MOScout Daily Update: Roe Plays in KC Race - Plastics Debate Coming? - $$$ to Determine Medicaid IP? - Kehoe's Big Crowd and more...

Roe Plays In KC Mayoral Race

KCStar reports on Axiom Strategies playing in the Kansas City mayoral race.  See it here.  Election Day is tomorrow!  Axiom’s Remington Research has been doing my polling on the race.

Copies of a digital poll obtained by The Star show an Axiom-affiliated company, Remington Research, tested voters’ reactions to a mockup of the [anti-Justus] mailers.

The group also polled voters on a pro-Lucas TV commercial put out by Taxpayers Unlimited, a PAC affiliated with the firefighters union that endorsed Lucas. It accuses Justus of a “nasty, negative campaign” and supporting Lucas’ vision.

Over the weekend, Kansas Citians reported receiving messages from unknown 816 numbers. They included a photo of a TV airing the Taxpayers Unlimited commercial and a message that reads, “OMG! Did you see this??? Jolie Justus has gotten negative and desperate. I’m disappointed. :(“

A call to any of the numbers sending the texts yielded an automated message telling the user to press 1 to unsubscribe from future Remington Research calling campaigns.

Both Remington Research and Axiom Strategies are owned by Jeff Roe, a national GOP operative with deep ties to Missouri who managed Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign. Roe did not respond to an email requesting comment Saturday….

Lucas said his campaign was not working with Axiom or Remington Research and claimed the Justus campaign was pushing the notion. The firm doesn’t show up on Missouri Ethics Commission reports for his campaign or the reports filed by the two PACs that apparently used Remington Research to poll voters…

The Coming Plastics Debate?

    Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Just one word.

    Benjamin: Yes, sir.

    Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?

    Benjamin: Yes, I am.

    Mr. McGuire: Plastics.

·         Interesting poll from across the pond shows Brits are supportive of banning various plastic products.  See it here.

·         I doubt you’d see such overwhelming sentiment in the United States, or Missourah for that matter.  “Banning” wasn’t an option in this poll, but folks are interested in more recycling.

·         Axios did a “deep dive” on the plastics “crisis” over the weekend.  See it here.

·         Rep. Dan Shaul introduced a plastics freedom bill last session.  That is, free plastics from local regulations.  Pre-empting local control on plastics would be the ideological cousin of the CAFO freedom bill from this session.

Follow-Up on Expanding Medicaid Poll

The debate about Medicaid expansion may well hinge on how voters view the competing estimates of its fiscal impact.  Voters favor expanding Medicaid, but the idea of higher taxes to pay for it spooks them into opposition.  If they believed it would result in saving, the proposal would be a slam-duck.

From the circulating proposed constitutional amendment:  State government entities are estimated to have one-time costs of approximately $6.4 million and an unknown annual net fiscal impact by 2026 ranging from increased costs of at least $200 million to savings of $1 billion. Local governments expect costs to decrease by an unknown amount.

Q2: There is a proposal to expand Medicaid to cover adults making less than 133% of the federal poverty level. Do you approve or disapprove of this proposal?

Approve: 40%

Disapprove: 37%

Not sure: 23%

Q3: Some people believe that expanding Medicaid will cost the state millions of dollars each year. If that was the case, would you be willing to pay more taxes to support Medicaid expansion?

Yes: 28%

No: 60%

Not sure: 12%

And

Interesting to note, Missourians don’t blame the caregivers for the high cost of healthcare, but are most likely to blame the red-tapers: insurance companies and the government.

Q4: Who is most to blame for the rise in healthcare costs?

Doctors: 3%

Hospitals: 7%

Drug makers: 21%

Insurance companies: 22%

Government: 25%

Not sure: 22%

Parson Trade Mission, Kehoe to Blues Rally

While Governor Mike Parson travels Europe on a trade mission, hitting France, Germany, and Switzerland over the course of the trip, Lieutenant Governor Mike Kehoe got the duties to attend the Blues rally downtown and present them with a proclamation. 

“He looked so nervous… but he did a great job. Short and sweet… likely be the largest group he will ever speak in front of…”

And

Parson turned over his gubernatorial powers to Kehoe, provoking this Jackson County Dems tweet "Unelected Governor turns power over to unelected Lt. Governor."

eMailbag: on GOP Door Knocks

If the MOGOP knocked 1 million doors last year then I'm a monkey's uncle.

-I'm looking at: statewide, ~3,8 million RVs at ~2 million doors.

-Of those 1.8 million are on the first three floors of a building.

-A BUNCH of those doors will be in rural areas where it makes little sense to knock doors cuz you're getting 3 knocks an hour.

-A BUNCH of those people will have never voted before.

-Another handful are in areas where Republicans ain't knocking.

-The math doesn't work on paying for a million knocks either.

eMailbag: on MRP and Graves

·         Leaders should always leave an organization better than they found it. Clearly not the case with Graves.

·         Hip Hip Hooray for Graves for taking credit for things he did not do. Ask the Senate and House guys if the party had anything to do with their retention rates…

Lobbyists Registrations

Eapen Thampy terminated his lobbyist registration. 

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Sen. Lincoln Hough, Rep. Michael O’Donnell, Barbara Fraser, and Sam Licklider.