St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 15

Aug. 5, 1982 15A SILOUIS POST-DISPATCH Turnout By Blacks Is Seen As Power In Future Races i James Reston Half Time On The Potomac WASHINGTON LOOKING BACK OVER THE first half of his administration and planning for the last half, it must have occurred to President Reagan occasionally that even many of his own supporters, who like him personally and long for his success, have serious doubts about his leadership. Otherwise, it would be hard to explain why so many of his principal appointees have resigned in this critical period of decision on economic and foreign policies over the last few weeks and months. In the neia 01 foreign and security affairs, Secretary of State Alexander Haig; Richard Allen, head of the National Security Council; and Adm. Bobby Ray Inman, deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, either jumped or were shoved all leaving with presidential letters of profound regret.

In the field of economic affairs, Murray Weidenbaum quit as Rest on I I head of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, and was only the latest of a parade of economists who have vanished quietly in the midst of the worst economic alarm since the 1930s. It's not unusual, and may not be a bad idea, to switch the lineup at halftime in any administration, but this evacuation, whatever else it may mean, is clearly no vote of confidence for Reagan or his policies. Everybody has been very polite about it, but there is obviously a problem not only with high interest rates and high unemployment at home, but with policy abroad. REAGAN IS NOT IN AS much trouble with his political adversaries in the Democratic Party or in Moscow who are also confused about the tangles of this higgledy-piggledy world, as he is with his allies, who don't know what he's doing from one day to another. They are sore at him for insisting that their companies cannot transfer U.S.

technology for the Soviet-European pipeline. Reagan had the legal right to do what he did. The question is whether he was wise to reduce a philosophy of peace to an argument over a gas pipeline. For he deals with each problem separately, favoring the American farmers one day in trade with Russia, and punishing the Europeans for trading with Moscow the next, with no connecting rods or coherent policy overall. Just when he is going into nuclear arms control negotiations with the Soviets, he announces that he won't consider a nuclear test-ban until the Soviets amend other treaties agreed upon in the past.

He deplores the spread of arms all over the world, but ships more of them to Israel without control and even more than anybody else to the poor nations that can't afford them. HE INSISTS THAT HIS tax reduction will encourage people to save more, invest more, produce more, and employ more people, but unemployment is still running at more than 9 percent, and his own Department of Labor announces that one out of every five workers was out of a job at some time in 1981. Time is running on, and confidence in his proposed remedies is running out. Reagan seems to recognize this, for lately he has been flying around the country arguing his case on television talk shows. But at halftime in this administration, there is a pause for reflection, with some new men in the lineup, and with George Shultz at the State Department, and this, it is hoped, may make a difference.

But on the capacity of the allies and their peoples to have confidence in the judgment of the American president, a great deal depends. This has been Reagan's failure in the first half of his term and is the challenge of the second half. Sam LeonPost-Dlspatch Freeman Bosley giving the victory after winning the Democratic sign to his supporters Tuesday night nomination for circuit clerk. Bosley Surprises City's Political Pros ByRoyMalone Of th Pott-Ditpatch SUM THE WAY BLACK VOTERS in St. Louis flexed their muscles in Tuesday's primary is causing some surprised political analysts to predict that the black community may be emerging as a far stronger political force to be reckoned with.

Traditionally, black politicians here have been involved in factionalism and black voters in north St. Louis often have made poor showings at the polls. But in this primary, black voters turned out in greater numbers in an effort to protect the seats of U.S. Rep. William L.

Clay and state Sen. John F. Bass and to win nominations for two citywide offices circuit clerk and license collector. Blacks winning the Democratic nomination for two citywide offices in the same race is a first. If elected in November, blacks would control three of 10 citywide offices for the first time.

Clay, Missouri's only black congressman, scored an easy victory in the 1st Congressional District race over his opponent, state Sen. Allan G. Mueller. Clay did it by capturing more than 80 percent of the vote in the city part of the district and about 40 percent in the St. Louis County part.

The Clay forces, which had strong support from labor and spent $200,000 to Mueller's $120,000, campaigned hard after a poll showed Clay trailing early in the campaign. Several black politicians who have been at odds with Clay also endorsed him on their sample ballots. "AN IMPORTANT LESSON has been delivered to the blacks. They seemed to coalesce and to minimize the splintering," said George Wendel, a political science professor and director of the Center for Urban Programs at St. Louis University.

