Rep. William Lacy Clay (D) Elected 2000, 3d term
Born:	July 27, 1956, St. Louis
Home:	St. Louis
Education:	U. of MD, B.S. 1983
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Ivie)
Elected  Office:	MO House of Reps., 1983-90; MO Senate, 1991-2000.
Professional Career:	Asst. Doorkeeper, U.S. House of Reps, 1976-83; Paralegal, 1982-2000; Real estate agent, 1986-2000.
DC Office	131 CHOB20515, 202-225-2406; Fax: 202-225-1725; Web site: www.house.gov/clay
State Offices	St. Louis, 314-367-1970; Vinita Park, 314-890-0349.
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For a century or more, St. Louis seemed the center of America: the starting point for the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804; the locus half a century later of the Dred Scott case, a Supreme Court ruling that helped split the nation; the site of the 1904 World's Fair that introduced the hot dog and the ice cream cone and got 19 million people to Meet Me in St. Louis. Its 630-foot-high Gateway Arch is just below the point where the waters of the Missouri surge into the Mississippi, about halfway between New Orleans and Lake Superior, the Atlantic and the Pacific. This first major American city west of the Mississippi River was the final resting place of Daniel Boone and for many years was Chicago's rival as the transportation hub of America. In 1904 St. Louis already had the Eads Bridge, one of America's first suspension bridges; the Wainwright Building, one of Louis Sullivan's first skyscrapers; and Union Station, the world's largest passenger train station when it opened in 1894. Some 600,000 people lived then in densely packed brick houses on old street grids radiating outward from downtown. This was a heavily German city, with a Teutonic solidity and orderliness which distinguished it from the surrounding Southern-accented rural terrain; and from Mitteleuropa came the founders of St. Louis's great businesses--the Anheuser-Busch brewery, May Company department stores, Joseph Pulitzer's St. Louis Post-Dispatch--and its first great politician and a friend of Abraham Lincoln, Senator and Interior Secretary Carl Schurz. There is almost a European aura to Forest Park, the site of the 1904 fair, and the dozen mansion-lined private streets nearby, like Portland Place.

St. Louis is still one of the nation's 20 largest metro areas, but today it does not occupy as central a place in the national consciousness, and the central city itself has largely emptied out. The German order that made so many people comfortable living in close quarters and commuting by streetcar seems to have yielded to an American desire for Daniel Boone's wide open (suburban) spaces and the less restrictive automobile. St. Louis' population peaked at 856,000 in 1950; it was down to 343,000 in 2004, less than its 350,000 in 1880 and far less than the 1,009,000 now in suburban (and juridically separate) St. Louis County. Indeed, more blacks live in St. Louis County (193,000) than St. Louis City (178,000). Downtown St. Louis has been spruced up admirably: the Gateway Arch was finished in 1965; Union Station has been redeveloped; Laclede's Landing is stocked with shops. But most of St. Louis's old factories have closed and many of its once tight neighborhoods are only a memory.

Missouri's congressional districts have followed the people out of St. Louis, where the Democratic organization has been weakened by the loss of patronage and state approval of term limits. The 1st District of Missouri, historically based on the north side of the city, now has three-quarters of its residents in suburban St. Louis County. It includes St. Louis City north of I-64 and the northern and some central portions of St. Louis County. The district includes all the predominantly black suburbs to the north of the city, including Bellefontaine Neighbors, Ferguson, Spanish Lake and Black Jack. It also includes along I-70 working-class St. Ann and Bridgeton and, just west of the city, parts of the affluent suburbs of University City, Ladue and Creve Coeur. Before redistricting, the population of the district was 60% black; now it is 50% black. But blacks undoubtedly account for more than 50% of the votes in Democratic primaries that, in this heavily Democratic district, are the contests that matter.

