MOScout Daily Update: Hall to Leave PSC - Hawley Raises $$$ On Impeachment - Curtis' Piggy Bank and more...
Hall to Leave PSC
Public Service Commissioner Daniel Hall announced that he’ll be leaving in November. This will free up a seat for Governor Mike Parson to make an appointment to the powerful regulatory body.
· The commission is required to maintain a partisan balance (no more than 3 members from the same party). Therefore, Hall’s replacement will be a Democrat.
· Previous rumors had Sens. Jason Holsman and Kiki Curls as possible appointments.
· Hall is the only current member who did not serve in the state senate.
Hawley Raises $$$ on Impeachment
US Senator Josh Hawley is raising money off the start of the impeachment inquiry. See it here.
If the House does impeach Trump, Hawley will be voting on it in the Senate.
I guess I’m naïve to think he should maintain some impartiality ahead of this potential awesome constitutional duty. Instead Hawley is casting it wholly in partisan terms, wasting no time to shake his tin cup. “I’m calling on every Team Hawley supporter to make their voice heard and donate whatever you can right now…”
Curtis’ Piggy Bank
Post-Dispatch reports on former Rep. Courtney Curtis, once again in trouble with the Missouri Ethics Commission.
A former state lawmaker running to be mayor of Ferguson used his campaign account like a personal piggy bank, spending money on visits to spas, hotels and concert events, state ethics regulators said Tuesday.
Courtney Curtis, who has had multiple run-ins with the Missouri Ethics Commission over his campaign accounts, was fined more than $77,000 by the panel for a variety of alleged transgressions, including spending money from his account on gas and hotels while also receiving daily expense reimbursements from the state during his time as a member of the House.
eMailbag on Vaping
I think you are misreading the vaping landscape. While the big tobacco companies are all major players in the e-cigarettes market, they’re not the only players. They are, however, the players most likely to benefit from tight federal regulation on things like flavor and ingredients. Besides, if the vaping market slows, who benefits? Big tobacco - it’s a win-win.
As for the politics, suburban moms care more about vaping than just about any other social issue right now.
SNAP Challenge
Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman will be St. Louis on the Air today – along with Empower Missouri’s Jeanette Mott Oxford – to talk about the SNAP challenge.
Listen here (at noon).
Other representatives taking the challenge: Hannah Kelly, Dottie Bailey, Ashley Bland Manlove, Ian Mackey, and Doug Beck.
Show Me Victory: Biden in Lead in MO
Show Me Victory released polling that shows Joe Biden is a favorite among Missouri Democratic voters… We surveyed 400 voters likely to participate in Missouri's March 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary. The interviews were conducted between September 13-16, 2019, using Interactive Voice Response technology. The margin of error is +/-5%.
Joe Biden 34
Elizabeth Warren 22
Bernie Sanders 14
Pete Buttigieg 10
Kamala Harris 9
This indicates a shift below Biden and Warren. A July 11-12 MOScout/Remington poll (1,122 likely 2020 Democratic Primary Election Margin of Error is +/-3%) showed these numbers…
Joe Biden: 43%
Elizabeth Warren: 15%
Kamala Harris: 13%
Pete Buttigieg: 5%
Bernie Sanders: 4%
Technology Will Change Everything
The current vogue is to dismiss liberal arts education in favor of trades. It’s driven by folks who believe that education is about a transfer of information. But as technology disrupts every industry, the skill which will be most helpful in the coming decades is the ability to learn.
The latest from Visual Capitalist (see it here) is about how technology is disrupting the construction industry.
The rate of digital disruption is escalating in almost every industry. However, despite being one of the fastest-growing industries globally—construction has been one of the last to get hit… the industry has gained only 1% of productivity in the last 20 years due to lack of digitization…
Technologies that have the highest adoption rates in the top 20% of companies (considered innovative leaders), are as follows:
Building Information Modeling (BIM): 86%
Basic data analytics: 83%
Project management and information systems: 79%
Drones: 72%
Mobile platforms: 69%
Meanwhile, for the bottom 20% of companies (considered behind the curve), the rate of adoption can be low or even non-existent for many key technologies. Here are the ones with the lowest adoption rates within this group:
Cognitive machine learning: 0%
Robotics: 0%
Artificial intelligence: 0%
Machine engineering and design: 3%
3D printing: 7%
Help Wanted
AAA seeks Public Affairs Specialist. “This position serves as a primary media spokesperson for the Club. Position also manages, directs, coordinates and participates in the creation and execution of communications strategies for program, service and product lines as they relate to the media including crisis communications. Position counsels business and program units on media strategies and provides media support for those strategies in all states…” See it here.
Lobbyist Registrations
Rodney Boyd, Kate Casas, Brian Grace and Kelvin Simmons added Vitus.
Richard McIntosh, Zach Brunnert, and David McCracken added Missouri Care Inc and its affiliates; and deleted Wellcare.
$5K+Contributions
Building Communities PAC Inc - $19,800 from O'Reilly Development Company, LLC.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Jeff Roe, Rep. Bryan Spencer, Gordon Reel, Katie Reichard Eiken, and Mark Schwartz.