Wendel said he had expected the traditional showing of 30 percent to 35 percent of registered voters in the black wards of north St. Louis. That's considerably below the average turnout of registered voters in south St. Louis' white wards. Because of the redistricting of city wards, state legislative and congressional districts, political analysts said it was difficult to make precise comparisons of Tuesday's black vote with that of previous elections.

But Wendel estimated the black turnout at about 45 percent on Tuesday. Freeman Bosley a 28-year-old black who won the Democratic nomination for circuit clerk, said he too had been surprised by the high black voter turnout. But he said the Clay-Mueller campaign, along with his and other spirited races, brought the voters out. Bosley said he had studied returns for 1978, 1974 and 1970 when Clay had polled between 20,000 to 25,000 votes in the city's 11 black wards. He said he thought Clay might get 30,000 votes this time, but was surprised to see him get more than 38,000 votes in those wards.

Wendel said he wasn't sure just why blacks turned out in greater numbers, except that "there was a realization that a heavy turnout was necessary." Larry Williams, a black who is city treasurer and a longtime ally of Clay's, said blacks were simply protecting what they had. He said they sensed some sort of conspiracy to have their congressional district wiped out. "THEY FELT that district belonged to them," Williams said. "They were waiting for an opportunity to express themselves at the polls." Williams said that in past years, many blacks had been frustrated by what they saw as a controlled political game with little chance to change their fortunes by voting, or even registering to vote. "From the outset when redistricting took place blacks saw a concerted effort to remove a position already in their grasp the congressional seat," he said.

Blacks watched as state legislators maneuvered to redraw the congressional districts in a way to leave out Clay, Williams said. "All the signals were that a conspiracy was under way," Williams said. And Mueller was perceived to be part of it, he added. By their voting Tuesday, Williams said, blacks "were saying that this congressional district is the closest thing the people have for electing their own leader." Williams said he believed Clay did better than some expected in the predominantly white county sections of the new district because many voters there felt much the same that it was only fair to have a black hold one of the state's nine congressional she got might have been intended for Joseph Roddy, she said: "That's too bad, isn't it." WALTON SAID he had had nothing to do with her candidacy, except to represent her before the Election Board. "I don't see how anyone who wanted to vote for Joe Roddy could have voted for her.

I don't think there was any name confusion," Walton said. "Joe Roddy just has to live with the circumstances. People resented the bossism Joe Roddy was involved in and wanted him ousted. "A lot of these politicians run around, putting people in races. That's the American political system; anybody can run.

It's up to the voter to be discerning enough to decide who to vote for." Walton said -Roddy's loss should not detract from the showing made by Bosley, who spent only $16,000 in the campaign. "His father did an excellent job of running his campaign," Walton said. Bosley's father is Alderman Freeman Bosley Sr. of the 3rd Ward. Roddy reported raising $85,000, and Connelly reported raising $5.000.

M-RoyMalone Mary McGrory 'A Pool Of Patience' WASHINGTON YOU CAN'T GO WRONG by telling people what they are already thinking, or asking them for something they have already given you. That's what Ronald Reagan did at his last press conference. The president knows from his pollster, Richard Wirthlin, pretty much how the American people feel about him. I In his opening statement, for instance, he spoke of his wish that economic recovery "could be easier and faster." But he immediately swung into a line he knows strikes a chord in the country: "It's tough, slow Bosley is a former staff attorney with Legal Services of Eastern Missouri Inc. He is now an associate with the downtown law firm of Bussey, Edwards Jordan.

He graduated from Central High School and received undergraduate degrees in political science and urban affairs and his graduate degree in law from St. Louis University. BOSLEY WAS GIVEN a lot of advice in his primary campaign from his father. But the younger Bosley insists he is his own man. "I always make my own decisions," he said.

If elected, Bosley said, one of the first things he plans to do is to set up an information center in the Civil Courts Building. "I see that office as one that provides a lot of different services for people," he said. "That Office handles small claims, it handles adult abuse and it handles a lot of different services that affect people. But I think people really aren't aware of what is done there, so I want to make them aware with an information center." Bosley said another thing he planned to do was to improve the filing system in the office. That was a campaign issue that both he and opponent Thomas A.

Connelly used. Bosley often referred to files relating to cases he handled that had been lost by the clerk's office. And Connelly pointed out a case where a South Side man had been allowed to keep his driver's license despite four drunken-driving convictions because the convictions never were reported to the Missouri Department of Revenue. "That filing system needs work," Bosley said. "I want to straighten it out." THE BOSLEY NAME is well known in north St.