The congressman from the 1st District is William Lacy Clay, a Democrat first elected in 2000 to the seat that his father Bill Clay had held for 32 years. Lacy Clay's whole life bears the imprint of his father's politics. Born in St. Louis, he moved to the Washington, D.C. area after his father's election in 1968 and grew up there as a congressman's son. He attended Silver Spring, Maryland, public schools and then the University of Maryland, studying by night for seven years while he worked as a House staffer by day. He had started law classes at Howard University when a special election for the state House in 1983 drew him back to St. Louis, and party leaders appointed him the Democratic nominee. Eight years later, Lacy Clay was again picked by party leaders to run in a special election for a safely Democratic state Senate seat, after the incumbent got a job with a congressional subcommittee.

In 1999 Bill Clay decided to retire after having helped to enact many labor and education laws. Lacy Clay had a serious contest. His most credible primary opposition was from St. Louis Councilman Charlie Dooley. Dooley raised nearly $400,000 and, though black, built up a base of support in the mostly white suburbs of St. Louis County. Dooley campaigned that the office should not be "inherited" and he attacked what he called Clay's old-style tactics of political threats and bossism. To make sure voters knew he was not challenging the incumbent, Dooley's billboards said, "Congressman Bill Clay is retiring this year." The St. Louis Labor Council and Missouri AFL-CIO, long allied to Bill Clay, declined to endorse his son, but he was endorsed by more than 30 locals. Many voters may have still have thought the two Clays were the same person; Lacy Clay played up his father's name and revved up the still reliable machine. He won the six-candidate primary 61%-28% over Dooley, winning St. Louis City 76%-12% and St. Louis County, where twice as many votes were cast, 49%-39%. The general election was no contest. Lacy Clay won 75%-22%, which was better than his father had done in recent elections.

In the House, Clay was president of the Democrats' freshman class and has had a liberal voting record. He sought to make the point that he was not entirely his father's son. "Call me 'Clay Lite'," he said as he discussed his softer image with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. But the truth inevitably was more complex. He has worked to protect voting rights for blacks and the reliability of electronic voting equipment. On the reorganized Government Reform Committee, Clay became ranking Democrat on the Federalism and the Census Subcommittee, an important post for blacks concerned about maximizing their House seats following the next redistricting. On the Financial Services Committee, he complained that an investigation of Fannie Mae was a "political lynching of Franklin Raines," who eventually was forced out as CEO. After retired St. Louis Cardinal slugger Mark McGwire refused to tell House investigators whether he had used steroids, Clay demanded the removal of his name from a stretch of I-70 in St. Louis.

Committees

• Financial Services (19th of 32 D): Capital Markets, Insurance & Government Sponsored Enterprises; Financial Institutions & Consumer Credit.
• Government Reform (10th of 17 D): Federalism & the Census (RMM); Regulatory Affairs.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	100	100	88	100	33	9	35	8	0	7	--
2003	95	--	100	85	--	25	32	17	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	83%	--	17%		79%	--	20%
Social	92%	--	0%		88%	--	0%
Foreign	89%	--	11%		84%	--	15%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR N 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts N 3. Medicare/Rx Bill N 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. Y 5. DC School Vouchers N 6. Ban Human Cloning N		7. Restrict Gun Liability N  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion N  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage N 10. Fund Iraq War * 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds Y 12. Intelligence Reorg. Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	William Lacy Clay (D)	213,658	75%	$262,648
	Leslie Farr (R)	64,791	23%
	Other	5,322	2%
2004 primary	William Lacy Clay (D)	unopposed
2002 general	William Lacy Clay (D)	133,946	70%	$335,527
	Richard Schwadron (R)	51,755	27%	$12,198
	Other	5,454	3%
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (75%)

2004 Presidential Vote Kerry (D) 216,372 (75%) Bush (R) 71,367 (25%)

2000 Presidential Vote Gore (D) 182,323 (72%) Bush (R) 65,686 (26%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the First District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: D +26
• District Size: 227 square miles
• Population in 2000: 621,690; 99.2% urban; 0.8% rural
• Median Household Income: $36,314; 15.8% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 20.7% blue collar; 61.9% white collar; 17.4% gray collar; 13.6% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 45.8% White, 49.7% Black, 1.5% Asian, 0.2% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.3% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 1.3% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 13.6% German, 7.8% Irish, 4.3% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.