Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Brower to Hallmark

From the press release: The Alliance for Childhood Education announced today that Erin Brower, vice president and executive director of their Raise Your Hand for Kids (RYH4K) campaign, will be stepping down to take a new position as State and Local Government Affairs Manager for Hallmark. Brower will continue to volunteer on behalf of RYH4K, transitioning to the Board of Directors where she will serve as treasurer and a spokesperson for the campaign. During the transition, Linda Rallo will serve as RYH4K’s interim executive director. Rallo, principal of Pick Strategies, has been handling communications and policy for RYH4K over the past year.

Curtis Gets a Primary?

Rep. Courtney Curtis may have a primary next year.  Former Rep. Eileen McGeoghegan has started a campaign committee to run for House 73.

Curtis has angered some stalwart Democrats with his vote in favor of right to work.  This may create problems for him. CHIPP, the Carpenters’ Political PAC, had previously been a contributor to Curtis’ campaign account.  They – and other labor organizations – will now likely be against Curtis.

Curtis has filed Limited Activity reports for both his April and July quarters, indicating that he’s raised less than $500 during those periods.

Curtis was elected in 2012; he won his primary that year against Doug Clemens with 55% of the vote.  Curtis was unopposed in 2014.  McGeoghegan was redistricted into a district with Rep. Mary Nichols.  Nichols won their primary in 2012, with McGeoghegan garnering 30% of the vote.

Empire Seeks Rate Hike, Cites EPA

Branson Tri-Lake News reports that Empire District Electric will seek a rate hike.  See it here.

Pull Quote: Officials with the energy utility said updates to a power plant in Riverton, Kansas, will make it necessary for Empire to request another rate increase. The improvements were necessary to meet Environmental Protection Agency mandates on emissions of sulfur dioxide, mercury and particulate matter.

Kick-off Week

It feels like “kick-off” with the number of events up ahead…

Wednesday

Sen. Jason Holsman for Senate Re-election Kick-off, 5:30PM at The Cashew & 2000 Grand.

Mark Milton for State Rep Campaign Kickoff Party, 6:00PM at Kirkwood Station Brewing Co.

Thursday

Ben Murray for Missouri State Representative, 5:30PM at Mangia Italiano.

Campaign Kickoff for Byron DeLear for State Representative, 6PM at Sports Café.

Saturday

Former Navy SEAL Eric Greitens, 11AM at Westport Plaza

The Lesson of Walker

Reader: When well-meaning amateurs say they want to be their own campaign managers, consider poor Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who the NYT wrote about back in July was his own campaign chieftain. Despite game efforts by Missouri-based consultant Gregg Keller and former Senator Jim Talent on foreign policy, Walker is circling the drain. He should have listened more...

From the NYTimes article… “As Mr. Walker, 47, prepares for his formal entry into the presidential contest, he has brought on a campaign manager, a pollster and a group of press aides. But he has not hired a strategist — because it might be needlessly duplicative: Those who know him well say that Mr. Walker has always been his own…

Yukking and High Fiving Debate Continues

Lobbyist: The only part Kinder got wrong: it was seconds after, not moments. I saw it firsthand. It was quite astonishing.

Kinder-ite: Wanted to make sure you knew Rep. Mark Parkinson publicly stated on Twitter that he witnessed the celebrating and Kinder was "dead-on accurate."

PSC Staff Changes

From the press release: The Missouri Public Service Commission has announced changes to the organizational structure of the agency… Under the new structure, Natelle Dietrich has been named to the newly created position of Staff Director.  In that position, Natelle will lead all Commission Staff departments, including Staff Counsel, and be charged with developing strategic and unified policy and positions. Previously, Natelle was Director of Tariff, Safety, Economic and Engineering Analysis.

Also under this reorganization, those PSC Staff units that primarily work together to process cases that come before the Commission will be grouped together under the Operational Analysis Department, to be headed up by Bob Schallenberg. 

In addition, Cherlyn Voss, previously the Director of the Regulatory Review Division, will now lead the Regulatory Analysis Department.  This department will not only continue its work on federal issues but will also play a greater role in policy issues and analysis.

The Commission has also named Contessa Poole-King as its new Diversity Officer.  She will continue the Commission's efforts to recruit a diverse pool of qualified applicants to the agency…

Bits

St. Louis County Assessor Jake Zimmerman and Congressman Joaquin Castro (see his website here) held a press call yesterday to announce the congressman’s endorsement of Zimmerman.  The two have been friends since law school.

Tipster: Missouri Promise has hired Victory to be its consultant.  It’s weird since MO Promise is backed by Democrat Chris Koster and Victory is working with Eric Greitens….

At Rep. Stephen Webber’s fundraiser last night, he announced that former Rep. Judy Baker is running for state treasurer.  It’s a bit of a herky-jerky roll-out with AP reporting on her committee formation, but no comment available.  See the AP article here.

Noranda Watch: Reuters reports on the tough conditions in the aluminum industry.  See it here.  Sinking aluminum prices and a ballooning surplus of the metal have deepened the industry's worst crisis in years, intensifying pressure on high-cost smelters to embark on another round of production cuts to revive prices from their malaise.

Congrats to Nicole Brown, daughter of Rep. Wanda Brown, on her engagement to Kyle Trimmer.

eMailbag on New Ag

“It's funny that the United Egg Producers can see that the market wants cage free eggs but our AG can't.  Meanwhile his lawsuit against CA's prop 2 that he promised wouldn't cost more than $10k is up to $100k…”

eMailbag on RTW Backlash

“(Those folks) are going after good people – who are conservative Republicans – and calling them Hillary Clinton over 1 friggin vote.  Ridiculous and offensive.”

Today’s Events

From Mary Scruggs’ indispensable events calendar:

Rep. Jason Chipman Fish Fry – Killeen home – Cuba – 4PM.

Rep. Jon Carpenter Reception – Skagg’s, 5800 N. Grand Ave. – Gladstone – 5PM.

Lobbyists Registrations

Robert Carney added Caterpillar Inc.

$5K+ Contributions

Parson for Missouri - $5,001 from Friends for Munzlinger.

Friends of Caleb Rowden - $7,500 from Citizens to Elect Mike Kehoe.

United Food & Commercial Workers Local #655 Elect Political Action Fund - $6,425 from UFCW Local 655.

Greitens for Missouri - $50,000 from JN Pritzker.

Greitens for Missouri - $25,000 from Bernard Marcus.

Birthdays

Happy birthday to David Willis.