Friday, March 4, 2016
Blunt Unveils First Ad
Senator Roy Blunt unveiled the first television commercial of his re-election. See it here.
It’s upbeat; it’s got feel good music… It has four seemingly average Missourians explaining their support for the incumbent. One of them is hallway denizen, children’s advocate Emily Van Schenkhof. It closes with “I guaranteed with Senator Blunt our best days are ahead of us. No question.”
Republican Gubby Candidates Not Afraid of Trump
Rudi Keller reports that the four Republican gubernatorial candidates say they’ll endorse whoever wins the Republican nomination, showing no fear of the outlandish things that front-runner Donald Trump says and does. See it here.
Barnes Takes Aim at Expert Witness Bill
Writing on his blog (see it here), Rep. Jay Barnes calls the bill making changes to expert witness testimony “the most frivolous legislation I’ve seen in six years.” Pull Quote: In six years, I’ve seen a lot of polished horse manure, but nothing tops the expert witness bill currently working its way through the General Assembly. For two years, proponents of changing Missouri’s standards on expert witness testimony have made two claims. First, they say Missouri courts have a “junk science” problem. Second, they argue we should move to the federal standard called Daubert, which they claim is stricter than current law. The first claim – “junk science” – has no basis in fact… The second claim – that federal courts have a stricter standard – is demonstrably false…. What do you call a claim with no basis in fact or law? Most of the time, we call it frivolous.
Nixon’s Bold Statement on Formula Change
Sen. Jay Wasson’s SB 586 would make some changes to the formula which determines education foundation. Governor Jay Nixon released this statement on it yesterday: “This would be a significant change to the foundation formula for K-12 education. Any such change must be carefully scrutinized to ensure that we provide the resources necessary to meet our obligation to our public schools.”
New Candidate Filings
Rep. Jay Barnes filed yesterday for re-election to House 60. The only real missing incumbent now is Vicky Hartzler who hasn’t yet filed for re-election to her congressional seat.
Lena Samford filed to run in House 150 as a Democrat. The current incumbent is Republican Rep. Andrew McDaniel. This is a competitive district. McDaniel won with 51.8% in 2014.
Ella Jane Goeppinger started a campaign committee to run in House 130 as a Democrat. She hasn’t filed as a candidate yet. Republican Rep. Jeff Messenger is the incumbent.
Bits
Egg-citing news… Politico on the changing egg industry. See it here. Pull Quote: Glenn Hickman, owner of Hickman’s Family farms… whose 10 million hen company is one of the country’s 10 largest egg producers, plans for his farms to be 100 percent cage-free in three to four years. He recently announced a new partnership with Missouri-based Opal Foods to build new facilities for cage-free production, which he says will cost him about $300 million. But he says he feels it’s more than worth it to keep up with the times.
NYTimes reports on cyberwarfare… See it here. Pull Quote: The Obama administration has warned the nation’s power companies, water suppliers and transportation networks that sophisticated cyberattack techniques used to bring down part of Ukraine’s power grid two months ago could easily be turned on them…. In interviews, American officials said they have not completed their inquiry into who was responsible for the attack. But Ukrainian officials have blamed the Russians, saying it was part of the effort to intimidate the country’s political leaders by showing they could switch off the lights at any time.
Governor Jay Nixon nominated Joe Driskill as the first-ever Military Advocate for the State of Missouri.
Help Wanted
Missouri Budget Project seeks Outreach Coordinator & Policy Analyst. “The person will provide leadership in designing and implementing a comprehensive, strategic outreach plan to inform and motivate diverse ‘grasstops’ constituencies around state policy issues. The individual will also conduct outreach to and build partnerships with ethnically, racially and economically diverse community organizations…” See it here.
Today’s Events
From Mary Scruggs’ indispensable events calendar:
Rep. Kathy Swan Reception – Keller’s at the Isle – Cape Girardeau.
Lobbyists Registrations
Susan Swayze added Susan B Anthony List.
David Stewart deleted University of Missouri Board of Curators.
Franc Flotron deleted Patrick Dougherty.
$5K+ Contributions
MBA Capitol Region PAC - $8,847 from Midwest BankCentre.
MBA Gateway Region PAC - $8,847 from Midwest BankCentre.
Friends of St Louis Public Schools - $75,000 from Regional Business Council.
Campaign for Clean Water STL - $18,000 from Enterprise Holdings Inc.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Sen. Dan Hegeman, and Rep. Rochelle Walton Gray.
Saturday: Reps. Paul Fitzwater and Shane Roden.
Sunday: Kit Bond, Todd Patterson, and Christine Page.