Monday, February 8, 2016

Schmitt On the Air

Word is that Sen. Eric Schmitt will air his first TV ad on Tuesday night during cable news coverage of the New Hampshire primary results. He’ll be the first down-ballot candidate in Missouri to air a statewide television ad.

The ad, titled "Trust," was produced by FP1 Strategies.  Look for it on statewide broadcast TV as well.

With a $2 million war-chest and no primary challenger, Schmitt’s treasurer campaign appears to running in a different universe than his Democratic opponents – Judy Baker and Pat Contreras who both have less than $100K in the bank.

Noranda Files For Bankruptcy

In a move foreshadowed by its penny-priced stock, Noranda filed for bankruptcy.  See the story here.

Pull Quote: Noranda Aluminum Holding Corp, a producer of primary aluminum and rolled aluminum coils, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday and said it will evaluate its various business operations. The Franklin, Tennessee-based company said challenging market conditions for the aluminum industry and recent disruptions in its primary business operations led to the decision. Noranda listed both assets and liabilities in the range of $1 billion to $10 billion.

What It Means

This paints a stark picture of the plight of the aluminum giant as they looks for help from the Public Service Commission and perhaps also the legislature.  There are a lot of jobs and economic activity in southeast Missouri that depend on Noranda.  Bankruptcy court may provide some relief from their debt burden if they can reach an agreement with their creditors.  But whether those changes in addition to state subsidies can pull them into profitability while deflationary global trends remain in place is an open question.

Montecillo Speaks Out

AP interviews Rep. Genise Montecillo about her suicide attempt and how it informs her view of legislation.  See it here.

Pull Quote: "My whole life is about making sure other people and kids don't go through what I've gone through," Montecillo said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I feel like I have a responsibility to help other people with my story." Montecillo is backing proposals in the House and Senate to require school districts to adopt policies on suicide awareness and prevention. The state's K-12 agency would have to create guidelines for suicide prevention and awareness training for teachers. A House version is up for final committee approval, and the Senate bill passed unanimously out of committee this week.

MOScout Weekly Poll Follow-Up

Just a few thoughts following up on this week’s poll (see it here)…

University of Missouri’s Fav/Unfav is still positive.  But it’s eroding.  The poll found that it was +6  (Favorable: 37%; Unfavorable: 31%; No opinion: 32%).  That’s down from +9 when I polled the question in mid-November (see it here).  Then it was Favorable: 43%; Unfavorable 34%; No opinion: 24%.

The question about St. Louis’ earning tax has – predictably a lot of undecideds statewide.  And while the crosstabs aren’t as reliable because the smaller sample size means much higher margin of error, it’s interesting to see Columbia – home of bill sponsor Sen. Kurt Schaefer – opposed his proposal.

Finally Missourians show some schizophrenia as they give Democrat Russ Carnahan a lead on potential Republican challengers, but prefer the way right Ted Cruz to Hillary Clinton.

Bits

According to Casenet, former St. Louis City mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. is applying to have his law license reinstated.  He lost it in 2014.

This was linked on the peerless John Combest last week, but I’d missed it.  MOTimes Scott Faughn interviewing Pelopidas’ Travis Brown and Kent Gaines about their new venture – a B-to-B and B-to-C e-commerce technology for the sports industry.  See it here.

With the announcement that Auditor Nicole Galloway would be reviewing Mizzou, one MOScout reader: Galloway should look also into the sunshine law response time… I have heard others complain that the University takes forever to reply to Sunshines.

In the large contributions, David Humphreys puts serious money – $50K – into the re-election campaign of Rep. Rob Vescovo.  He’s the pro-RTW state representative from the union-strong Jefferson County, and he’s one the target list for Dems.

Rep. Courtney Curtis, who has missed a few quarters of filing his campaign finance reports, should take note of the Missouri Ethic Commissions tweet ahead of next month’s start of candidate filing… ‏@MOEthics: January Quarterly was due 1/15/16. Late=$10/DAY late fee & candidates in upcoming elections who failed to file report can't file for office

This is why rumors persist that he won’t be running for re-election.

eMailbag

On MOScout Weekly Poll

Wow, have you no shame? How many Axiom employees did you poll to get Ted Cruz ahead of Hillary Clinton? Nobody will believe those cross tabs...

On Steelman’s Endorsement of Greitens

Interesting Sarah Steelman believes Eric Greitens "can help make Missouri great again"..... maybe she should first encourage her husband and MU Curator to work on making the University of Missouri great again? Seems like a more direct and immediate endeavor.

Today’s Events

From Mary Scruggs’ indispensable events calendar:

Missouri Telecommunications Industry Assn. Reception & Dinner – JCCC – 6PM.

Lobbyists Registrations

Jennifer Durham deleted Luxottica Retail.

Bob Jackson added Bob Jackson.

Dale Amick deleted St. Louis Area Health Underwriters, Missouri Cattlemen’s Association, Terra Bioenergy, and Blue Sun Energy.

Bill Stouffer, Richard McIntosh and Franc Flotron added Enginuity Biopower LLC.

Richard AuBuchon added Association of Missouri Nurse Practitioners, and The 109 Group LLC; and deleted Anheuser Busch Inc.

Mark Rhoads added Jackson Vaughn Public Strategies; and deleted Cash America International Inc.

David Klarich adeed Cheyenne International LLC.

Yvonne Sparks deleted University of Missouri System.

Leon Richardson added Alliancebernstein.

John Bardgett Jr. deleted Environmental Operations, Inc.

$5K+ Contributions

Campaign for Clean Water STL - $30,000 from SAK.

Friends of Rob Vescovo - $50,000 from David Humphreys.

Missourians for Peter Kinder - $10,000 from Dr. Dan Brown for Senate.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Rep. Kathie Conway, and former Rep. Terry Swinger (75).