MOScout Daily Update: Onder for LG? - CoronaSession Coming? - MEC's Sunshine Fast-Tracked and more...

Onder for LG?

Politics never sleeps; and it doesn’t take time off for the coronavirus…. According to a poll in the field, it would appear that Sen. Bob Onder – or some enterprising consultant – is scouting out the landscape of a possible bid for lieutenant governor.

From the poll…

Fav/Unfav: Mike Parson, Mike Kehoe, Bob Onder.

LG horse race: Mike Kehoe, Bob Onder.

Testing statement: Kehoe sided with liberal St. Louis on building a soccer stadium.

Testing statement: Kehoe advocated spending millions for dance studio in KC university.

Testing statement: Kehoe supported subsided science company opposed by MRL.

Retesting Fav/Unfav on Kehoe.

Retesting horse race question.

What kind of Republican are you: evangelical, Trump, traditional, libertarian.

Ideology: very conservative, somewhat conservative, moderate, liberal.

Gender and age.

Filing closes two weeks from tomorrow…

Coronavirus Update

·         The St. Louis region, and Kansas City quickly adopted the CDC recommendation and banning gatherings of more than 50 people for the next eight weeks. 

·         Additionally, schools appear to be prepping for closure this week for the rest of the month.

·         Mayor Lyda Krewson tweeted that “Decisions regarding the mandatory closures of restaurants, bars, and nightclubs remain under consideration and are expected to be made soon among regional leaders in @STLCityGov”

What It Means

·         Those ads that Governor Mike Parson’s PAC was running about jobs and the economy won’t work for at least the next month.  And depending on how long this crisis lasts, how many businesses fold during it, and how quickly or slowly the economy rebounds, they may be gone for the cycle.  This deprives the GOP of one of their top selling point this cycle: a low unemployment rate.

·         From Reuters: In a note sent on Sunday, [Goldman Sachs] said it now sees real gross domestic product growth of 0% in the first three months of the year, from its original estimate of 0.7% expansion. For the second quarter, it sees U.S. growth contracting to -5.0% from its initial forecast of 0%.  Goldman raised its third-quarter U.S. GDP estimate to 3% from 1% originally.

CoronaSession

One building denizen: Everyone in the legislature (mostly everyone) seems to be underestimating this thing and its impact on session. I think they are in for a rude awakening… Iowa just suspended for a month… Maryland passed or is passing a budget and adjourning sine die until summer when they will have a “special” that will effectively be their session… I think spring break is longer or we plan and execute a scenario that basically closes the Capitol for session for us to work. No visitors, lobbyists, etc…

Budget Powers Through

The House Budget Committee hunkered down and marked up the Budget in a marathon session yesterday which ended around 1AM. 

From the in-box…

·         At least we know all these folks have been tested and they aren’t sitting within six feet of each other for a prolonged period of time. Oh wait...

·         I think it is extremely short sighted and disrespectful to the health of everyone in the room that so many members of the budget committee offered amendments after announcing they planned to withdraw their amendment. It’s one thing if it’s a normal budget hearing during the week of a normal year, but the fact that over 60 legislators, lobbyists and department heads are in one room is a significant health risk with all the pending COVID19 warnings about social gatherings. Many of those in the room fall into the high risk category and dragging the hearing out instead of getting in and out is selfish and irresponsible.

MEC Sunshine on Fast Track

Judiciary still has a hearing scheduled for today according to the House website (10AM).  Chair David Gregory was home sick yesterday, missing the Budget hearing.

There’s one bill scheduled to be heard and exec-ed: HB 2725, Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman’s changes to the sunshine law.  See it here.

And then it’s scheduled to be the only bill on the Rules Committee’s agenda this afternoon (1:30PM)!

Springfield News-Leader reports on the bill here.

Hancock: Feebees Asking Around

KCStar reports that “two individuals involved in controversial energy projects in Independence that have drawn FBI scrutiny submitted a formal proposal to help repurpose a separate, soon-to-be shuttered city power plant. A collection of businesses led by Titan Fish Partners LLC has a proposal with a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars to repurpose the Blue Valley Municipal Power Generating Plant in northeast Independence into a biofuels production facility ‘to provide alternative fuels for the future.’”  See it here.

Lobbyist Registrations

Mike Grote added City Utilities of Springfield.

Nathan Nickolaus added City of Grain Valley, Village of Kingdom City, and City of Fayette.

Don Logue added Aegis Healthcare Strategies LLC.

Doug Stone added BID Group LLC, U.S. Realty Advisors LLC, KC Engineering Property HQ LLC, Double G Properties LP, Redeemer Fellowship, and 1200 Main/South Loop CID.

Thomas Robbins, Jake Silverman, and Steven Tilley deleted Titan Fish Partners LLC.

Daniel Pfeifer, Alex Eaton, Rebecca Lohmann, and Greg Porter deleted Anthem, Inc. and Its Affiliates.

Ed Smith deleted Missouri Coalition for the Environment.

Sam Wiles deleted Ameresco Inc.

$5K+Contributions

Missourians for a New Approach - $15,000 from New Growth Horizon LLC.

Missourians for a New Approach - $10,000 from Future Investments Group LLC.

Missourians for a New Approach - $25,000 from Holistic Health Capital LLC.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Melissa Randol, Jon Dolan, and Tom Villa.