Joyce Aboussie bio, part 6 of 7
John’s note: Joyce Aboussie is an iconic figure in both Democratic politics and the philanthropic world. In 2002, The Riverfront Times’ DJ Wilson authored an in-depth profile of Aboussie, published in the May 29-June 4 edition of the paper.
The Riverfront Times has since been sold, and Wilson passed away in 2019. To my knowledge, no versions of Wilson’s article remain online today. In the spirit of capturing Aboussie’s most valuable lessons – and to preserve Wilson’s detailed journalism – I’ve captured the original text of the RFT piece with occasional context added. For ease of readability, I’ve split the article up into seven parts, using the same topic breaks originally used by Wilson in the print piece.
— John Combest
Part 1: Joyce Aboussie
Part 2: Ron Casey learns a valuable lesson
Part 3: Joyce Aboussie and Dick Gephardt, Bob Holden, Francis Slay, Jeff Rainford, Richard Callow
Part 4: The Barry Bonds of politics
Part 5: Fundraising machine and mystique
Article text of Part 6 begins below:
Once every ten years, redistricting puts Joyce Aboussie closer to the spotlight she shuns.
It’s hard to avoid.
She works continually on redistricting, in constant fear that Gephardt’s high profile will make him a target for a gerrymandered map to exclude Democrats, which will do him in.
This time around, the redistricting skirmish combined two of her well-honed survival skills: knowing where voters live and using fundraising to influence results. The difference was, this time the battleground was the DMZ between North City and South City and the opponent was Representative William “Lacy” Clay Jr., first-term congressman and son of longtime Congressman Bill Clay.
“She was the start and finish of it,” one insider says. “She controlled the whole process. She started on it years before. She had plotted all she wanted.”
Part of what she wanted was chunks of the city north of Delmar Boulevard. For Gephardt’s Third District to stray that far north was unusual and a sign that the most likely Democratic voters were black voters – surely more reliable than the ones who could be found in Jefferson County or Affton.
To lubricate the gears for the tedious trading of census tracts, Gephardt – or Aboussie – used a special committee to raise $230,000 for redistricting expenses. That committee handed over $108,000 to Aboussie’s Telephone Contact Inc. for redistricting work. Most of the rest of those funds covered the salaries of staffers who worked on drawing up maps.
Some maintain that Aboussie used Gephardt’s network of donors to funnel money to state House and Senate campaign committees, ensuring their compliance with regard to redistricting. Congressional districts are drawn up by state legislative committees. Through her years of fundraising for Gephardt, Aboussie can call on any number of well-heeled people scattered across the nation.
“It’s all about relationships,” says one political operative. “She can say to someone, ‘You need to send $2,000 to these five candidates.’ Her scope is national. Is that sweet or what? How’s anybody going to see Joyce’s fingerprints on a check coming from Nebraska?”
John’s note: Think the life of a political fundraiser is all glitz and glamour? Check out my second book, “Creepers and Copers: Ranking Your Male Admirers for Safety, Fun and (Maybe) Friendship” and think again. Excerpt:
“Where’th my hug?” the lispy manlet squeaked as he entered the ballroom.
The ick traveled straight from Robb’s vocal cords into Maddie’s ears and sent a flash of dryness through her body. She turned toward Robb and forced a smile, leaning down slightly to deliver an ass-out one-arm hug.
“I’ve been waiting all month for thith hug,” Robb moaned.
“I bet you have!” Maddie replied, pulling away efficiently.
“… since the divorce, it’s juth been …” Robb continued.
Maddie shooed the diminutive dweeb toward the open bar and turned her attention to the next group filing into the gala. Her nonprofit agency’s annual marquee event had sold out to capacity of 200 guests and as the fundraising director, she still had checks to collect at the door.
Robb posted up at the cocktail bar. When it came to getting Maddie’s attention, he could wait. He always did.
Will Maddie tell the lispy cuck to stop touching her inappropriately, like she might tell any other man in her life? Or will she keep using the sad-sack simp as a human ATM on behalf of her clients? Find the answer on page 65 of Creepers and Copers: Ranking Your Male Admirers for Safety, Fun and (Maybe) Friendship on Amazon. (Note: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)
And now, back to the Riverfront Times text:
Aboussie’s groundwork got all the congressmen in the state to sign off on the new maps, except for Representatives Todd Akin (R-Second District) and Lacy Clay. Gephardt met twice with Clay to hash out their differences. During the second meeting, several union representatives, a couple of lawyers and staff members were involved. Clay and Gephardt met face to face in one room, with Aboussie in a backroom from which she sent out messages to the two congressmen, making offers and counteroffers.
