Well, yesterday was the local Democratic primary. My candidates won handily, though as the Post Dispatch reminds me, they still have to survive the general election. Turnout was indeed low. Lewis Reed, my candidate for aldermanic president, won with a mere 14,729 votes to his opponent’s 12,686. In my ward, Kacie Starr Triplett won with 948 votes, a majority, not a plurality, in a three-way race where her opponents’ combined total was 930. I voted late in the day, at about 6:00 p.m. At that time only 89 voters had cast votes in my precinct.

On another note, I see that Senator Thomas Eagleton’s funeral well be held at the Saint Louis University college church with Fr. Lawrence Biondi, the university president, presiding. Various dignitaries will speak, including Senator John Danforth. It’s good that Eagleton will be honored in his home town. His country treated him shabbily in 1972. And it’s a curious irony that that a mere quarter century ago this country, which has had alcoholics (including our current president) and megalomaniacs in the White House, couldn’t tolerate the thought of a person who had been treated for depression serving as vice president.