Tuesday, December 29, 2015
RYH4K Follow-Up
More is coming to light about Raise Your Hands for Kids recent acceptance of a $1 million campaign contribution from Reynolds America. It seems that the grassroots effort to raise the tobacco tax to fund early childhood programs had their choice of dance partners.
Word is that MO Petroleum Marketers + Convenience Stores Association approached Raise Your Hands for Kids with an offer to fund a smaller increase. However RYH4K supposedly rebuffed the overtures, in part because the MO Petroleum wasn’t willing to drop the poison pill in their proposal which would nullify the increase under certain circumstances.
End-of-the-Year Readers’ Poll: Lobbyists
Take the 2015 MOScout Readers’ Poll here. This one covers lobbyists. Feel free to send me comments either in the poll or separately about omissions and who should have been nominated. Voting closes at midnight. See results in tomorrow’s MOScout. Tomorrow’s poll will be about legislators. Send me your nominations….
CitiesStrong Strikes Back
CitiesStrong yesterday rebutted a recent Better Together study about the costs relative costs of St. Louis County’s many municipalities verses Indianapolis’ Unigov.
The press release: Indianapolis government costs left out of the study by the pro-local government consolidation group Better Together included major spending for public health, sports venues and operations of many municipalities and townships. Together, those unmentioned costs total more than $588.9 million – or, more than half a billion dollars that was not counted by Better Together. The discrepancies and gaps are reported in an analysis conducted by Dr. Mark Tranel, director of the Public Policy Research Center at the University of Missouri-St.Louis…
Post-Dispatch reports on the dispute here with a retort from Better Together’s Dave Liepholtz: “When an organization is run by seven former and current municipal leaders and funded by the (municipal league) you can’t expect them not to advocate for status quo…”
And
See the CitiesStrong website is here.
See their new twitter account here.
Hayden to Team Kander
Wanted to let you know that this is my last week with the Missouri Democratic Party. Starting on January 1 I will be the Communications Director for Jason Kander's Senate campaign.
I am ecstatic to join the Kander campaign…. Logistically I will still be available to speak about everything involving this Senate race, but I will now be the primary contact for all Missourians for Kander media requests. My cell phone # will remain the same… and I will send my new email once I have it….
Chris Hayden
Missouri Democratic Party Spokesman
Mallinson for Senate 11
Matt Mallinson started a campaign committee, Mallinson For Missouri, to run for Senate 11 as a Democrat. Paul LeVota resigned from that seat and it is up in 2016. Rep. JJ Rizzo and Jessica Podhola are both running as well.
Mallinson is a pharmacist, and mayor of Sugar Creek as well as a member of the Independence School Board.
His kick-off event is Thursday, January 14 at the Mallinson Vinyard and Hall (3029 North River Blvd, Independence, MO 64050)
Mallinson says “he would focus on issues such as education, health care and – an issue he’s promoted as mayor – solar energy…” See it here.
Aziere for House 28
James Aziere started a campaign committee to run for House 28 as a Democrat. The current incumbent, Rep. Tom McDonald is termed. Aziere is an alderman in Raytown. See it here.
State Revenue Weak?
With a few days remaining in the month individual income tax receipts are looking sluggish, and refund are running higher. We’ll see if the two combine to drags the overall tax revenue numbers south this month. Look for official numbers next week.
Pot Fight
Travis Maurer, the former Missouri resident, who has helped spark the marijuana reform effort in involved in a legal dispute with his business partners at The Weed Blog. The suit filed alleges that he engaged in “unauthorized use of TWB property TWB’s bank accounts… leaving TWB unable to cover its operating expenses.”
Help Wanted
The Missouri Health Advocacy Alliance seeks Executive Director. “The Missouri Health Advocacy Alliance is seeking to fill the position of Executive Director. The ED provides day-to-day leadership, develops and implements organizational strategy and enables the Board to fulfill its mission of providing a united consumer voice for quality, affordable health care choices in Missouri. We are looking for seasoned professional with proven leadership and experience in management, financial accountability and fund development… This non-profit consumer health advocacy organization is based in Jefferson City, Missouri… The Executive Director will oversee and direct the day-to-day operations of the organization including managing an approximately $700K operating budget, lead an office staff of approximately 5 individual direct reports and coordinate Alliance operations…” See the ad here.
For Sale
The Jackson County Advocate, a 63-year-old newspaper covering South Kansas City and Grandview, is for sale. Inquiries may be sent to bdavis@jcadvocate.com.
Lobbyists Registrations
Doyle Childers terminated his lobbyist registration.
Philip Baker deleted Retail Bankers Association, and Coakley Strategic Solutions LLC.
Trent Ford deleted St. Louis Baseball Cardinals.
$5K+ Contributions
Greitens for Missouri - $10,000 from Donald and Catherine Sanders.
Greitens for Missouri - $5,500 from Mark and Patty Montovani.
Greitens for Missouri - $5,001 from Mike Swann.
Koster for Missouri - $10,000 from Burns & McDonnell.
MO Democratic State Committee - $30,000 from Koster for Missouri.
Greitens for Missouri - $25,000 from Bernard Marcus.
Hanaway for Governor Inc - $10,000 from Committee to Elect Ron Richard.
Citizens for Morris - $10,000 from Family Pharmacy Inc.
Birthdays
Happy birthday to Julie Gibson.