Thursday, December 1, 2016
Rumorville: Otto for Budget?
One new name mentioned for budget director for Governor-elect Eric Greitens is Harry Otto. I’m still hearing former Rep. Rick Stream as well, so we’ll see how it all shakes out. Otto is a CPA and was deputy state auditor under Tom Schweich.
Vescovo to Stay in House in 2018
I am told authoritatively that Rep. Rob Vescovo isn’t contemplating a primary run against Sen. Paul Wieland in 2018. Instead he plans to stay in the House with an eye toward running for a House leadership position
Driving the Day: Pre-Filing
Pre-filing of bills starts today….. For many returning legislators they reflexively re-file bills from the past year that didn’t make it across the finish line. Still there will be some nuggets to look for.
For example, the House and Senate sometimes signals their agenda by having their highest priority bills filed first.
Teitelman Follow-Up
The services for Rick Teitelman will be held today at 2PM at Graham Chapel at Washington University.
And
One veteran surveying the past selection processes for supreme court judges thinks it’s highly unlikely that the commission would work fast enough that Nixon would be able to make the appointment before leaving office.
Greitens Money
With a fresh $45K in checks from corporations today, Governor-elect Eric Greitens has now raised $322,500 in $5K+ contributions in the last two weeks. There’s still a week left before the Amendment 2 goes into effect….
Majority Forward
Majority Forward, a political action committee, was formed. The treasurer is Chris Schappe.
Schappe practices law, and serves as General Counsel for the Dems in the Senate.
Anti-Abortion Agenda
Planned Parenthood sued to overturn Missouri’s abortion laws. See the Post-Dispatch article here.
Meanwhile, the mighty Jason Rosenbaum had Rep. Kirk Mathews on his podcast and they had an interesting exchange (around the 36 minute mark). Rosenbaum noted that Missouri laws have become so restrictive that there’s only one abortion clinic operating in the state. And Mathews admits that he doesn’t “see how much farther we can go as a state” with restrictions without a change in Roe v Wade.
But
There will presumably be some new pro-life legislation. That Post-Dispatch article mentioned Sen. Bob Onder has prepping a bill to pre-file that would require “abortion providers to track fetal tissue from surgery to its disposal.” And he’s “also looking into potential protections for abortion clinic employees to act as whistleblowers.”
According to the NYTimes (see it here) “Texas approved new rules this week requiring health care facilities that perform abortions to bury the fetal remains instead of disposing of them in a sanitary landfill like other forms of biological medical waste…”
Arkansas Advice for MO Dems
Read an article in the Arkansas Times here, about the Republican take-over of Arkansas and some advice for Dems getting back on their feet.
Pull Quote: Most time-sensitive is for the party to take advantage of the activist energy created by the election of Donald Trump…. The first necessity for the state Democratic Party is to harness this energy and engage new activists in the party infrastructure.
Second, the party must prepare for 2018 by developing a candidate recruitment plan that targets those nooks of the state where Democrats showed some signs of life in the Trump tidal wave…
In politics, demography is destiny… Democrats have only one place to look for similar demographic shifts that have the promise to propel the party back to competitiveness…
[I]t is crucial that the next party chair have a vision that includes these core elements that embrace a new generation of activism, a focus on local candidate recruitment…
Bits
According to LinkedIn, Chastity Young who worked the Koster campaign is now Field Manager West with the Missouri National Education Association.
According to the Senate website, Jamie Andrews has joined the research staff, Michele Fehlings has joined the public employment retirement staff, and D’Wahn Kelley has joined the communications staff.
New Tax Credits
$47,827 in Neighborhood Assistance credits to Livingston County Community Development Cor. in Senate 7 / House 21.
$5K+ Contributions
Greitens for Missouri - $10,000 from RightCHOICE Managed Care Inc.
Greitens for Missouri - $10,000 from Southern Glazers Missouri PAC.
Greitens for Missouri - $10,000 from Caesars Enterprise Services LLC.
Greitens for Missouri - $15,000 from Central Bancompany PAC.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays Frank Plescia (the big 6-0), Charlie Dooley, Joe Knodell, and Stacy Steen.