spencer by attorney Jane Dueker, alleging that Spencer failed to disclose a personal financial interest related to legislation she introduced regulating payday lending. The case was dismissed.[16]

Spencer was re-elected in 2019 receiving 70% of the vote in the primary election and 96% of the vote in the general election.[6]

Spencer helped stop the St. Louis Lambert International Airport from being privatized.[17][18] In August 2020, Spencer was the target of a petition to recall her from her position as Alderwoman. The petition was organized by Metropolitan Strategies and Solution, a consulting firm that supported privatization efforts.[19][20]

2021 St. Louis mayoral campaign

On January 13, 2020, Spencer announced her intention to run for Mayor of St. Louis in 2021.[21][5][3][4] In her announcement, she told St. Louis Public Radio “St. Louis is uniquely poised to be the next fastest-growing city. We are a great old city, but we’re broken in a lot of ways, and I’m running for mayor to fix that.”

The 2021 election will be the city's first to use approval voting.

References

1. "Election Summary Report March 3, 2015" (PDF). St. Louis Government Website. 9 Mar 2015. Retrieved 21 Feb 2020.
2. "Cara Spencer Ward 20 Alderwoman". St. Louis Government Website. 13 Jan 2020. Retrieved 21 Feb 2020.
3. Kevin S. Held (13 Jan 2020). "Alderwoman Cara Spencer to challenge Mayor Lyda Krewson in 2021 primary". Fox2Now. Retrieved 21 Feb 2020.
4. Jason Rosenbaum; Jo Mannies (13 Jan 2020). "Politically Speaking: Alderman Spencer on entering the fray at the Board of Aldermen". St. Louis Public Radio. Retrieved 21 Feb 2020.
5. Danny Wicentowski (13 Jan 2020). "St. Louis Alderwoman Cara Spencer First to Challenge Krewson for Mayor". River Front Times. Retrieved 21 Feb 2020.
6. "Cara Spencer on Ballotpedia". Ballotpedia. Retrieved 21 Feb 2020.
7. "St. Louis' largest outdoor public pool reopens and highlights diversity". St. Louis Public Radio. 2015-06-13. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
8. www.bizjournals.com https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2019/05/13/city-aldermen-eye-campaign-finance-reforms-amid.html. Retrieved 2020-12-10. Missing or empty |title= (help)
9. "Board Bill". stlouis-mo.gov. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
10. "Ordinance Details". stlouis-mo.gov. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
11. Arrighi, Jeanine (2019-08-27). "Easy West Gateway Council of Governments Air Quality Advisory Committee" (PDF).
12. Fenske, Sarah. "'McKee Exemption' Scrapped by Board of Aldermen in Unanimous Vote". Riverfront Times. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
13. "After months of delay, aldermen give initial approval to restrictions on payday lenders". St. Louis Public Radio. 2016-11-04. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
14. Murphy, Doyle. "'Good Samaritan' Law Bars St. Louis Cops from Arresting Drug Users Who Call 911 for Overdoses". Riverfront Times. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
15. Doyle Murphy (14 Dec 2015). "Here's a New Plan for Overgrown St. Louis Lots: Mow to Own". River Front Times. Retrieved 21 Feb 2020.
16. Koran Addo (11 Oct 2016). "Ethics complaint against St. Louis alderman dismissed". St. Louis Today. Retrieved 21 Feb 2020.
17. Mark Schlinkmann (21 Dec 2019). "St. Louis airport privatization effort is dead, Krewson says". St. Louis Today. Retrieved 21 Feb 2020.
18. Schlinkmann, Mark. "St. Louis airport privatization saga continues at Board of Aldermen". STLtoday.com. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
19. Schlinkmann, Mark. "Petition drive launched to put recall of Alderman Cara Spencer on Nov. 3 ballot". STLtoday.com. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
20. "Supporters of Lambert Airport Privatization tries to recall their main critic on the Board of Aldermen". FOX 2. 2020-08-10. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
21. Nassim Benchaabane (13 Jan 2020). "Alderman Cara Spencer running for mayor of St. Louis". St. Louis Today. Retrieved 21 Feb 2020.

External links

• Official website