最新杏吧原创

ST. LOUIS COUNTY聽鈥⒙�最新杏吧原创 County Executive Steve Stenger is likely to remain chief of the state's largest county after fending off a challenge from a well-funded opponent to hold on to the Democratic Party's nomination for the top office.

With the Republican slate for county executive made up of candidates with little name recognition or funding, the winner of the Democratic primary is expected to cruise to victory in the left-leaning county.

"It was a long hard fought campaign," Stenger said early Wednesday morning, as the final vote tally rolled in. "Today鈥檚 victory shows voters believe we are moving 最新杏吧原创 County in the right direction."

Stenger鈥檚 opponent, Mark Mantovani, put up a spirited challenge in a campaign that saw the retired businessman accuse the incumbent of corruption and Stenger call Mantovani a phony while highlighting his financial support for former Missouri GOP Gov. Eric Greitens.聽

Mantovani fell just more than 1,100 votes short of winning the Democratic nomination in an election that featured heavy turnout from organized labor聽鈥斅爓hose leaders have endorsed Stenger聽鈥斅燿riven to the polls to oppose the right-to-work measure that went down in defeat.

But Mantovani declined to concede early Wednesday morning, citing reports of issues at some polling places. He said that he did not want to "hang on to a聽potential election win or loss at all costs," but聽because of reports irregularities and general uncertainty about how votes were counted he would not concede until further review.聽

While Stenger appeared to hold on, he suffered peripheral losses. His ally,聽最新杏吧原创 County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch, lost the Democratic nomination聽for the job he has held for nearly 28 years. And Stenger鈥檚 sole remaining ally on the seven-member County Council, Pat Dolan, fell to opponent Lisa Clancy of Maplewood who has criticized 鈥渃ronyism鈥� in county government.

The election was marked by fundraising 鈥� a lot of it. Stenger raised more than $4.2 million. Mantovani, raised $2.5 million, with about half of that coming from the retired businessman鈥檚 own pocket.

The fundraising became a liability of sorts for Stenger, who faced criticism for instances where big donors got county contracts. In the most extreme case, he accepted $365,000 from the owners of the former Northwest Plaza, where the county signed an ironclad lease worth at least $69 million over 20 years.

Mantovani, 64, who retired as CEO and later chairman of the marketing firm Ansira, blasted Stenger for 鈥減ay to play鈥� politics that favored donors who made large donations to his political campaign. And he portrayed himself as a collaborative leader who would try to bring together a county government that had devolved into fighting.

Stenger, 46, cited a list of accomplishments that included the inception of a prescription drug monitoring program. He spearheaded Proposition P, a sales tax approved by county voters in 2017 that helped fund raises for police officers and will help the county police hire more than 100 officers. He pointed to a diverse cabinet with African-Americans and women in leadership positions.

And Stenger frequently emphasized the county鈥檚 relatively strong financial position, with a balanced budget and excellent credit.

Yet the end of Stenger鈥檚 first term was marked by a sour relationship with the County Council. Three Democrats and three Republicans on the council opposed Stenger at nearly every turn after accusing him and his staff of misleading the part-time legislators on several measures. They have opened ethics inquiries into county government, but Stenger argued most of the problems were inside baseball that didn鈥檛 affect the typical county voter and were part of election-year politics.

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Stenger had endorsements from law enforcement and labor unions. Political watchers predicted that strong labor turnout to oppose Proposition A, the right-to-work measure that would weaken unions, would help Stenger.

The county executive鈥檚 campaign featured frequent ads pointing out Mantovani鈥檚 campaign donations to Greitens, who resigned in June under a cloud of scandal. Greitens had signed the right-to-work bill into law, which unions got on the ballot as Proposition A by collecting enough signatures to try and overturn it.

Stenger鈥檚 only ally on the county council, Dolan, Missouri AFL-CIO apprentice coordinator, lost his 5th District seat that covers the inner-ring central suburbs. Clancy, a 33-year-old associate director of the Public Policy Research Center at the University of Missouri-最新杏吧原创, took nearly 58 percent of the vote.

And two changes to the 最新杏吧原创 County charter pushed by the council as part of its fight with Stenger appeared to pass Tuesday.

Charter Amendment 2, which would have let the county council hire its own attorney when it is in conflict with the executive branch 鈥� a frequent occurrence these days 鈥� edged ahead by just more than 10 votes out of nearly 250,000 cast.

Also passing with a more comfortable lead was Charter Amendment 3, which would amend the charter鈥檚 definition of employment to match state law in an effort to head off an attempt聽to remove County Councilman Ernie Trakas for violating the county charter by performing聽legal work for school districts.

Post-Dispatch reporters Jeremy Kohler, Jack Suntrup, Nassim Benchaabane, Joel Currier, Janelle O鈥橠ea and Jacob Barker contributed to this report.