In one month, the City of Columbia will cast their votes for our next mayor. The ballot contains three choices: one that represents the status quo, along with two right-wing challengers. As an organization, we wholeheartedly denounce these two “alternative” candidates. Tanya Heath believes we can tackle homelessness by promoting better gut health and handing out IDs. Blair Murphy racks up tens of thousands in campaign contributions from his wealthy friends while calling for “law and order” and proclaiming he is too afraid to go downtown. We agree with the implicit message of the endorsement offered by our friends in LiUNA Local 955 that neither of these candidates would make life better for working families in Columbia. And we believe both of these candidates present a distinct threat to the LGBTQ+ safe haven ordinance that we worked so hard to pass.
Although we reject the alternatives presented on this year’s ballot, we must be clear that the status quo is unacceptable. The status quo is city workers, from trash collectors to bus drivers, being underpaid and under-resourced while police budgets continue to bloat without producing any greater public safety. The status quo is a Boone County Jail “facing significant overcrowding,” mostly from individuals who have not been convicted of a crime but simply cannot afford to pay their bail. The status quo is offering our unhoused neighbors more police instead of adequate housing and allowing rents to keep rising so corporate landlords can continue to pad their pockets at the expense of working people. The status quo is an underfunded public transit system that leaves too many of us without adequate means of getting where we need to be.
Columbia deserves more than what this year’s ballot has to offer. We deserve a government at every level that works for all of us, not just the wealthy few. And as we think about this race, we also think about the efforts of the New York DSA chapter to support the mayoral campaign of Zohran Mamdani, who is running on a platform of freezing the rent and providing free bussing and childcare to all. We think of the work of Austin DSA to elect Mike Siegel to the Austin City Council on a platform of strong action on climate change, building more affordable housing, and expanding access to mass transportation. We think of the efforts by Seattle DSA to win a ballot initiative for democratically governed social housing. We think of our own work in creating and supporting the Jobs with Justice Neighborhood Pledge, which for years has pushed Boone County electeds to endorse a platform of increasing affordable housing, rebuilding and expanding our public infrastructure, and addressing the structural inequalities in our community. All of this and more is possible here in Columbia, just as it is everywhere else. We can achieve a better city, state, country, and world if we work together to build it.