Gene McNary is running for County Executive of St. Louis County. Who's he, you ask (well, some of you might)? He's the former St. Louis County Executive; he held the job before Buzz Westfall, who passed away last year or the year before.

Again, why is this important? Well, if you've done any recent work in the Human Resources field, it's likely you'll recognize McNary as the former Commissioner of the INS. Yes, immigration and naturalization services. He served from late '89 to '93, so all of those pesky employment forms bore his signature.

News about the candidates. McNary has unsuccessfully run for what the paper calls "Congress, Senate, and governor."

McNary, 68, makes an unabashed appeal to nostalgia at campaign appearances, reminding audiences of the good times during his 15 years as county executive from 1975 to 1989. Before that, he served two terms as county prosecutor.

"You have heard everyone, almost to a person, say St. Louis County is in bad shape," he said in May at a candidate debate in Webster Groves. "Maybe it's time for Gene McNary to be county executive again. We ran a tight ship. It was a good place to live and work and raise a family. It is still a great place."

Odenwald says, however, that McNary is trying to get by on platitudes alone.

"St. Louis County is a very different place in 2004 than it was in 1974, when he was first elected," Odenwald said. "I think Mr. McNary does a great disservice to the electorate when he says all we need to do to make things better is return him to office. . . . It was easy to be county executive in the '70s and '80s when there was thousands of acres of open land and people were fleeing the city."

Posted by: hln at 07:49 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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