Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Stenger on TV
St. Louis Councilman Steve Stenger is poised to go on the air. His primary election, against County Executive Charlie Dooley, is two almost exactly months away. One source says that Stenger’s ads, which will start tomorrow, have been purchased for five days.
It’ll be interesting to see if Stenger runs a conventional bio/introduction ad to establishment himself with voters who probably have never heard of him, or whether he goes right for jugular against the incumbent.
Perhaps the strategy is to run some ads, do a quick poll showing the name ID gap closing, and then another round of fundraising before the end of the July quarter.
We’ll see…
And
St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley and the county council clashed again last night. See the Post-Dispatch article here.
Pull Quote: In what has become the pre-election standard for St. Louis County governance, a County Council policy discussion Tuesday again devolved into bitter and often highly personal invective. The issue this week was the council’s refusal to give preliminary approval to County Executive Charlie Dooley’s bid to establish a county Office of Diversity Programs to promote minority hiring on major construction projects.
The mighty Jason Rosenbaum has posted the audio from the back-and-forth here.
Continued State Revenue Deterioration
“State Budget Director Linda Luebbering announced that 2014 fiscal year-to-date net general revenue collections increased 0.2 percent compared to 2013, from $7.30 billion last year to $7.32 billion this year. Net general revenue collections for May 2014 decreased by 3.0 percent compared to those for May 2013, from $633.7 million to $614.4 million.”
Lamping Speaks
The might Jason Rosenbaum and esteemed Jo Mannies sit down with Sen. John Lamping for an exit interview of sorts. Listen to it here.
Some interesting nuggets: He was asked to run for St. Louis County Executive in 2010, but turned that down because he would have had to quit his finance job. He was then tapped to run in Senate 24.
Lamping says that the vast majority of his legislation were his own ideas, whereas the vast majority of other legislators’ agenda come from lobbyists, interest groups etc.
Lamping denies that he ran as a moderate Republican, instead he says he ran as competent and thoughtful. On the subject of Jill Schupp, Lamping sees her as campaigning as bipartisan, yet he thinks she will end up being the most liberal senator in the body if she’s elected.
He thinks the Senate could have a problem in the future with fewer filibusterers.
Lamping took his idea for a transportation sales tax compromise to MOTA (Missouri Transportation Alliance) and they loved the idea. But it never gained traction because it would have nixed the tax cut. And Lamping says that the people who build roads are all LLCs and they wanted the tax cut.
Lamping believes that the state is run by 100 or 200 people… business groups, PACs, labor unions, trial attorneys, teachers’ groups… in other words, not legislators…
McFowland Alleges Misuse
Edward McFowland, a Democrat challenging Recorder of Deeds Sharon Carpenter, has started leveling some charges of misuse of funds at the incumbent
He writes, Carpenter “misuses a special fund- established by state law for technology and record preservation- as an expense account. Some of the expenditures which obviously do not qualify as technology or preservation related include:
1/14/2009 Check 1853 $102.00 to Rent A Center for something related to Presidential Inaugural.
8/24/2009 Debit Card $2,378.04 to HDC Home Decorators for rugs for the Recorder and Chief Deputy Recorder's offices.
6/10/2010 Check 1946 $170.00 to Kiel Parking for parking for an intern.
3/25/2013 Debit Card $94.41 to Joanies to Go for a Staff Meeting.
9/30/2013 Check 2079 $75.00 to Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority for "Mayor Luncheon Meeting" with note "Travel:Legislation"
A Total of $493.53 spent on "City Hall Open House Nov 2" "Mayor Open House" with note "Office Supplies" including
10/30/2013 Debit Card $45.00 to "Gooey Butter"
10/30/2013 Debit Card $11.59 to Wal-Mart
10/30/2013 Debit Card $306.47 to Hobby Lobby
10/30/2013 Debit Card $99.97 to "Gordmans Architectura"
10/30/2013 Debit Card $30.50 to Pint Size Bakery & Coffee
This is just a sample of the inappropriate spending… When I am Recorder, the technology and preservation account information will be published on the Recorder website- complete transparency.
Tilley Throwing Fundys
Tonight’s reception for Sens. Tom Dempsey and Eric Schmitt at the house of Kevin and Susan Knasel is being thrown by Steve Tilley. (See Mary Scrugg’s indispensable events calendar below).
Kevin Knasel is a client of Tilley’s. he runs Supermarket Merchandising. Also on the host committee are other Tilley clients: Anheuser Busch, Stacy Hastie, Gardner Capital, and MACO Development.
Then next week, Tilley is throwing a fundy for Schmitt’s possible AG opponent, Sen. Kurt Schaefer… June 12 at the Element in St. Louis with the same host committee plus Phoenix Home Care, another client.
Bits
Post Dispatch reports that St. Louis city’s sales tax would be among the highest in the nation if the transportation sales tax is approved. “A look at the base sales tax rates in other major U.S. cities shows that the proposed three-quarter increase would catapult St. Louis to near the highest in the country. Higher than New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco.” See it here.
According to LinkedIn Nick Maddux is now on staff with Hanaway for Governor. Maddux has worked at Axiom Strategies – for Bill Stouffer’s congressional race in 2010 and then with Congressmen Billy Long.
The City of Seattle moved to phase-in a $15/hour minimum wage. See it here.
Will solar kill the utility companies? Read it here. Step #3 in this scenario is “Utilities flail around in their state capitols seeking relief…”
Media advisory from the attorney general’s office says that AG Chris Koster will be holding a press conference today – 2:30pm in St. Louis – to announce a “resolution” to his Walgreen’s lawsuit which claimed that they were overcharging on sale items.
U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill called for a review of state and defense counternarcotics contracts. “McCaskill's letters to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and the State Department Inspector General follow a recent report by the DOD Inspector General finding that Northrop Grumman and its subcontractor DynCorp improperly charged the U.S. Government more than $100 million over six years under a contract to provide counternarcotics services.”
Help Wanted
The Missouri House of Representatives is currently accepting applications for the position of Applications Developer in our Information Systems Division. Duties include systems analysis and design, software development, testing and application support. This position assists in the development of web content, database maintenance, and automated workflow administration. See the ad here.
Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions & Professional Registration seeks Market Conduct Examiner II/III (Life and Health). “This is advanced level professional work in the Missouri Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions & Professional Registration (DIFP) in the examination and evaluation of insurance companies and their dealings with policy holders and claimants or health care service providers to ensure compliance with statutes and regulations relating to market conduct practices… $40,000 to $71,893 (Salary will be commensurate with relevant qualifications, experience and insurance designations)” See the ad here.
Fundraising Calendar
Today’s fundraising events from Mary Scruggs’ indispensable events calendar:
Sens. Eric Schmitt & Tom Dempsey Reception – Knasel Home, Des Peres – 5:30-7p.m.
Lobbyist Registrations
From the Gate Way Group website:
Barbara LaBass deleted Missouri Gas Energy; and added Laclede Gas.
$5K+ Contributions
MO Democratic State Committee - $10,000 from Telephone Contact Inc.
Missourians fir Tim Jones - $12,000 from RAI Services Company.
Happy Birthday
Happy birthday to Missouri Alliance for Freedom’s Ryan Johnson.