MOScout Daily Update: Tighter Gubby Race? - Spencer for Mayor - More HOuse Primaries - MO’s Red Rocks? and more…

Quick Friday update, and I’m off for the Memorial Day weekend. 

Gubby Poll

I’m not familiar with Peak Insights, but they have a tighter gubernatorial primary race than other polls have shown recently.

Jay Ashcroft, the Missouri secretary of state and son of former Gov. John Ashcroft, leads with 22%, though Mike Kehoe, the lieutenant governor of Missouri, is right behind him with 20%.

Bill Eigel, a state senator, polls at 14%, while 42% of voters remain undecided. Peak Insights polled 400 likely 2024 primary election voters from May 15-18, with a margin of error of +/-5 percentage points.

Erickson Questions Budget Item

Post-Dispatch’s Kurt Erickson on a front-page article this morning notes that a “southeast Missouri businessman's plan to redevelop an ailing commercial district in his hometown is in line for $11 million in taxpayer funds after he hosted a fundraiser for one of the men in charge of writing the state budget.”

·       For years, oil company owner Scott Blank has worked to improve a blighted area of Cape Girardeau, offering to help build a police substation in the neighborhood and cheerleading for a plan to jumpstart an area known as the Haarig Commercial Historic District.

·       This year, the $11 million outlay appeared as a new line-item in the proposed state budget following a fundraiser Blank hosted for Rep. Cody Smith, the chairman of the powerful House Budget Committee and a candidate for state treasurer.

·       "It's totally separate. Representative Smith does a very diligent job with budget requests. Those conversations never took place between the two of us," Blank told the Post-Dispatch.

Spencer for Mayor

In a brief tweet, St. Louis City Alderwoman Cara Spencer declared that she would challenge Mayor Tishaura Jones.  “To make our city grow, make our city safer and make our city work.”

·       The election next year will be a rematch from 2021 when Jones defeated Spencer 52% - 48%.

House Primaries Coverage

I’m adding these races to the 2024 Watch Spreadsheet as I write about them.

House 54 – This is the House district of Dan Houx.  He’s running for state senate.  Two Republicans are running to replace him.  Brandon Phelps (see his Facebook page here) owns a landscape business; Matthew Sergent (see his website here) Get Er Done Heating & Cooling.  They have about the same cash on-hand.  Phelps COH: $8,288; Sergent COH: $8,432.  Sergent has been endorsed by Sen. Denny Hoskins.

House 56 – Rep. Michael Davis (see his bio here) is facing two opponents.  Todd Berck (see his website) is a well-known coach in the area.  Ryan Johnson is a Cass County Commissioner, and had previously been a lobbyist.   These are two credible candidates, and the race is a toss-up, but Davis is helped immensely by there being two candidates.  Davis leads the money race with $11,823 COH (after loaning himself $10K); Berck has $5,333 COH; and Johnson            started his committee after the deadline.

House 61 – Rep. Bruce Sassmann, running for his third term, has drawn two opponents.  Like, Davis’ situation (above) two is better than one because they can potentially split the anti-incumbent vote.  Incumbent Sassman (see his bio here) has $2,829 cash on-hand (with $35K in debt) while this chief challenger, Paul Gerard Stratman (see his Facebook page here), the Osage County Public Administrator has $2,721 COH.  Meanwhile, the third candidate Brian Tharp filed an exemption committee, which means that he doesn’t plan to raise or spend more than $500.

House 64 – Incumbent Rep. Tony Lovasco (see his bio here) is running for his fourth and final term. He faces an old foe, Deanna Self.  Self (see her website here) is a pro-life activist.  She ran against Lovasco in 2022, losing by a mere 66 votes.  And, problematically for Lovasco, there was a third candidate splitting the vote.  Lovasco was a two-term incumbent who won re-election with 36% of the vote.  He’s vulnerable.  But he enters the battlefield with more resources $21,975 cash on-hand versus Self’s $6,070 COH.  Last cycle, she raised about $35,000 – mostly “Self” funding.

House 66 – Incumbent Rep. Marlene Terry (see her bio here) is being challenged by former Rep. Tommie Pierson Sr.  (see LinkedIn bio here).  Pierson has been a mayor in a St. Louis suburb, drawing some controversy.  And Terry will probably draw some grief of being one of 3 House Dems who voted for this session’s education bill.  Terry has $1,444 cash on-hand; Pierson started his committee after the last deadline.

Missouri’s Red Rocks?

KY3 reports on a new music venue, Thunder Ridge, in Missouri…

The Stones announced Thursday that they will end their summer Hackney Diamonds Tour on July 21 at Thunder Ridge Nature Arena, a brand new monument to mountain beauty in Missouri built by Bass Pro Shops founder and CEO Johnny Morris. The Missouri native hopes that Thunder Ridge… will be a name heard alongside Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre in Colorado and The Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington state when people talk about the nation’s most beautiful music venues.

eMailbag on Contreras

Anyone out there trying to run a narrative that Greg Razer, of all people, is some sort of secret sexist must be out of their minds… Razer, the first gay man to serve in the Senate, tapped [Pat Contreras] man who will be the first ever Latino to serve in the upper chamber if elected.  A distinction he may get to share with Rob Sauls should get both win their campaigns.

$5K+ Contributions

Liberty and Justice PAC (pro-Bailey) - $50,000 from August A Busch III.

Missourians for Constitutional Freedom (pro-reproductive rights) - $20,000 from Lisa Goldstein (Farmington Hills, MI).

Missourians for Constitutional Freedom - $25,000 from Gerald Axelbaum and Ellen Schapiro.

Missourians for Constitutional Freedom - $20,000 from Mary Neal.

Lobbyists Registrations

Irl Scissors and Sarah Wood Martin added Modine Manufacturing Company.

Salvatore Panettiere deleted Reach Healthcare Foundation, South Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, and KC Scholars / Great Jobs KC.

James Faul deleted Public School Retirement System of The City of St Louis.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to County Executive Sam Page, Jake Hummel, Heather Navarro, Gregg Christian, and Byron DeLear.

Saturday: Tim Jones, Jason Hall, Amy Blouin, and Gus Wagner.

Sunday: Reps. Raychel Proudie and Renee Reuter, Jeanie Riddle, and Eric Wilson.

Monday (Memorial Day): Becky Lohmann, Bob Dixon, Debbie Monterrey, and Scott Leiendecker.

MOScout Schedule

I’m off for Memorial Day weekend.  I’ll be back in your in-box TUESDAY morning.