Monday, September 22, 2014

Pike Follow-Up

Rep. Randy Pike died over the weekend.  AP reports former Rep. Barney Fisher, and Pike’s treasurer, saying that “Pike died Saturday at a hospital after swallowing a drink into his lungs. He was 60. Fisher said Pike had experienced health troubles since a bout with pneumonia and a vehicle accident earlier this year.”  See it here.

Munis’ TicketGate

St. Louis Post-Dispatch digs into the municipalities which seem addicted to issuing crazy amounts of tickets to support their overhead.  Read it here.

I lot of them are in St. Louis County, but the City of Randolph in Clay County tops the list for collections per capita, far exceeding all the other bad actors.  Randolph’s collects $5,416.74 for every resident it has.

Funny even Randolph’s Wikipedia page notes that they’re known for their ticketing.  Maybe it’s an easier industry to build than say, tourism….

MRL Endorsements

Missouri Right to Life PAC released its general election endorsements.  Read it here. As usual, the far majority of pro-life legislators are Republicans, and they garner the lion’s share of the endorsements.

Here are the Democrats…

Senate 10 – Ed Schieffer splits the endorsement with Republican Jeanie Riddle.

House 2 (Guernsey’s district) – Mike Waltemath.

House 41 (Schieffer’s district) – Dan Dildine splits the endorsement with Republican Randy Pietzman.

House 68 – Rep. Keith English.

House 118 – Rep. Ben Harris.

House 120 (Jason Smith’s district) – Zech Hockersmith.

St. Louis County Gone Dem

For Dreaming Streamers, one problem remains… reality.  St. Louis County looks like it’s just too far gone Democratic for Rep. Rick Stream to be able to pull off an upset – even amid the crazy turmoil of Ferguson.

Consider two years ago when three St. Louis County Republican pols were stomped in St. Louis County by their Democratic counterparts… Claire McCaskill beat Todd Akin by 33 points… Jay Nixon beat Dave Spence by 27 points… and Clint Zweifel beat Cole McNary by 24 points.

Two year before that, in the landslide Republican year of 2010, with its non-presidential cycle turnout, Roy Blunt ended Robin Carnahan’s political career with a 14-point trashing.  Yet, in St. Louis County, he still lost to Carnahan by a healthy 8 points.

Some will say that Stream if a different, more moderate Republican.  The guess is when Steve Stenger finished telling St. Louis County about Stream’s various votes (Sharia law anyone?), it won’t seems so moderate.  But as always, we’ll see…

Now assuming that the Democratic trend is beyond Stream’s reach, one wonders why a North County African American politician hasn’t seized the opportunity presented.  While Ted Hoskins, Hazel Erby and others rail about being disrespected, a new voice could emerge.  Bably Stenger is probably looking for North County partner who won’t throw him under the bus.  Could a Rep. Courtney Curtis, for example, walk into the Stenger camp with a wish list for Ferguson and walk out with some solid commitments?

Nixon’s Woman Problem

Tracy McCreery, who will be the Democratic state representative from House 88 come January, writes a letter to the editor in the Post-Dispatch blasting Governor Jay Nixon over the lack of women in decision-making roles.  See it here.

I had to double check the date on Wednesday’s paper. I thought I’d woken up in the 1950s. Does anyone else think this might be part of the problem with public education in Missouri? "The hiring of the next education commissioner falls to the eight-member Board of Education, a group of men that includes two from the St. Louis area and one from Kansas City” (“Educators consider what state needs in its next commissioner," Sept. 17).

I find it unbelievable that Gov. Jay Nixon could not find women who are highly qualified to supervise instruction in our public schools. After all, the field of education is dominated by females. Women also personally assume a lot of responsibility for their children’s education.

Don’t even get me started on the Missouri’s Public Service Commission (0 of 5 are women), Missouri Highway Commission (0 of 5 are women), Missouri Housing Development Commission (no women), Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (1 of 7 are women), or Missouri Development Finance Board (1 woman whose term expired in 2012).

Come on, governor. In the last two years of your term show us if you value 51 percent of Missourians who are female. We’re watching.

Tracy McCreery  •  Olivette

Blimp Follow-Up

According to a tweet from Pelopidas principal Travis Brown, it seems he may be personally flying the new Rex Blimp around… “Travis H. Brown (@pelopidas): In case some were wondering, yes I might be driving #growmo pic.twitter.com/Fm7s4NoS0P”

eMailbag: GOP’s Senate 22 Poll

Democrat: What's glossed over is that Roorda has a two point lead when his hometown Governor is at an all time low.  Jay will bounce back before November.  More importantly, the memo was fielded in a panic because the GOP was freaked out about all the local and national media Roorda was getting sticking up for a cop that virtually everyone in Jefferson County supports.  They make a big deal of Jay's post-Ferguson spiral but don't mention Roorda's dramatic post-Ferguson rise.  Most of all, where'd they get this sample.  A 10 point generic GOP advantage in Jeffco?!  We've consistently seen polling that shows it at a 3 to 5 point advantage.  Sniff, sniff...what's that smell?  Desperation.

Fundraising Calendar

Today’s fundraising events from Mary Scruggs’ indispensable events calendar:

Rep. Dave Muntzel Golf – Hail Ridge Golf Course, Boonville.

Rep. Todd Richardson Reception – Jazz A Louisiana Kitchen, Kansas City – 5-6:30 p.m.

Lobbyist Registrations

From the Gate Way Group website:

$5K+ Contributions

Slay for Mayor - $7,500 from HG St. Louis.

SEIU Missouri State Council PAC - $38,000 from SEIU Healthcare Missouri PAC.

Friends of Rob Vescovo - $5,001 from American Boiler and Mechanical Inc.

Property Casualty Insurers Association of America Political Account - $12,659 from Property Casualty Insurers Association of America Political Account.

Schmitt for Missouri - $10,000 from MVT LLC.

Citizens to Elect Paul Curtman - $10,000 from Janell Brunner.

Citizens to Elect Paul Curtman - $10,000 from John G. Brunner Trust.

Citizens for Steve Stenger - $10,000 from Onder, Shelton, O’Leary & Peterson LLC.

Citizens for Steve Stenger - $10,000 from Robert Blitz.

Missourians for Koster - $10,000 from Tatlow Gump Faiella & Wheelan LLC.

Missourians for Koster - $25,000 from IUOE Local 513 Political & Educational Fund.

House Republican Campaign Committee Inc - $5,001 from Committee to Elect Mike Leara.

Kander for Missouri - $10,000 from Dollarm Burns, & Becker LLC.

Committee to Elect Candi Simi- Saline County Collector - $7,000 from Ryan and Cindi Sims.

Moderates for Missouri - $6,000 from Missouri’s Future.

Duvall for Missouri - $10,000 from Missouri Drive Fund.

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to David Willis.