When the deal finally went down, Aboussie did not get all that she wanted; the line between Clay and Gephardt in the city held pretty much where it started, roughly along Interstate 44. Gephardt did get the south side of Delmar in University City and picked up pockets of Democratic voters in Hadley Township and Clayton. Clay’s base of African-American constituents dropped to about 50 percent from 61 percent.
The meetings of the two congressmen were not without tension. Additional fallout came as a result of who testified at public hearings in support of Gephardt’s gaining more city voters. The strategy was to get an elected representative from Clay’s district, Alderwoman Lyda Krewson (D-28th), and a citywide elected official, Circuit Clerk Mariano Favazza, to back Gephardt’s pleas. Mayor Francis Slay also testified in support of Gephardt.
For a local politician to testify on behalf of the area’s most powerful congressman may appear reasonable, but in this case it was risky. Krewson was planning to run citywide for president of the Board of Aldermen, so it may have been ill-advised for her to testify against the interests of the area’s only African-American congressman. Krewson and Aldermanic President Jim Shrewsbury are the only two primary opponents in the August election. Already there are rumblings of resentment against Krewson on the North Side, in part because of her testimony on redistricting. (John’s note: Shrewsbury defeated Krewson in the Democratic primary in 2002.)
Further payback came in loss of a lucrative consulting contract between Lacy Clay’s sister and the city. Michelle Clay, an attorney, had assisted Lacy Clay in his efforts to resist the first Aboussie-designed map. Michelle Clay lost the consulting contract in May 2001, shortly after the redistricting flap.
Although there was friction on the state level with regard to redistricting, by far the biggest meltdown occurred on the Board of Aldermen. When Alderwoman Irene Smith (D-First Ward) filibustered to protest moving the Twentieth Ward to South St. Louis, she drew national media attention when it appeared that rather than give up the floor, she called staffers to shield her as she urinated into a trash can on the floor of the Board of Aldermen.
Protests by Smith and Tyus proved futile. The map the board passed moved Tyus’ ward to an area south of Gravois Avenue and east of Grand Boulevard, more than five miles from her home. Aboussie became embroiled in the struggle when Telephone Contact Inc. was paid $25,000 for data for a new map that was intended to be more legally defensible if the redistricting were challenged on racial grounds.
The salt on an open wound was that Slay’s office planned to ask the state Democratic Party to pay Aboussie’s firm from its coffers. Tyus, whose largely black North Side ward has voted far more heavily Democratic than any largely white South Side ward, thought it outrugeous that state Democratic funds would be used to justify a map that would obliterate her ward.
“This city is a pretend Democratie city,” says Tyus “If people would truly run as what they were, Francis [Slay] wuuld be the Republican mayor that he is.”
She wanted some answers. She didn’t get any.
“Gephardt showed a lack of leadership,” says Tyus. “He had a chance to sit down and show people it wasn’t about race. If it’s not about race and it’s about Democrats, you don’t touch the most Democratic ward in the city.”
Feeling the heat, the mayor’s office said that the $25,000 would be paid by donors and not by the Democratic Party, but complications involving donor limits put a stop to that approach. Aboussie’s involvement and the use of state Democratic Party money sent a powerful message to African-American Democrats – they felt their own party had turned against them in a racial rift that hasn’t healed yet. (John’s note: Can you imagine the modern Missouri Democratic Party, led by Russ Carnahan, firing their most talented strategist in years, mere days after she called out a dunderheaded real estate deal? Maybe you can.)
Tyus, who plans to challenge the aldermanic redistricting in court, says the map produced after Aboussie was hired “is even worse than the first one.” Tyus is one of the African-American elected officials to write a letter to Democratic officeholders asking why they should support U.S. Senator Jean Carnahan in the upcoming election. Tyus and others are proposing “standing down” in that election by not voting or by voting for Carnahan’s Republican opponent, Jim Talent.
Though that friction grew out of aldermanic redistricting and Aboussie didn’t help matters any, Tyus still blames Aboussie’s boss, Gephardt.
“She gets a bad rap,” says Tyus of Aboussie. “She does her job. She protects Dick Gephardt. She does what Dick Gephardt wants, so if you don’t like the things she’s doing, stop blaming her and lock at who the person is she works for.”
“A lot of people are two-faced,” says Tyus “They grin in Joyce’s face and then go behind her back and talk about her. Whatever I would to say Joyce Aboussie, I would say it to her face. If I didn’t like it, I’d call Joyce Aboussie and tell her that.”
Part 7: A modern-day throwback
John Combest – Missouri political news headlines