Louis largely because of the elder Bosley and young Bosley acknowledged that his name had been helpful in his winning the nomination. "There's no doubt about it," he said. "We didn't have money for TV ads or ads on the large radio stations, so I think word of mouth and the fact that I went to every meeting I heard of really helped." Bosley said he had spent about $16,000 for his campaign. Roddy raised at least $85,000, and Connelly raised at least $55,000, according to campaign finance records. "That's not a lot of money, but I still thought I could do it," he said.

"I had analyzed figures, and they showed that I could win. My daddy always told me that if it worked on paper, it should work in real life. He was right." By Gregory B. Freeman Of the Post-Dispatch Staff WHEN FREEMAN BOSLEY JR. announced his candidacy for St.

Louis circuit clerk in December, few political observers expected him to win. Bosley, son of Alderman Freeman Bosley D-3rd Ward, had never before run for a political office. At the age of 28, he was considered a political novice. He could never beat incumbent clerk Joseph P. Roddy, a fixture in Democratic politics in the city for more than 30 years, observers said.

Some suggested Bosley was running to allow his father to assess his own chances of running for a citywide office sometime in the future. Others said he was running to gain name recognition. Bosley disputed the suggestions. "People who say those kinds of things are on a witch hunt," he said at the time. "I'm a lawyer.

People don't talk me into doing things; I talk them into doing things." Bosley talked a lot of volunteers into doing things for him. Despite the lack of support from black ward organizations, Bosley who is black obtained the endorsements of numerous black aldermen and used those endorsements to help put together an all-volunteer campaign staff, a staff that outworked the ward organizations. Many of his volunteers were young black professionals who had not been involved in political races in the past. MOST OF THE NORTH SIDE organizations, endorsed Roddy. They wound up with political egg on their faces Tuesday when Bosley captured all the black North Side wards and the Democratic nomination for circuit clerk.

He will face Republican Lee Sutterfield on the ballot in November. But the Democratic nomination for a citywide post is usually considered tantamount to election. If elected, Bosley will be the city's first black circuit clerk. The fact that Roddy is not a lawyer was a point that Bosley often pushed as he campaigned for the circuit clerk post. "When you have electrical problems, you call an.

electrician," he said in a recent speech. "When you have water problems, you call a plumber. I'm a lawyer, and I want to straighten out the legal problems in the circuit clerk's office, which is a key part of the legal system." U.S. Rep. William L.

Clay Brought out black vote Billie A. Boyklns Nominee for License Collector seats. Williams said that "Clay's coattail" helped Bosley to win a tough, three-way race. The black turnout also helped state Rep. Billie Boykins win the license collector's1 nomination, even though "she conducted a' low key campaign." While Williams said he thought blacks had, voted heavily to protect the offices they believed rightfully belonged to them, Bosley1 said aggressive campaigning also had been a factor.

"There was some real campaigning and the black voters had several races that interested them," Bosley said. "People are becoming more concerned about the quality of their candidates and are no longer paying attention to the machine." He said black voters had demonstrated a greater knowledge and sophistication in the voting process by making decisions on several candidates and issues. '-'V i ami WHAT WILL the black voter turnout be in future elections? Mrs. Boykins said: "There were a lot of reasons this time for going to the polls, but the priority was holding on to the 1st District. think it's the beginning of a new movement in north St.

Louis. We sent the whole city, i message. Our community did not let us down." i. Williams said: "The voting strength has been there all along. This time the voters recognized the problem and came out to address it.

If blacks overcome the apathyt and I think this is the beginning of it, then blacks will be a force people will recognize." He said this should result in agreements by white leaders on legitimate demands by blacks. "It will be like cutting a pie." Wendel noted that Bosley's race really had been a three-way one among him and incumbent Joseph P. Roddy and Thomas A. Connelly, both white candidates. Wendel said that Roddy and Connelly's splitting the white vote in south St.

Louis had allowed Bosley to score a narrow win over Roddy. WENDEL SAID something similar cpulJ happen in other races, even the 1985 race for mayor, if a strong black candidate enters the Democratic primary against two White candidates who split the vote. mm, Although there is much "factionalism and: fractionalism" in both the black and white political camps, Wendel said, the primary appeared to have created even more splintering among the white factions. vs'l E. Terrence Jones, a political science professor at the University of Missouri at, St Louis, said that although "the black factions have not always worked together, this election showed they can." "The vote turnout was impressive," lie said.

