Typos, it's sad to say, are as common in campaign literature as they are in journalism. Find us a guy running for public office, and it's almost certain a pubic office isn't far behind.
But the campaign literature of Alderman Joe Vaccaro, now running for reelection in the city's 4th ward, is in a class of its own.
It's not just that Vaccaro touts his work with city DEPARTMETS (his all-caps, his typo), or shares his amusingly old-school email address (carwashdaddy@sbcglobal.net, naturally) after a string of emphatic declaratives.
No, it's also that, in a doorhanger distributed to constituents, Vaccaro boasts that he is "assessable" ... "by way of cell phone or email."
Assessable. You know — capable of being assessed.Don’t worry. He’s “assessable” pic.twitter.com/UdQOwqrzkN
— Bruce Carlson (@BruceCarlson75) February 9, 2023
Now, here in St. Louis, we know a lot about assessing. In fact, we have a dedicated city department, solely tasked with assessment. We had no choice but to hold Vaccaro's bold claim up to scrutiny.
We posed the critical question to no less than St. Louis City Assessor Michael Dauphin: Is Alderman Vaccaro assessable?
Dauphin, God bless him, actually responded.
"The Assessor's Office records and assesses all tangible real and personal property," Dauphin told us via email. "This includes cars, trucks, boats, trailers, livestock and real property. It does not include human beings."
In short: A personal car wash could be assessed. A Car Wash Daddy? No.
Let the attack ads benign.
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