MOScout Daily Update: Uniting MO Hiring - Coordination Complaint - Updated IE PAC List and more...

Uniting MO PAC Staffs Up

The pro-Mike Parson PAC, Uniting Missouri, is hiring!  On their website (see it here), they’re advertising to hire a…

·         Communications Director

·         Finance & Fundraising Administrator

·         Grass Roots Coordinator

What It Means

·         On their January report, Uniting for Missouri had over $5 million cash on-hand.  They’re starting early in getting ads on the air and boots on the ground.

·         By spending money now, they have the airwaves mostly to themselves (along with Bloomberg).

·         This may help define Parson on their own terms before the inevitable attacks start.

But Dems Question Expense Coordination

Jason Hancock reports on a Democratic complaint that Uniting Missouri is illegally coordinating expenses with the candidate. 

Candidates can raise money for these third-party PACs, but the candidates cannot direct how the funds are spent.  I call them IE PACs because the PACS must make independent expenditures.  The expenditures can be on behalf of the candidates, but can’t be directed by, or coordinated with the candidates. 

The complaint asks how is it possible to provide air transportation to the candidate without coordination?  Is Parson getting on the plane with no idea where it’s going?

John Hancock – who runs the PAC – rebuts that the expenditures are all kosher because they are related to fundraising side of the PAC which the candidate is allowed to be a part of.  The plane trips were for fundraising.

See the article here.

BTW

Parson could just have reported the plane trips as personal gifts, except that it might have violated an executive order about taking gifts…

Updated IE PAC List

I’ve updated my on-going list of third-party PACs.  The latest inclusion is the pro-Jack Bondon

Western Missouri Leadership Fund.  Bondon is running for state senate.

Find the listing here.  There’s also a link on the MOScout home page.

Driving the Weekend

Republicans meet this weekend in Springfield for their “Lincoln Days” celebration.  There’s less drama this year because they have incumbents across the statewide positions, and therefore a lack of contested primaries.

But….

·         Folks will be on the look-out for any pro-Greitens gear among the faithful.

·         And if we’ll see another pop-up flurry from Liberty Alliance which made its debut at the state fair last summer but has been quiet lately.

More on Clay County Circus

KMBC reports that “Clay County assistant county administrators Nicole Brown and Brad Garrett signed the leases to live in government-owned properties near Smithville Lake and in Kearney, with no formal approval from the Clay County Commission, breaking years of precedent.

The leases require Garrett and Brown, both six-figure salaried employees, to provide no less than six months of “on-call” services, and “visual security” to the property surrounding their homes. The leases spell out both top county officials only need to pay utilities…”

House Ethics

In the House Journal, Rep. Travis Fitzwater asks “to be recused in case HEC 20-001.” And Speaker Elijah Haahr appointed Rep. Rick Francis “as a temporary member of the Committee on Ethics for the sole purpose of considering case HEC 20-001.”

New Committees

Bruce Sassmann formed a candidate committee (Bruce Sassmann Election Committee) to run for House 62 as a Republican.  The incumbent, Republican Rep. Tom Hurst, is term limited. Sassman ran for House 62 in 2012, landing second place in a seven-way primary, scoring 21% to Hurst’s 32%.  He then ran again in 2014, losing a one-on-one match with Hurst 67%-32%.

Lobbyist Registrations

Andy Arnold added Humane Society Legislative Fund of the Midwest and its Affiliates.

Lauren Brenner added Mid-America Transplant.

Airika Walker added American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers.

Jeffrey Aboussie deleted MC District Cooling.

$5K+ Contributions

Midwest Region Laborers' Political League Education Fund - $6,374 from Laborers Supplemental Dues Fund.

American Property Casualty Insurance Association Political Account - $115,576 from American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

MO Insurance Coalition PAC - $10,000 from FEAPAC of Missouri.

Uniting Missouri PAC - $64,000 from MO Majority PAC.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Rep. Donna Baringer, Craig Unruh, Jo Mannies, Harry Kennedy, B.J. Marsh, and Steve Stenger.