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Pick One!

A highly subjective, sometimes obnoxious but entirely factual guide to the 2007 Kansas City mayor’s race.

By THE PITCH STAFF 

Alvin Brooks
One-line bio: A two-term councilman and admired figure, Brooks goes on radio to ask for crime tips and comforts the families of murder victims, making him a parish priest of the black community.

Campaign guru: Pat Gray, who managed the successful campaigns of Kay Barnes and last spring's push for taxpayer-funded renovations of the sports complex.

Rich and powerful donors: Lawyer John Kurtz and his wife, Patricia, a former Kansas City, Missouri, School Board member ($9,000); law firm White Goss Bowers ($1,750 from various individuals); Buck O'Neil ($1,000)

Base of support: Conventional wisdom says that support is wide and Brooks is a favorite to advance past the primary.

What he has that others lack: Name recognition

Sworn enemy: Attention-hungry comic-book artist and community activist Alonzo Washington, who called Brooks a sellout and an Uncle Tom for what Washington deemed to be a meek response to the release of the Sofia Salva police tape.

Playing against type: In hiring Pat Gray, the warm and positive Brooks went with a campaign manager who has been known to get his hands dirty (for example, in 2003, Gray's shop doctored photos of Becky Nace and Jim Glover, making them look like products of in-breeding). The juvenility of the effort embarrassed even one of Gray's own clients.

Proud moment: Brooks became the city's first black department head (human relations) in 1968.

Empty-gesture alert: Brooks established a violent-crime commission in 2005, as the city reeled from a 40 percent increase in the number of homicides. The commission emerged six months later with a report destined to collect dust on a shelf. Among its recommendations: better education and the creation of a half-time staff person to evaluate crime-prevention efforts.

Should be embarrassed about: From 2000 to 2005, Brooks made an average salary of $53,333 from Move Up, a crime-fighting organization that receives city funding. Brooks voted twice to approve contracts between the city and Move Up (total worth: $275,000). Internal auditor Roy Greenway looked at the matter and found no conflict of interest; Brooks' Move Up contract contained ass-covering language that said city funds would not be used to pay his salary.

Trivia I: He was named one of George H.W. Bush's 1,000 points of light.

Trivia II: He and wife Carol married in 1950.

Trivia III: His diet consists mainly of fruits and vegetables.

Somewhat revealing personal detail: For a few months in the winter and spring of 2006, he dyed his hair in what looked like an effort to project a more youthful appearance.

Rolls in: A 2000 Cadillac DeVille

Looks like: Miles Davis

John David DiCapo
One-line bio: DiCapo owns and operates DiCapo Foods, a manufacturing company that produces Italian wedding cookies and Jim's Famous Hot Tamales.

Campaign guru: None. John David DiCapo plans to give John David DiCapo's opinion, take it or leave it.

Campaign theme: DiCapo entered the race, he says, "Because I was so pissed off at City Hall for what they did to me." DiCapo leased space for his Chili Shack restaurant in the city-owned parking garage at 12th Street and Oak, believing that city officials would force competing street vendors to vacate the sidewalks near his business. When that didn't happen, DiCapo began complaining — loudly. After almost two years, the city bought out his lease in December. He says he's in the race because the small-business owner in Kansas City gets dumped on.

Sworn enemy: Pushcart vendors outside City Hall. "You see a bunch of guys out there, dirty-looking guys cooking sausages on a dirty-looking grill. Someone said it makes the city look cosmopolitan. I said, 'You're full of shit.'"

Rich and powerful donor: None. He doesn't plan to spend any money on signs or commercials, and his Web site is basically free.

Questionable strategy: DiCapo has been conspicuously absent from mayoral forums, saying he's too busy running his business. "People say, 'How are you going to get your point across?' I was on the radio the other day and gave people my cell-phone number and said, 'Call me. It's 816-590-9950.'" He says he knows he probably won't win. "But I'm going to make the person who does win aware that the small-business person needs to be taken seriously. You can't discount the fact that 90 percent of the businesses in this town are small businesses."

Political indignity No. 1: One recent Sunday morning, DiCapo went to his factory to check on his freezers. On the chain-link fence, just in front of the door, someone had hung a big "Chuck Eddy for Mayor" sign.

Political indignity No. 2: DiCapo's father is longtime Italian Gardens owner Carl DiCapo, who endorses Chuck Eddy on Eddy's television ads.

Could work for him, could work against him: Of his personal life, DiCapo says, "I dated a lot. I didn't miss many."

Morning ritual: "I work out with weights. I'm in pretty good shape."

Bonus: "I'm the only good-looking, single Italian-American in the race."

Looks like: Andy Garcia

Chuck Eddy
One-line bio: A chiropractor by training, Eddy is a 6th District councilman who chairs the finance committee and has unflaggingly backed Barnes.

Campaign gurus: Political consultant Randy Steinman (Kansans for Lifesaving Cures paid him $25,000 for campaign consulting on the Missouri stem cell ballot issue in 2006) and campaign coordinator Bill Worley.

Rich and powerful donors: Olathe Subaru-Isuzu ($1,000), Daniel McCarthy of engineering and construction firm Black & Veatch ($1,000) —notably, a hefty percentage of Eddy's contributions come from people with Kansas addresses.

Relationship with Kay Barnes: Renfield to the mayor's Dracula

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