Friday, March 11, 2016

Senate Soul Searching

Senate Dems spent the day yesterday talking about the Journal and pointing out all the procedural flaws that took place yesterday, from not giving Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal the floor, to not recognizing Sen. Scott Sifton, to not understanding that a motion to adjourn supersedes every other motion. They were clear that following the Senate rules wouldn’t have changed the outcome.  A PQ would still have come, it would have taken ten minutes longer.  It was the bullying posture of not following the rules of the chamber that made the Democrats most angry, and a few Republicans too – including an emotional Sen. Bob Dixon, and Sen. Ryan Silvey.

Silvey gave an impassioned appeal, recalling his days in the House where the floor action was predetermined by a leadership meeting earlier in the day.  He doesn’t want the Senate morph into that type of non-deliberative process.

SJR 39 was passed yesterday, and we’ll see how things proceed or don’t proceed next week.

Readers weigh in, see “eMailbag” below.

STL Biz Journal On Jim Onder

The cover of today’s St. Louis Business Journal is a piece about Jim Onder, brother of Sen. Bob Onder, who makes millions as an attorney.  Not a bad brother to have in no-limits Missouri….  (Link, behind paywall I think)

Pull Quote: [L]ast month the Onder Law Firm won a $72 million verdict in St. Louis Circuit Court on a claim by the family of the late Jacqueline Fox of Birmingham, Alabama, that her longtime use of Johnson & Johnson talcum powder for personal hygiene contributed to the ovarian cancer that killed her.

And

Inside I write about the Donald Trump Effect (link here), drawing on the polls I run.  See polls under Special Reports here.

Pull Quote:  Polling data shows evidence that many Republicans get a stomach ache when considering Trump. Missouri Republicans are evenly split in their opinion of Trump — 45 percent have a favorable opinion of him, and 45 percent have an unfavorable opinion. That’s an unusually low approval rating within one’s own party. For context, consider that 78 percent of Missouri Democrats have a favorable opinion of Clinton with 14 percent viewing her unfavorably.

This high unfavorable opinion within his own party means that when the pollster asked who these Missouri Republicans would vote for in a hypothetical Trump-Clinton race, 21 percent were undecided (and another 6 percent said Clinton).

Missouri statewide races are competitive. If Republicans were to lose some portion of their base, it would tip the scales toward the victory of their Democratic adversaries.

Candidate Filings

Eric Morrison filed to run as a Democrat for governor.  He’s a Kansas City pastor.

Ranen Bechthold filed to run as a Democrat in Senate 17 against incumbent Republican Sen. Ryan Silvey.

Ronald G. Pember filed to run as a Democrat in House 145.  Republican Rep. Shelley Keeney Taylor is termed.

Court News

The 31st Circuit Judicial Commission…  selected a panel of three nominees for the associate circuit judge position in Greene County associate circuit court, Division 25. The nominees are:

Becky J.W. Borthwick… Nancy Graven Price… Todd Marlin Thornhill… the Commission notes the final votes received by each nominee were: Becky J. W. Borthwick, five; Todd Marlin Thornhill, five; and Nancy Graven Price, four. The commission has submitted the panel to Governor Jay Nixon, who will have 60 days to appoint one of the nominees as associate circuit judge. The commission is chaired by Judge Mary W. Sheffield, chief judge of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, and is composed of attorneys Andrew Bennett and Steve Garner, and lay members Steven Stepp and Joann Hosmer.

And

The Twenty-Second Circuit Judicial Commission (city of St. Louis) is accepting applications for a circuit judge vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Margaret Neill.

eMailbag on SJR 39

Thirty years from now, I believe their grandkids will be embarrassed to say is was okay to deny service to someone just because they were gay. No different than this.  In these small towns in Missouri that many of these guys are from, they just like Lester Maddox, bullying a gay couple under the guise of their religion.  America has a long history of doing that based on religion.  Slavery. Interracial marriage. Sater and Emery made a point of talking about what the Bible said. Both Southern Baptists. Into the 1960s and the Civil Rights era, most Southern Baptist pastors and most members of their congregations rejected racial integration. These guys should know better. They were actually alive in the 60s.

eMailbag on Drebes Senate Rant

This was a very good read this morning…

Really Dave, didn't the Democrats expect ANY reaction from their 40 hour temper tantrum? My children understand better than the Democrats that purposeful actions lead to real consequences!

Loved it. The whole thing. We're obviously on different sides but it was awesome.

I know you’re having a meltdown this week but let me tell you what is really going on: the conservative supermajority MO Senate is finally acting like one.

Richard/Kehoe have irrevocably broken the senate, and for what? An issue no one wanted or cared about. Right to work makes sense, long standing GOP priority where there is no compromise.  But this SJR? Absolutely makes no sense, not from a policy standpoint or a strategic one.

So Ron Richard and Kehoe broke the Senate (PQ in March is absolutely insane regardless of topic of legislation) for something that likely gets killed in the House. NCAA against, business conventions backing out and MO loses $...

Lobbyists Registrations

Keith Hazelwood added DDI Media, MI2 Operating Systems LLC, Badock Restaurants Inc, and Dutchman Homes LLC; and deleted Musterman Family Partnership LP, 1600 Veterans Memorial Parkway LLC, and Investment 7 Corp., and Equip Rental Sales.

Luann Madsen added Cheyenne International, LLC.

Yancy Williams added Missouri Associationof Health Plans.

Jeff Rainford added St. Louis Zoo.

Daniel Dole deleted Union Electric DBS AmerenUE, Ameren Servcies, Ameren Corp.

Andrew Weber deleted Dardenne Duck Club, Pierced Properties II LC, Investment 7 Corp., Equip Rental Sales, and Whisper Hollow Gp, LLC.

$5K+ Contributions

New Approach Missouri - $6,500 from Show-Me Cannabis, Inc.

Raise Your Hands for Kids - $139,826 from RAI Services Company.

Raise Your Hands for Kids - $39,681 from RAI Services Company.

Property Casualty Insurers Association of America Political Account - $6,376 from Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.

Right Government - $8,000 from Citizens for a Better Columbia.

Slay for Mayor - $20,000 from Thompson Coburn LLP.

Progress KC PAC - $5,001 from Justus for KC.

Progress KC PAC - $10,000 from Operating Engineers Local 101 PAC.

Birthdays

Happy birthday to Jay Reichard.

Saturday: Kack Haslag.

MOScout News

Tuesday is Missouri’s presidential primary.  I’m doing another poll of the Republican presidential race this week.  I did one a couple of weeks ago that showed Donald Trump will a double digit lead.  But with the race so fluid, thought we’d revisit.