Tuesday, February 12, 2013
The Day Ahead
For starters… it’s Midwife Cookie Day / Rally Day today…
Today’s main event will be Sen. Brad Lager’s Commerce Committee where they’re expected to vote out SB207, the utilities’ ISRS proposal. Then the battle will be what’s in the floor substitute, and then the floor debate, and if it can get past the Senate, onto the House…
And tonight President Barack Obama gives his State of the Union address. At the top of a lot of agendas is: how to deal with the sequestration cuts. It’s said that the cuts would deal blows across all government agencies and perhaps hurt economic growth.
From Politico’s Morning Money: “According to the Potomac Research Group survey, 53 percent of hedge fund, pension fund and money market managers surveyed said they do not believe there will be a deal to avoid the sequester. And 51 percent predicted that with no sequester deal, the Dow would fall by 5 percent or more. The investors' doubts reflect the gridlock currently gripping Washington over the upcoming fiscal battles - and the potential economic consequences.”
It’s Getting Hot in Monarch
Speaker Tim Jones wades into the middle if the Monarch Fire District election featuring Republicans Cole McNary and Jane Cunningham. He’ll headline a fundraiser for Cunningham on February 24 at her house. Contribution levels include: Blazing Hot - $1,000* *Wild Fire - $500* *On Fire - $250* *Caught Fire - $100** * and the relatively meager *Kindling & Match - $50 *
Other electeds and heavies for Cunningham: Jim Talent, Dave Spence, Tom Schweich, John Diehl, Sue Allen, Marsha Haefner, Mike Leara, Rick Stream, Franc Flortron, John Hancock, David Klarich, Jim Lembke, and John Loudon.
The two each have their websites up and running. See Cunningham’s website here. See MvNary’s website here.
And- here are some excerpts from Jane Cunningham’s latest letter to supporters
The resident and commercial taxpayers are paying the bills for unnecessary extravagances and unbelievable salary/benefit and work packages. We can have highly trained fire fighters and top notch, quality service while living within our means and not increasing taxes. I am committed to these goals and to good, honest, transparent government in the Monarch Fire District. You can bank on that promise, because I've proven it by my continued interest and actions.
The union has chosen to support a known Republican in this election, former State Representative *Cole McNary*. This choice continues the union's strategy of attempting to confuse voters by making them think the union supported candidate will adhere to the typical Republican principles of less government and lower taxes. Union candidates use that rhetoric in
campaign literature. There is widespread disappointment in Cole's entry into this race. He has not attended even one Fire Board meeting over the years. He publicly endorsed both *Steve Swyers* (who proposed and voted for the motion to raise our taxes) and *Rick Gans* (the true taxpayer candidate) in the last election. And now copied from his website under "Platform", McNary states, "The citizens of Monarch elected a strong leader in Steve Swyers....."
Axiom Wins Awards
From the press release: “Axiom Strategies received three prestigious Reed Awards this past week, continuing Axiom's tradition as the most award-winning Republican direct mail firm in the country. The Reed Awards recognize excellence in campaign management, political consulting and political communications. The awards, named after Campaigns & Elections founder Stanley Foster Reed, embody his mission to strive for excellence in political campaigning.
Axiom’s winning pieces
* Toughest Direct Mail Piece - Fakebook
* Best Ballot Initiative - Double Tax Gum
* Best County, Local, or Judicial Candidate Piece - Double Tax Gum
“Fakebook, a parody of the social media site Facebook, played a crucial role in securing a Republican victory for Kurt Schaefer in Missouri's 19th State Senate District. Schaefer was running in a district where the Democratic nominee carried 80% of all contested races, and even though President Obama was able to carry the 19th, Schaefer secured victory by an impressive 15.8% margin.
“The Double Tax Gum pieces were instrumental in defeating two ballot measures that would institute use taxes in the City of St. Joseph and Buchanan County, Missouri. Citizens overwhelmingly rejected both measures, by margins of 18.3% in St. Joseph and 17.9% in Buchanan County.”
Cyber-bullying
The issue of cyber bullying was addressed a few years ago, but it’s coming back around again this legislative session. For example, Rep. Sue Allen has a bill which will have a hearing tomorrow morning. See it here.
And
Out of Michigan State University comes this research – see it here – which says that cyber bullying has the same impact on kids as “traditional” bullying. The article, by the way, is authored by criminologist Thomas Holt. He’s the son of lobbyist Bruce Holt.
MEC Kicks Candidates on PFDs
Yesterday the Missouri Ethics Commission kicked candidates off the April ballot that failed to file personal disclosure forms by the deadline. See the list here. (NOTE: MEC is doing website maintenance today, so this link may be spotty).
Tweet of the Day – Yesterday
@EdMartin4MO: “Contrary to reports, I do not own http://www.EdMartin4Pope.com.”
eMailbag: Superbowl Spin Boomerang
“Remember the power outage during the SuperBowl and the tweets from the utilities and their supporters about the connection to SB 207? It was even brought up at the SB 207 hearing. Turns out that the failure occurred in NEW equipment designed and installed to improve reliability!”
Lobbyist Registrations
From the Pelopidas website:
Lorenz Hart added American Conservative Union.
Jessica Hodge added Hodge Consulting LLC, and Gateway Government Relations.
Mark J Rhoads added US Travel Insurance Association; and deleted Wyndam Worldwide Corporation.
Jared Craighead deleted Centurylink.
$5K+ Contributions
Keep KC Jobs Committee - $10,000 from Burns and McDonnell.