MOScout Daily Update: Brown for Senate 7 - Barrett Resigns? - Blunt in 2022 - Parson Hearts Cole and more....
Brown for Senate 7
It looks like Rep. Greg Razer will get a primary after all in Senate 7. Popping up on Facebook last night…. Michael Brown for State Senate. See it here.
Brown was a state representative from 2005 – 2013. See his biography here.
What It Means
· Not much right now. We’ll see if Brown can gather any traction.
· Razer is still the favorite in this district.
Rumorville: Barrett Resigns
A good source tells me that Michael Barrett, State Public Defender Director, has submitted his resignation.
Barrett has been an unwavering, and unabashed advocate for his department.
In 2016, he sought to appoint Governor Jay Nixon as a legal representative of an accused man because his department lacked adequate funding to handle its caseload. The courts nixed it, but it served to draw attention to the issue of funding.
What’s Next
The commission (see the members here) will hire the new director.
Parson Hearts Cole
David Cole is having a fundraiser tonight at the Ledgewood County Club. Governor Mike Parson is special-guesting the affair. As is now common, the invitation notes the campaign contribution limits for Cole’s candidate committee, but also directs larger checks to be made out to an independent PAC. That’s 29th Senate District Leadership PAC in this case.
What It Means
This is a clear-cut example of establishment versus outsider, even though the outsider in this case is the elected official, Rep. Mike Moon.
· Moon has been an outlier, on the conservative end of the bell curve, during his time in the House
· Moon was one of a handful of Republicans state reps who didn’t endorse Parson.
· Cole is a former state party chair.
· The Conservative Caucus backing Moon.
Blunt in 2022?
The mighty Jason Rosenbaum tweets US Senator Roy Blunt’s response to the question whether he’s running for re-election in 2022. See it here. “Assuming every day I’m going to be there for a while.”
Sabato’s Crystal Ball: Trump Referendum Election
From Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “A major overall theme in American political life is the nationalization of politics. How people feel about the president is bleeding down the ballot to an extreme degree, to the point where congressional expert Gary Jacobson observed that the 2018 midterm was “the most sweeping national referendum on any administration at least since the Great Depression.” This helps explain the 2018 results, when Democrats swept the House but lost ground in the Senate because they held too many seats in states that had trended so far to the right in presidential races. This trend showed up in 2016, too. Every state with a Senate race voted for the same party for Senate and for president for the first time in the history of Senate popular elections… In what is already a nationalized political time, impeachment may be the ultimate nationalizing event for members of the House and the Senate. An up-or-down vote on the continuation of the Trump presidency in advance of a presidential general election would be an unprecedented event in our lifetimes, and it would be occurring in a time when down-ballot politics is more defined by opinions of presidents than in any time in most, if not all, of our lifetimes as well.”
And
Look no farther than Ed Martin. He’s now in Virginia, and running for a County supervisor position. In his platform: “Assist President Trump in addressing the problem of illegal immigrants.”
Suicide Rates and Prevention Methods
Follow recent news that Missourians’ life expectancy rates are declining – in part because of higher suicide rates – this article from the Wall Street Journal lays out an interesting policy path. In the U.S., the rate of suicide has steadily increased for more than a decade. The reasons for that are uncertain, but one thing is clear: The urge to take your own life is fleeting.
According to researchers at Harvard University, nine out of 10 people who attempt suicide and survive won’t go on to die by suicide at a later date. Because of that, blocking access to methods of suicide—such as bridges or firearms—can be a powerful deterrent.
In 2017, the most recent year available, 47,173 people died from suicide, up from 29,350 in 2000, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…
Whether someone acts on the urge to commit suicide may hinge on having access to a preferred method in a moment of crisis… Because of the percentage of suicides involving firearms (more suicides than homicides involve guns), the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the National Shooting Sports Foundation are working together to encourage the safe storage of firearms.
The simple act of blocking access to a suicide method is believed to be effective because of the way the brain functions.
“In a moment of crisis, the brain changes,” said Alexis O’Brien, a spokeswoman for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. “It becomes more rigid. You don’t think as fluidly as you would in other circumstances.”
In the case of suicide, individuals tend to become fixated on a method, she said, and if something comes between them and the means they have settled on, they often don’t choose an alternative.
“That’s why bridge barriers are so successful,” Ms. O’Brien said. “They don’t drive down the road to the next bridge. They just don’t die.”
Help Wanted
SEIU seeks Regional Digital Organizer. “The SEIU-NFFWU Regional Digital Organizer coordinates digital communications in a region of the country to promote the union's narrative and organizing work, and to further the Fast Food Fight for 15 campaign objectives. This includes graphics, video and other rich media components, as deemed strategic…” See it here.
GovWatch seeks Legislative Information Specialist. “Full time with benefits - contact Chris Galloway at cgalloway@govwatch.net.”
$5K+ Contributions
Keep the Promise PAC - $36,472 from Show Me Success Missouri.
House Republican Campaign Committee Inc - $17,000 from Charter Communications.
House Republican Campaign Committee Inc - $15,000 from Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits LLC.
Uniting Missouri PAC - $40,000 from Fellowship Nursing Home Inc.
American Dream PAC - $25,000 from Eldon Nursing Center Inc.
Michelle Sherod for St. Louis - $10,000 from michelle Sherod.
MILA PAC - $5,400 from Security Finance of Missouri LLC.
Lobbyist Registrations
Caroline Hoover and Salvatore Panettiere added Visit KC.
Bridget McCandless deleted Bridget McCandless.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Sen. John Rizzo, Rep. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, Zora Mulligan, and Josh Foster.