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Politically Speaking: Treasurer Tishaura Jones on navigating the mayoral melee

St. Louis Public Radio | By Jason Rosenbaum,
Jo Mannies, Rachel Lippmann
Published February 27, 2017 at 8:42 AM CST
File photo | Carolina Hidalgo I St. Louis Public Radio

On the latest edition of the Politically Speaking podcast, St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum, Jo Mannies and Rachel Lippmann welcome back St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones to the show.

Jones is one of seven Democratic candidates running to succeed St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay. All seven contenders in the March 7 primary have now taped an episode of the podcast.

Listen to our extended conversation with mayoral candidate Tishaura Jones

Jones, the daughter of former St. Louis Comptroller Virvus Jones, made her first bid for public office in 2008, when she successfully ran for a state House seat  slice of eastern St. Louis.

While in the Missouri House, Jones’ Democratic colleagues selected her to be assistant minority leader. She was heavily involved in crafting legislation that overhauled how charter schools operate throughout the state and was an outspoken advocate for abortion rights.Loading...

Related: Listen to extended interviews with each of the Democratic candidates

Jones chose to run for city treasurer in 2012, and beat three Democratic candidates by a comfortable margin. She made some major changes to the office, including revamping parking meters and starting a college savings program for St. Louis Public School students. And she also created the St. Louis Office of Financial Empowerment, which is aimed at bolstering financial literacy among city residents.

Since she entered the mayor’s race last year, Jones snagged endorsements from a number of progressive-leaning organizations – including NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri, Mobilize Missouri and the Service Employees International Union. Former Secretary of State Jason Kander, St. Louis County Assessor Jake Zimmerman and state Sen. Jamilah Nasheed also back her candidacy.

  • She supports economic development, but believes City Hall has been too generous in handing out tax incentives without adequate oversight.

  • She defends her city-reimbursed out-of-town travel, which she says has helped her expand her knowledge of new and better approaches for running her office and handling other city issues.

  • Jones stands by her call for closing down the city's Workhouse, a medium-security complex that houses about 600 prisoners. She says it's being used as a "debtor's prison'' for nonviolent arrestees who can't afford cash bail.

  • She is promising to replace St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson, saying "it's time'' for a new leader at the police department. Jones also reaffirmed her belief that it was more important to install social workers in the police department, as many other metropolitan forces have done, than to add additional officers.

  • Jones believes that the mayor can wield an indirect role in encouraging more improvements in public schools, so that more residents will feel comfortable sending their children to neighborhood schools instead of private, parochial or charter schools.

  • She  believes that the race of a candidate is becoming less of a factor for St. Louis voters.


Follow Jason Rosenbaum on Twitter: @jrosenbaum

Follow Jo Mannies on Twitter: @jmannies

Follow Rachel Lippmann on Twitter: @rlippmann

Music: "Trouble," "I'm On My Way" and "Dressin' on the Side" by the River Kittens

Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

Missouri News
Jason Rosenbaum
Since entering the world of professional journalism in 2006, Jason Rosenbaum dove head first into the world of politics, policy and even rock and roll music. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Rosenbaum spent more than four years in the Missouri State Capitol writing for the Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri Lawyers Media and the St. Louis Beacon.
See stories by Jason Rosenbaum
Jo Mannies
Jo Mannies has been covering Missouri politics and government for almost four decades, much of that time as a reporter and columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was the first woman to cover St. Louis City Hall, was the newspaper’s second woman sportswriter in its history, and spent four years in the Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau. She joined the St. Louis Beacon in 2009. She has won several local, regional and national awards, and has covered every president since Jimmy Carter. She scared fellow first-graders in the late 1950s when she showed them how close Alaska was to Russia and met Richard M. Nixon when she was in high school. She graduated from Valparaiso University in northwest Indiana, and was the daughter of a high school basketball coach. She is married and has two grown children, both lawyers. She’s a history and movie buff, cultivates a massive flower garden, and bakes banana bread regularly for her colleagues.
See stories by Jo Mannies
Rachel Lippmann
Lippmann returned to her native St. Louis after spending two years covering state government in Lansing, Michigan. She earned her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and followed (though not directly) in Maria Altman's footsteps in Springfield, also earning her graduate degree in public affairs reporting. She's also done reporting stints in Detroit, Michigan and Austin, Texas. Rachel likes to fill her free time with good books, good friends, good food, and good baseball.