ST. LOUIS–A St. Louis criminal defense attorney will ask voters to elect him to fulfill the progressive promises he says have been made, but not kept by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner. 

David Mueller, a former public defender now in private practice, has announced plans to run for the office in 2024.

Gardner, currently facing a rare effort to be removed from office by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, confirmed last month that she’ll seek re-election to a third term. Under the law, Circuit Attorneys removed via the quo warranto process are still eligible to seek the office again.

State Rep. Brad Christ R-St. Louis County, has threatened to add language to a bill in the House that would prevent office holders who are successfully removed from office from running again for the same office. 

Mueller, a Democrat, said he was approached about running against Gardner but wouldn’t specify who approached him. He did say he had the support of high-profile criminal defense attorneys Scott Rosenblum and Joel Schwartz. Mueller said he has not been in contact with St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones or Aldermanic Board President Megan Green.

While he points to several of the issues the Attorney General’s office has raised in its quo warranto petition–problems with getting cases to trial and a failure to disclose evidence in cases among them–Mueller said that process, and the proposed state law that would let the Governor appoint a special prosecutor to handle cases involving violent crime are examples of government overreach which disenfranchise voters.

Mueller attended an event in North St. Louis last month where Gardner forcefully defended herself against the Attorney General’s case and also rallied supporters around the work her office has done with diversion programs, job programs and to push for Lamar Johnson’s freedom.

But Mueller said the words haven’t matched the deeds.

“What has she done? What has she accomplished? I would suggest to you that a number of the programs and a number of the philosophies that she has expounded, haven’t been effectively implemented. And in fact I’d suggest to you that they’ve been implemented about effectively as she’s been prosecuting cases, which is to say, not at all,” he said.

Mueller said he would look to rebuild functional relationships between the Circuit Attorney’s office and the Mayor’s office, the Board of Aldermen, and the police department, where he acknowledged that there should be some friction but that action must be taken to stem the city’s residential decline.

“We’re going to be under a quarter million people here in the city and if that happens, the mountain to climb to turn that around is almost impossible. We’re about to become a city of big buildings and parking lots, and not residents,” he said.