Friday, July 26, 2013
July Quarter: Consultant Pay
The summer in non-election years must be the slowest part of the cycle for consultants. Here’s the billings from some of the best-known names in Missouri from that quarter’s campaign finance reports. Of course this only represents their political clients, not their corporate invoices…
The Barklage Company (David Barklage)
$12,000 – Peter Kinder.
$12,000 – House Republican Campaign Committee.
$7,500 – Missourians for Fair Taxation.
$6,000 – Lewis & Clark Regional Leadership Forum
$2,000 – John Diehl.
Public Eye (Richard Callow)
$57,500 – Francis Slay.
Highland Consulting (Jared Craighead)
$750 – Mike Kehoe
Victory Enterprises (Dave Hageman)
$7,250 – House Republican Campaign Committee.
J.Harris Company (James Harris)
$10,500 – Tom Schweich.
$10,000 – Peter Kinder.
$1,000 – John Diehl.
Hilltop Public Policy (Ken Morley)
$32,376.84 – Chris Koster.
Axiom (Jeff Roe)
$72,712 – Missourian for Equal Credit Opportunity.
$3,500 – Freedom PAC.
Candidate Command (Jeff Roe)
$3,029 – Tim Jones.
$2,900 – Chuck Gatschenberg.
$63,560 – Missourians for Responsible Liquor Laws.
Public Affairs (Jim Ross)
$3,000 – Jake Zimmerman.
Survey St. Louis (Tom Smith)
$9,600 – Tom Dempsey
$7,000 – Tim Jones
$1,500 – Dwight Scharnhorst
$660 – Doug Funderburk
$500 – Kathie Conway
Thompson Political Operations (Logan Thompson)
$700 – Peter Kinder
$2,000 – Chuck Gatschenberg
$9,000 – John Diehl
Strategic Capitol Consulting (Steve Tilley)
$12,000 – Mike Parson
$4,500 – Rick Stream
$2,000 – John Diehl
$2,000 – Ryan Silvey
Richardson’s Numbers
Rep. Todd Richardson’s golf tournament had 37 teams and reportedly had over $150K committed, but the most impressive number was the 20 House Republican members who attended. That number exceeds every other tournament so far this summer.
Bondon in House 56
Jack Bondon, whose family owns and operates the Berbiglia Liquor stores on the western side of Missouri, is readying a campaign for House 56. That’s where Rep. Chris Molendorp is opting not to run for re-election. Bondon is a Republican, and the district is about a 55% Republican district.
No word on the Democrat yet, but it is possible we could see a third run from Patty Johnson who twice tried (unsuccessfully) to beat Molendorp. In 2012 she scored 35.7% of the vote in that quest.
St. Louis County Governance and Taxation
Yesterday the Senate named their members to the Joint Interim Committee on St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area Governance and Taxation. They are: Sens. Joe Keaveny, John Lamping, Brian Nieves, Eric Schmitt and Gina Walsh. They join Reps. Sue Allen, Andrew Koenig, Mike Leara, Bill Otto, and Clem Smith.
The committee may look at a few things, but some see it as a vehicle to start the process of the re-entry of St. Louis City into St. Louis County.
HB 611 Talk
An override of HB 611 now appears highly unlikely as Democrats have been alerted to objectionable language originally in SB28.
It could conceivably be a vote “rated” by organized labor.
And that may mean that Missouri will have to seek a waiver from the federal government or jeopardize its federal FUTA credits, which runs in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The Missouri Chamber believes that no passage of HB 611 means as much, although the governor’s office has reversed itself now, initially the governor’s department heads testified as much.
Override Talk
Few bits out there…
First, with regard to whoever the Republican House member is that the Nixon administration is supposedly hoping to lure away from Veto Session with a plum appointment, a few Republicans on the Senate side have chest-thumped that there’d be no confirmation for such an individual. That’s led to the question about nice jobs the governor could offer that don’t require confirmation. The answer, apparently, is that there’s not a lot of alternative out there. While there are some inner circle type job (chief of staff for example) that don’t require confirmation, most of the type of jobs that you could reasonably stick your average state representative with relatively nice compensation do require confirmation.
Second, after a legislative session where the House Dems were mostly irrelevant, the Veto Session has highlighted the critical nature of the 2014 House races. Even a change in the balance of one or two seats has dramatic impact on whether the governor’s vetoes are sustained or overridden.
And I won’t use this as an occasion to revisit the fact that Nixon was stingy with his campaign resources while piling up a massive bank account and winning his race by double digits. I won’t do that…
Birthdays
Happy birthday to Friday: Rep. Donna Lichtenegger (63), and Annette Read (51).
Saturday: Congressman Lacy Clay, Jim Avery (42), and Shanon Hawk.
Sunday: Dale Ludwig.