Thursday, November 21, 2013
Rumorville: Dreamliner in St. Louis’ Dreams?
If it’s true, it’d be a BFD. Not much to go on right now, but rumor is that Boeing may be moving some production of his jets to St. Louis.
The public hints which could be the source of the rumor: Boeing has said that it will increase production of its Dreamliner planes (here), and it’s has some labor problems in Seattle (here).
One excited tipster says there’ll be a high level conference call tomorrow from the governor’s office about the coup. If any of this is true, one assumes there’ll be a request for incentives from the legislature…
Quote of the Day: “If I didn’t struggle in high school trig, I’d try to be a machinist tomorrow.”
Hartley Out at Cassidy
Politico reports on a shake-up at Cassidy & Associates. See it here.
Pull Quote: Cassidy & Associates vice chairman and chief operating officer Gregg Hartley will leave the firm to start his own lobbying shop. He will not be taking any clients with him in the move, according to a source.
Hartley is former chief of staff to Roy Blunt. If the bio is still up, see it here.
Keller Out at American Conservative Union
From Gregg Keller’s Facebook: Friends - it's official: at my request I am now an outside consultant to ACU. We've found a great successor for the position. The last three years have been among the most rewarding of my career. I'll let folks know after the first of the year what I'm doing next but suffice to say I couldn't be more excited about the future.
In the comments section:
Keith Metz: You will be missed Mr. Keller. What will your duties be as an outside consultant?
Gregg Keller: Keith - I'll be doing what I do best: making it rain.
Schoeller Out at MRP?
It’s said that Shane Schoeller is set to leave the Missouri Republican Party where he has been executive director since his loss in the 2012 secretary of state race.
Schoeller, the rumor goes, will be running for a local Greene County office. Perhaps County Clerk. His campaign committee still has him listed as running for statewide office. We’ll see…
Nicasto Helps Reformers on Ballot IP
AP reported yesterday that DESE Commissioner Chris Nicastro helped reformers with the crafting of their initiative petition to end teacher tenure. See the story here.
There are two sides here.
On the one hand, she has somewhat of a duty – within reason – to help folks get the technical things right. And if she really would help anyone, like she says, then it’s no problem.
Tishaura Jones (on Facebook) gives voice to this side: “Is it any different than the several meetings I had with Nicastro about the language in the charter school bill? We met with department heads on a regular basis to discuss legislation that affected them.”
But MNEA political director Mark Jones is asserting that Nicastro crossed the line into advocacy, that she “colluded” with the reformers.
And, according to the article, there’s some evidence of that. Nicastro took off the part of an email to her staff to conceal part of her conversation with the reformers. If she can’t be honest with her own staff about what she is doing then it raises questions.
What It Means
Nicastro is now in danger. She already had some troubles with the superintendents. It looks like she’s losing the teachers. And there’s a real question how long someone can stay in her position after losing those two critical pieces of the education establishment.
eMailbag: On Sen. Brad Lager’s Recent Contributions
“By the way Lager is giving his money to Axiom clients…”
Lobbyist Registrations
From the Pelopidas website:
Martha Wankum added Summit Natural Gas of Missouri Inc., and Summit Utilities Inc.
Nicholas P Heberle added Missouri Department of Public Safety.
$5K+Contributions
Citizens for Steve Stenger - $5,001 from Electrical Workers Voluntary Political.
Kander for Missouri - $7,500 from CHIPP Political Account.
Friends of Diehl - $10,000 from August Busch III.
Friends of Tom Schweich - $20,000 from David Humphreys.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to lobbyists Ginger Steinmetz and John Valenti.