Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Cunningham for Senate?

Former Sen. Jane Cunningham has formed a candidate committee to run for Senate 16.  The rumors have been on and off about Cunningham making a comeback.  Since her senate district disappeared in the last redistricting, she moved from Chesterfield to Osage Beach, and folks thought it was the end of her life in public service.  But now it appears she is at the very least mulling a return.

The current senator in District 16, Sen. Dan Brown, is term limited.  His son, Justin, is running to replace him.  Additionally, Rep. Diane Franklin has announced for the seat.

Last quarter, Brown raised $3,500 and Franklin raised $15,270, so neither has exactly slammed the door on further primary entrants.

McCaherty Gets JeffCo Primary

Earlier this year John McCaherty made a hasty Friday resignation from the Missouri House.  The explanation he offered was that he wanted to focus on his next race – Jefferson County Executive.  He now has a primary.  Dennis Gannon will also run for the Republican nomination.  See it here. Gannon is the husband of Rep. Elaine Gannon, by the way.

Dieckhaus for House 109

Lucas Dieckhaus is planning to run for House 109.  This is Rep. Paul Curtman’s seat.  Curtman is, of course, termed and running for auditor.  Dieckhaus is the younger brother of Scott Dieckhaus – former state representative and principal at Palm Strategies.  Dieckhaus ran the House Republican Campaign Committee operation for years winning seat after seat from Democrats.  This is a safe Republican seat, but there will likely be a primary.

Q&A#1: Is Moore Scandal A Potential Problem for MO GOP?

Short answer: Not by itself, but it’s potentially one more brick in the wall.

The Washington Post reported on the Roy-Moore-dating-a-14-year-old story… “The intensifying effort against Moore reflected a growing sense that his candidacy is becoming a national emergency for the Republican Party, which is already deeply concerned about its standing with voters ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. In campaigns far from Alabama, Democrats on Monday sought to tie GOP candidates to Moore to take advantage of the controversy surrounding the former judge…” 

That was true in Missouri where Josh Hawley started to distance himself from Moore, and I got a press release from Martin Rucker, Dem running in Senate 34, among others.

Moore’s alleged predatory past will be long gone by the time the 2018 elections come.  There will be scores of issues between now and then.  And some of them – you have to assume – will be the Republican president acting coarsely toward women.  The concern for Republicans has to be that this has a drip, drip, drip impact, slowly but steadily turning off suburban women – and making them much more open to voting for a Claire McCaskill and Nicole Galloway.

We’ll see….

Update on Bootheel EcoDevo

It’s been about six months since the legislature held a special session to provide incentives for two economic development projects in the bootheel of Missouri, and there’s been hardly a word about its progress.  Missourinet reports (see the Facebook video here) that local officials believe they are “still in the running” for the steel mill, and will know by the end of the year.

Vescovo Wins Floor Leader

Rep. Rob Vescovo won the House Republican caucus’ vote for floor leader yesterday.  From the press release: “As House Majority Floor Leader, Vescovo will set the legislative calendar and determine which legislation makes it to the floor for debate and when. The Majority Floor Leader also controls the flow of business on the House floor and is considered the second most powerful position in the Missouri House of Representatives…”

Hawley Starts Google Investigation

Attorney General Josh Hawley announced he was investigating Google.  Oddly the press release made it sound like he was falling the European Union’s lead, not the typical talking point from a Republican.

“Specifically, the investigation will seek to determine if Google has violated the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act—Missouri’s principal consumer-protection statute—and Missouri’s antitrust laws. The business practices in question are Google’s collection, use, and disclosure of information about Google users and their online activities; Google’s alleged misappropriation of online content from the websites of its competitors; and Google’s alleged manipulation of search results to preference websites owned by Google and to demote websites that compete with Google… On the state level, Attorney General Hawley is leading the way, holding tech companies such as Google accountable for their actions. However, this is not the first-time Google’s business practices have come into question. In June, the European Union issued Google a record $2.7 billion antitrust fine…”

Google’s registered lobbyists in Missouri are: Kelly Carnago, and Richard Brownlee III.

And

Courtland Sykes trolls Hawley.  See it here.

Bits

Committee For A Healthy Community, the committee which received $200K from the American Heart Association (below), was formed to support local Smoke Free initiatives.  See the paperwork here.

Missouri NEA sends out an action alert regarding the State Board of Education.  See it here.

eMailbag on Ed Martin’s Takedown of Moore Accusers

“Multiple bankruptcies . Hmmm.  Sounds like Donald J. Trump.”

New Committees

Jane Cunningham formed a candidate committee (Cunningham Campaign Committee) to run for Senate 16 as a Republican.

Michael O’Donnell formed a candidate committee (O'donnellformissouri.Com) to run as a Republican for House 95.  Rep. Marsha Haefner is term limited.

Jacob Walters formed a candidate committee (Committee To Elect Jacob Walters) to run for House 85 as a Democrat. Rep. Clem Smith term limited.

Laura Arnold formed a candidate committee to run for Webster Groves Councilperson.  Her treasurer is Emmy McClelland.

Today’s Events

From Mary Scruggs’ indispensable calendar:

MO House Democrats Reception – Otis & Henry’s Bar & Grill – Caruthersville – 5:30PM.

HRCC Reception – Wilder’s Steakhouse – Joplin – 5:30PM.

Sen. Bill Eigel & Rep. John Wiemann Reception – Shreve’s home – Weldon Spring – 6PM.

Sen. Dan Hegeman Reception – Boudreaux, 224 N 4th St. – St. Joseph – 6PM.

Lobbyists Registrations

Michael Gibbons added Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance.

$5K+ Contributions

Committee For A Healthy Community - $200,000 from American Heart Association.

Birthdays

Happy birthday to Mayor Lyda Krewson.

Congratulations

To Sean Grove and his wife, Jessica, on the birth of their daughter, Greta Mae Grove.