Broad-based concern about eminent domain’s use for economic development purposes has apparently led to the ouster of several local officials in Missouri according to the Institute for Justice and the Castle Coalition. An entire slate of elected officials that approved eminent domain condemnations for an upscale shopping center in Sunset Hills, Missouri (St. Louis County) were sent packing..
In the weeks leading up to the election, elected officials in the St. Louis suburb understood that eminent domain could cost them their jobs. A week before the polls opened, incumbent Alderman Robert Brockhaus said, “This election is starting to seem more like a referendum on eminent domain than it is an actual judgment on a candidate’s job performance.”
Apparently, “job performance” doesn’t include decisions to bulldoze neighborhoods for upscale private developers. Read the article here.