Monday, July 15, 2013

Schaefer Antes $500K

Sen. Kurt Schaefer will drop $500,000 of his own money into his campaign committee today. 

Schaefer has been mentioned as a possible Republican attorney general candidate – along with Sen. Eric Schmitt and Speaker Tim Jones.  Many people think that the three will work out a way to avoid a primary.  Republicans still feel scarred from their divisive primaries and subsequent general election losses in 2012.

Although we haven’t seen the July numbers for Schmitt and Schaefer (Jones’ is below), this half-million contribution should catapult Schaefer back into the same arena as his rivals.  Schmitt’s April quarter cash on-hand was $566,253 while Schaefer’s was $19,363.

Jones Quarter

Speaker Tim Jones reported raising $59K, spending $48K and making another $15K of contributions.  He finished the July quarter with $628K on-hand.

This doesn’t include his golf tournament which he held after the end of the quarter.  It’s said that event raised over $100K.

Other Quarters

Reports are due today, but here are some early filers.

In the Senate 2 Republican primary, Vicki Schneider raised $11K (including $5K from Drury Development) and has $12K on-hand.  And Rep. Chuck Gatschenberger raised $12K and has $7K on-hand.

In Senate 22, Rep. Jeff Roorda raised $26K, and has $66K on-hand.

And

Jim Lembke terminated his campaign committee.  His final contribution was to send his committee’s balance - $11,743 to Sen. Rob Schaaf.

Nixon Finished His Bill Reviews

Governor Jay Nixon finished his actions on bills.  See the list of vetoes and signings here.  He announced that he would let the prevailing wage bill – HB34 – go into effect without his signature.  Although not every part of the labor community was thrilled with this “compromise,” they generally seemed okay with it.

The bigger surprise, to me, was that he let the anti-abortion bill – HB400 – also go into effect, also without his signature.  Others pointed out that this is not inconsistent with his past behavior on pro-life/pro-choice issues.

Parkinson to School Board: You Really Wanted HB 514?

Here is the email that Rep. Mark Parkinson sent to each Francis Howell School board member after the forum about accepting Normandy students…

To members of the Francis Howell Board of Education:

It’s abundantly clear that we, as the St. Charles County delegation, are being blamed for not passing Rep. Margo McNeil's "fix" to the Normandy school transfer issue. That's fine, blame, wag your finger, publicly throw a fit, do what you have to do to make yourselves feel better.

Let's assume we passed HB 514 in 2011 and play out the policy implications in todays situation.

HB 514 would give the receiving school district veto power over the sending, unaccredited district. Lets also assume that the Normandy School Board makes the same decision to send their students to FH.

The next logical step for you, as the elected school board, to take is to have a public vote on the acceptance/non-acceptance of poor, minority, children from a failed school district that are looking to you as their only hope of breaking the chains of poverty through an excellent education.

At that board meeting, each of your names are called, and you have to cast a public vote on the issue.

Look yourselves in the mirror and ask yourselves, do you vote your constiteuncy and vote to reject the Normandy students or do you vote to allow them to attend FH?

If you vote to reject the Normandy children the editorials and headlines write themselves, each and every one of you will be branded a racist.

If you vote to accept the Normandy children, we all know what that means in your next election.

Assuming HB 514 was the law of the land today, you as FHSB members are put in a lose-lose situation. Do you want that?

When we go back in session we can give you exactly what you asked for (HB 514) and put each and every one of you in a lose-lose situation or we can work as a united front and ensure that ALL Missouri students receive the same excellent education as I did from FHHS.

As the saying goes, be very careful of what you ask for, sometimes you just might get it.

That's just food for thought, but I would like a response from each FHSB member on how you would like us to proceed on policy language as exactly written in HB 514.

I'm assume Mr. Peterson did not play out the real-world senecio, stated above, of actually implementing HB 514 on your respective school board positions or he wouldn't have advocated for it so vehemently. I could be wrong!

Sincerely,

Mark

Bits

Weekly Standard says that Missouri’s unemployment rate has more to do with Missourians dropping out of the labor pool than actual job creation.  Read it here.

Sen. Jamilah Nasheed is said to be looking at residences inside her district.  She’s not up for re-election until 2016, but I always say that it’s never too early to live in the district you represent.

According to Facebook, former state senator Jim Lembke is reading LeaderShift.  That’s a book by Orrin Woodward who’s associated with the leadership sales movement for which Sen. Brian Nieves works.  If Lembke starts capitalizing random words, we’ll know he’s been hooked…

Help Wanted… Looking for a CFO for the Missouri History Museum.  See the ad here.

eMailbag: Ulterior Motive?

“Some in GOP leadership say they want to over-ride Nixon’s veto of HB 253, but in reality they don’t want the debate to end.  Keeping this issue alive into next session for a ‘fix’ keeps the debate going and the Sinquefield money flowing – into GOP campaigns.”

$5K+Contributions

Missourians for Koster - $25,000 from The James Dowd Law Firm.

Associated Industries of MO PAC - $100,000 from Rex Sinquefield.

MO Chamber PAC - $200,000 from Rex Sinquefield.
House Republican Campaign Committee Inc - $5,500 from Friends of Rick Stream.

Notes on Money

Note that Sinquefield’s two mammoth checks are in addition to last week’s $1.3 million to Grow Missouri.  These appear to be funding the initial television commercials from these two business organizations exhorting the legislature to override the governor’s HB253 veto.

And – Koster keeps chugging along…

Birthdays

Happy birthday to St. Louis Alderwoman Dionne Flowers.

MOScout News

I’ve had some issues with my email deliveries.  So I’m going to try an alternative system this week.  Please drop me a line if you don’t receive you Update this week, or it comes late etc.  Thanks.