MOScout Daily Update: Gannon in Senate 3? - Walsh Steps Down - More on Dem House Targets - DHSS MMJ FAQs and more....
Gannon for Senate 3?
Two unrelated sources, one in the building and one outside, say that Rep. Elaine Gannon is seriously looking at Senate 3. In fact, we could even see her filing for the seat this week.
Gannon would be the third Republican to file, joining Kent Scism and Joshua Barrett in a primary to succeed Gary Romine.
What It Means
· Gannon would be the one woman with two men on the ballot, a demographic advantage – though less potent in Republican primaries.
· Gannon has a “moderate” voting record on labor and education issues. Scism doesn’t have a voting record but has supported the PDMP legislation opposed by some conservatives. This could set Barrett up to run to the right of both Gannon and Scism.
Walsh Steps Down
Sen. Gina Walsh stepped down from her position as Senate Minority Leader.
It has been my great pleasure to serve as the minority floor leader. As you know, with the term limits that are imposed on members of the General Assembly, there is a constant need to ensure that new leaders emerge. Because of that, please consider this correspondence to be my resignation from the role of minority floor leader effective immediately. I will continue to serve out the remainder of my term representing the people of the 13th District in the Senate.
The practice, tradition and custom of the Democratic caucus has been that when the role of minority floor leader becomes vacant, the assistant floor leader ascends to the position. This happened when Ken Jacob resigned from the Senate in 2004 and Maida Coleman ascended to the role.
It also happened in 2016 when Joe Keaveny resigned from the Senate and I ascended to the role. Because of this practice, tradition and custom, Senator John Rizzo will now serve as minority floor leader. He is an intelligent and successful public servant and I anticipate he will be a fantastic leader for our caucus.
What It Means
· This move had been rumored since Walsh received a promotion at her job last year.
· Walsh fostered a good working relationship with the Senate majority during her time as leader. In resulted in a lot of compromises that the Democratic felt were necessary given their status a a super minority in the chamber.
· This will likely be continued under Rizzo.
GOP on Dem Targets
One Republican looking at the House Dems’ “Claire District” targets thinks the map looks pretty good for the GOP.
Three of the targeted districts have no Dem filed, as of yet. The margins that R's won in 2018 for most of those targeted districts were pretty high…
· House 10: 17-point margin (no Dem yet).
· House 16: 10-point margin.
· House 30: 6-point margin (no Dem yet). Plus, Rep. Jon Patterson (30th) is a top-tier candidate with name ID in his district, and unlimited fundraising ability.
· House 47: 13-point margin.
· House 106: 15-point margin (no Dem yet).
· House 135: There is a Green Party candidate which will help Helms keep his spot.
· The only close races from '18 are in 65 (Hannegan) and 94 (Murphy). If Bernie is at the top of the ticket, those won't be in play.
· And Dems will have to defend the House 35 (Ingle) and House 99 (Gunby). With less than 100k COH, will not be easy.
More Labor Money Coming to Pro-Mantovani PAC?
One hallway denizen thinks that the Carpenters’ $250K to the Pro-Mark Mantovani PAC, Change STL, was not an isolated event. And we’ll see other labor organizations also get involved in the St. Louis County Executive’s race.
We’ll see…
CC Knocks Hough Bill Off Consent Calendar
All six senators of the Conservative Caucus signed a notice to Adriane Crouse, Secretary of the Senate, asking that Sen. Lincoln Hough’s SRB 796 be knocked off the consent calendar.
SRB 796 “repeals expired, ineffective, and obsolete statutory provisions.” See it here.
DHSS’ FAQs
The Department of Health and Senior Services has published some “frequently asked questions” about the medical marijuana process, pushing back against some commonly heard criticism. See it here.
Why did some facility applicants submit identical responses to application scoring questions and receive different scores?
The most common reason for a facility receiving different scores for the same or similar response is because the responses were submitted as part of different facility type applications and thus scored by different individuals. For example, if an applicant submitted the same or similar response to a question in a cultivation application as they did in a dispensary application, the cultivation response would have been graded by one person and the dispensary response would have been graded by a different person. All questions within a facility type were graded by the same person. So Question 47 in every cultivation application was graded by Person A; Question 47 in every dispensary application was graded by Person B. This is what was provided for in the rules, which were published before any applications were submitted, and this process is fair to all applicants since each facility type only competes against other applications within that facility type. Moreover, the attributes that a grader would look for in an answer for one facility type would not necessarily be the same attributes needed in a different facility type. For example, a high quality security plan for a large scale cultivation greenhouse should differ significantly from a security plan in a manufacturing facility or a retail dispensary.
Bits
· Daily Kos rates Missouri’s gubernatorial race as “safe Republican.” See it here.
· Post Dispatch reports that “Alderman Larry Arnowitz, who abruptly resigned Tuesday afternoon, will turn himself into federal authorities Wednesday, his lawyer said… Defense lawyer Patrick Conroy said Arnowitz, 66, would turn himself in to federal authorities Wednesday morning to face a federal fraud charge. “He made a mistake,” Conroy said. “We anticipate that the government’s going to allege that the alderman converted some monies from his campaign fund for personal use,” he said… Conroy said that the amount involved is approximately $20,000…”
· Sign-gate in St. Louis! KMOV reports that “a South City man is frustrated after he said he came home to find a political campaign sign in his yard that was put there without his permission. Chris Caldwell told News 4 he returned home from work Sunday and found a sign for Michelle Sherod in his yard, a candidate for Missouri state Senate. He believes a campaign staffer placed it there… He said he reached out to the Elections Ethics Commission and was told to call Sherod's campaign. He tried, he said, but wasn't able to get in touch with her. News 4 also tried and was not able to get through…”
· Parkville Mayor Nan Johnston was fined $5,242 for a whole bunch of campaign finance violations. See the Missouri Ethics Commission order here.
New Candidate Filings
Eric Morrison filed to run for governor as a Democrat.
Terrence Fiala filed to run for House 6 as a Democrat. The incumbent, Republican Rep. Tim Remole, is termed.
Deannette Lemons filed to run for House 12 as a Republican. This creates a Republican primary to replace termed Rep. Ken Wilson.
Vince (John) Moreland, Jr. filed to run for House 99 as a Republican. This creates a Republican primary with Lee Ann Pitman who ran for this seat in the special election. The winner will take on Democratic Rep. Trish Gunby.
New Committees
Arizona Democratic Party - MO Non-Fed was formed. It’s a Federal PAC. Its treasurer is Lauren Gepford.
Rhonda Dolan formed a candidate committee (Dolan for Missouri) to run for House 31 as a Democrat.
Ronald Copeland formed a candidate committee (Citizens for Ron Copeland) to run for House 143 as a Republican.
Bill Yarberry formed a candidate committee (Yarberry for State Senator) to run for Senate 31 as a Republican.
$5K+ Contributions
Page PAC - $7,400 from William Danforth.
Page PAC - $10,000 from World Wide Technology Holding Company, LLC.
KCFOP PAC - $6,150 from Kansas City Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 99.
Lobbyist Registrations
Franc Flotron and Richard McIntosh deleted Enginuity Biopower LLC.
Franc Flotron, David McCracken, Janet Hirschman and Richard McIntosh deleted Medical Transportation Management.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Sen. Dan Hegeman, and Rochelle Gray.