"The next question is, can be sustained?" He noted that in the 1980 Democratic primary for aldermanic president, turnout of black voters helped Thomas E. Zych beat Eugene Bradley, a black alderman who had been named to the post Aldermanic Presifent Paul Simon was appointed to the Mi Jwuri Court of Appeals at 1 St. Louis. TiiriowiniffinMi drVwinriMii-i ii i ii mil fj AtMw' mtmmmam work, and it's going to require enormous effort and patience from every one of us." Wirthlin has told him that he has what every president dreams of and seldom achieves: "a pool of patience." That was easy too. Wirthlin's surveys show that a majority of Americans think that present economic worries are "the result of years and Joseph Roddy: Lost Votes To The Other Roddy; The Other Roddy, Clara, Says, Too Bad, Isn't It' McGray years of the wrong course, and that the Congress shares the responsibility." Reagan cannot, of course, hide or disguise what is happening 16 months into his administration.

The high unemployment figures and business failures are not classified material. But he can, apparently, get away with saying that it's because he did npt get what he wanted. WHEN HE SIGNED THE TWO principal instruments of his economic revolution, the budget reconciliation and tax bill of 1982, no one heard him say that he had gotten half a loaf. In fact, the signings were triumphal occasions. But hear Reagan in the Oval Office last week: "I can say back to them, all 'right, then why don't you just give us what we've asked for." Congress thought it had.

But from Wirthlin's whispers, Reagan knew he did not have to be tethered to the facts. Reagan's greatest luck, of course, is that the people have not yet made the connection between him and his policies. They do not blame him for what is happening, even, it seems, on the unemployment lines. As if the people were not giving the president enough, the Democrats gave him more last week. They decided to accept, as is, a Senate tax-refofm bill that would raise $99 billion over a three-year period and go right to conference with it: THE DEMOCRATS ONLY NOTICED that the bill is the work of a Republican senator, Robert Dole of Kansas.

They did not take in the wonder of it, which is that it is fair. The issue of fairness is their strongest (-campaign weapon. Out there, voters have thought from' the first that Reagan is soft on the rich. Wirthlin calls unfairness the president's "most severe perceptual liability." The Democrats had a chance to make the new taxes even fairer. But ail they saw was i a Republican tax bill 90 days before the fall election, and a.chance for a little campaign gloating.

Only Rep. James Shannon, in the Democratic caucus of the Ways and Means Committee, voted against sending the measure to conference. He argued that the House could make a good bill better and share responsibility for a responsible action. His colleagues would have none of it. "We ought to stop trying to be so damn cute on every issue," says Shannon.

"We want it both ways, we say we want lower deficits, but it isn't our tax bill don't blame us." The Democrats' campaign slogan is "It isn't fair it's Republican." Now they have chopped it in ha.tf. Yt)u can call the tax (ill Republican, but you can't c)f it unfair. Election Board upheld her candidacy, but her name on the ballot was changed to Clara J. Roddy. She says her actual name is Clara Jones Roddy.

Roddy's supporters say that Mrs. Roddy was a phony candidate put on the ballot by Roddy's opponents. They said her only purpose as a candidate was to confuse some voters by the name similarity and lead them into voting for her while thinking they were voting for the incumbent. Their suspicions were strengthened when they saw one of Bosley's supporters, state Rep. Elbert Walton appear as the attorney for Mrs.

Roddy before the Election Board. Mrs. Roddy, who lives at 5933 West Cabanne Avenue, did not campaign for the office and refused to talk to reporters about her candidacy or to supply a picture to newspapers. She will not disclose her age, but reportedly is in her 70s. She denied Wednesday that anyone had used her to try to take votes away from Joseph Roddy.

"I signed my name. I ran on my own," she said. She refused to say how she came to have Walton represent her. When asked if she thought some the votes CIRCUIT CLERK Joseph P. Roddy, who narrowly lost renomination in Tuesday's Democratic primary, says a political unknown with the same last name as his took enough votes away from him to affect the outcome.

"It cost me the election," said Roddy, one of the most powerful men in the Democratic Party here for the past three decades. He was referring to the 2,245 votes cast for Clara J. Roddy, an elderly widow living in north St. Louis who entered the Democratic race shortly before the filing deadline. Joseph Roddy lost to Freeman Bosley Jr.

by 946 votes. Bosley got 31,121 votes and Roddy got 30,175. Thomas A. Connelly got 23,227. "I have to think at 1,200 of those votes (of Mrs.

Roddy's) were for me," Roddy said. "It's a hell of a way to lose." Despite his frustration, Roddy said he did not intend to ask for a recount. RODDY HAD CHALLENGED the name of C. Jo Roddy being put on the ballot. The.