MOScout Daily Update: Plocher Shocker - How A3 Passed - Jones for Mayor - COVID Hospitalizations Deaths Rise and more...

Ploch Twist

Despite “lots of hallway doubters,” Rep. Dean Plocher won the Republican House floor leader race.

Folks I spoke to thought the outcome was good for the House Caucus…

·         Plocher brings more maturity and life experience to the job than Rep. Curtis Trent would have.

·         Alongside the blunt-speaking Speaker-elect Rob Vescovo, Plocher will add some finesse to leadership’s voice.

·         Plocher was a huge HRCC fundraiser, and is from one of the wealthiest districts in the state.

Rep. David Gregory gave the nominating speech for Plocher.  And Plocher’s “field team” was credited with helping to secure the victory.  They fanned out across the state helping candidates with door-knocking and continually keeping Plocher’s count tight.  That vote count ended up being more accurate than Trent’s.  It’s a hard task because with secret ballots, you always have folks playing both sides. Plocher’s Yeses stuck with him.

On Team Plocher…  Gregory, Reps. Dan Houx, Mike Henderson, Jeff Knight, Mike Haffner, and Rick Francis.

And

Rumor is that Ryan Nonnemaker (now on Haahr’s staff and previously with Jason Crowell) will be tapped by Plocher for the chief of staff role.

Rounding Out the Team

Other winners from the House leadership races…

Speaker Pro Tem: John Wiemann.

Assistant floor leader: Hannah Kelly.

Whip: Allen Andrews.

Caucus Chair: Sara Walsh.

Secretary: Ann Kelly.

A Look At the Largest Voting Counties

Here’s a glance at Missouri counties with more than 50,000 registered voters.  How many folks voted this year compared to 2016, how their Trump vote compared, and how they voted on Amendment 3.

How Amendment 3 Passed

The passage of Amendment 3 (aka CLEANER) was the biggest surprise for me.  I thought that the anti-3’s campaign commercials were smart and clever.  And they were obviously well-funded.  Folks attribute its passage to two factors.

·         First, the simple ban lobbyists gift on the ballot language was the most powerful message.  One veteran put it simply: “Gift ban listed first with a question at the end of a ballot.”  In this regard one Republican thought that CLEAN’s strategic mistake was going to the $5 limit initially and leaving the door open for this counterattack.

·         The second explanation given was the grassroots efforts of the Farm Bureau.  They sent letters to members and worked with other agriculture groups to get the word out to rural areas.  “They’ve gotten a lot better since Right to Farm.”

Back to Governing

With the campaign over, Governor Mike Parson will hold a press briefing today.  Among the topics will be the special session on the supplemental budget (see Post-Dispatch article here), and the increasing COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths in Missouri.

·         Missouri deaths are now over 3,000. 

·         The White House COVID Task Force’s latest report took a gloomy tone.  (See it here) It recommends limiting indoor restaurants to 50% capacity as a means of reducing transmissions.

·         St. Louis hospitals will start to shelve elective procedures to preserve resources for their rising COVID patients.  See it here.

Jones for Mayor

Tishaura Jones, former state representative and now St. Louis City Treasurer, announced that she’s running for mayor.  See MOIndy’s article on her announcement here.  It notes that the city approved Prop D on Tuesday, changing the format for the election.  The race will no longer be a partisan election.  The top two vote-getters from the primary field will meet in the general election a month later.

From the eMailbag Vault: MO Red Test

This eMailbag bag comment is from October 23, 2019, just after Chris Sloan was announced as Nicole Galloway’s campaign manager… I've heard Sloan is good. So let's all agree that if the Dems best statewide candidate and the "best Dem campaign manager in the country" get beat by more than 7 that Missouri is out of reach for Dem statewides for the foreseeable future.

MOScout Schedule

No Weekender or Sunday6.  Just a regular update tomorrow and then I’ll see you on Monday…

Lobbyists Registrations

Gamble & Schlemeier added Noresco, LLC.

Fernando Trevino added Lyft, Inc.

$5K+ Contributions

Missouri Senate Campaign Committee - $10,000 from Believe in Life and Liberty (pro-Eigel).

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Cora Faith Walker, Aaron Jeffries, Brad Ketcher, Angie Postal, and Becky Willard.