Thursday, November 8, 2012
House GOP Leadership
Joining Speaker Tim Jones on the House Republican leadership team is John Diehl as floor leader, Jason Smith as speaker pro tem, and Mike Cierpoit as assistant floor leader.
Mike Leara’s challenge for floor leader appears to have been largely anti-climactic. He was nominated by Ron Schieber.
And Paul Curtman gave “an impassioned speech for Andrew Koenig for whip - it was just a strange amount of passion for a second tier leadership position in a state legislature.” Sandy Crawford prevailed in that race.
House Dems Caucus Today
Jake Hummel will likely be uncontested for minority leader. Word is that Jeff Roorda has bowed out of the race; he will focus on his 2014 Senate bid. The assistant floor position between Mike Colona and Gail McCann Beatty may be close. And John Rizzo will be whip.
Also
Senate Republicans and Democrats caucus today as well. I will be mightily surprised if Tom Dempsey and Jolie Justus don’t emerge leading their teams. Leadership in the Senate bodes well for a productive session with limited partisan acrimony…
Bootheel Splits
In the largest bootheel counties, Obama tanked, the other Dems held up mostly okay, except for Montee who suffered at the hands of Kinder’s southeast ties.
Dunklin Scott Stoddard
Obama 34.1% 30.1% 24.5%
McCaskill 50.7 45.3 41.8
Nixon 54.0 48.0 46.8
Montee 38.9 31.9 24.4
Kander 46.5 38.5 33.1
Zweifel 47.6 40.9 34.7
Koster 54.5 47.5 44.2
More Winners
“Major props to Abe Rakov. He ran a brilliant campaign for Kander, while also managing John Wright and Stephen Webber’s state houses races. Hard to say he isn't one of the hottest Dem campaign managers right now.”
In St. Louis County, Prop L passed which will provide millions of dollars for library upgrades… Working the initiative’s fundraising was Majority Strategies’ Matt Lieberman.
We They Write The History of MO 2012
The pivotal moment in this election cycle was McCaskill going big in the Republican primary. “Zweifel and Kander don’t win if McCaskill doesn’t get Akin in the race. Her genius move saved their jobs as well as her own.”
eMailbag: Why Prop B Failed
“It had to have come down to the urban commercial that ran in the cities, saying how the same people who wanted to defeat Obama want to raise your taxes. It was borderline incoherent, but clearly the second most effective ad buy of the MO cycle...the first being Clair’s $1.5 million buy in the primary calling Akin ‘too conservative.’”
Another Reason
Really an upstream election for a tax increase, even a rational one design to reduce harmful behavior… Democratic governor running advertisements constantly touting his devoted to the no new taxes pledges.
eMailbag: But We ALL Saw This Coming!
“Dem interest groups ought to feel sick that they kept shoveling money into a governor that was clearly going to win- and ignored house Dems and lost the veto in the process.”
eMailbag: Governor Jones? Discuss…
“If Tim Jones seeks it, he’d beat Kinder and/or Schweich for the guv nod from GOP.”
eMailbag: Looking for Bond’s Cheese
“Kit Bond would NEVER have allowed that Republican Senate primary to take place. Unfortunately, there is no one in the Republican Party in Missouri right now who has the ‘cheese’ to put everybody in a room, make them duke it out, come out unified, and avoid the type of debacle we just witnessed.”
Lobbyist Registrations
From the Pelopidas website:
Andrew Blunt and Jay Reichard deleted Computerized Vehicle Registration and Motorola Inc.
Aaron Washburn deleted Missouri Dental Association.
$5K+ Contributions
For a day at least… the large contributions have gone silent….
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Steve Webb (37) Catherine Hanaway (49), Tony George (36), and Ellie Glenn (28).
Congratulations
To Mike Parson staffer Kenny Ross on the birth of his son yesterday: Cullen Porter Ross.