MOScout Daily Update: What Will Session Look Like? - How Uniting MO Spent $2M - DHSS Tweaks MMJ and more...

Corona Update

·         “Stay-at-home” orders were extended by local municipalities as well as by Governor Mike Parson.

·         But there’s a growing unrest among folks who are ready to “re-open.”  See an article about the protests across the country here.

·         And Parson apparently declined to join the “Midwest governors” bloc, perhaps in order to make it clear he’ll re-open when he sees fit.  Right now the implication seems to be at least a qualified re-opening after this current order expires on May 4.

What Will Session Look Like?

Folks are trying to figure out what the mini-session will look like, and as far a I can tell no one knows right now.

·         I’m told there’s no “List” as of yet, that is: there’s no predetermined priorities that leadership has drawn up.  Obviously, every lobbyist and legislator wants their item to be on the list.  Right now, there is no list.

·         Speaker Elijah Haahr’s top priority is said to be the Grain Belt anti-eminent domain legislation in the Senate.  This could be a significant trading chip as Senate priorities sit in the House.

What can be accomplished will be determined by how the chambers decide to operate. 

·         If the House with its 163 members wants to continue social distanced debating, how much time will be allotted and how much needs to be pre-negotiated?

·         Can the Senate operate under a more rigid format while adhering to its tradition of debate drawing out compromises?

·         One lobbyist imagines committee chairs getting discretion to create broadly titled bills and throwing in whatever they deem appropriate, followed by a big negotiation.  This would allow the process to only have a few big bills to pass instead of laboring over several small ones.  But how will that negotiation play out in a way that gives all stakeholders a chance to have input?

·         Given constraints, it’s very possible there will be very little done besides the budget, with special sessions later in the year to hit priorities of the governor and GOP majorities.

From Readers

·         If Republicans want to avoid any blowback from calling legislators back into session too soon, then they must replicate their approach to the supplemental budget, i.e. have everything worked out in advance, limit debates and socially distance the voting. Adding anything else to the agenda will force lobbyists and the public to populate the Capitol and put EVERYONE at risk. Governor Parson says we need more testing before we can determine if they state is ready to reopen - the same should apply to session. If even one person gets sick because of their reckless actions, then expect the Democrats to blame Republicans for their indifference to the impacts of disease and their aggressive push to prioritize politics over people.

·         Curious comment from your reader about how Dems need to behave. So let me get this straight- GOP gets to endanger everyone’s health so they can come back and pass Clean MO, but Dems can’t use procedural motions because that would be too dangerous for people’s health? Screw that. If you’re gonna come back to screw people over, then you’re gonna have to play by the same rules as always.

·         I spit out my coffee this morning at whomever thinks the Senate Democrats won’t be allowed to use the Rules because the Republicans are calling the Democrats back into session during the covid crisis.

MO Unemployment Ahead of US Rate

For the first time in years the Missouri unemployment rate was higher than the U.S. rate.  March unemployment in Missouri jumped to 4.5% ahead of the 4.4% rate across the nation as a whole.

But with estimates that April’s unemployment number will come in around 20%, March’s number is largely irrelevant.

Uniting Missouri’s $2M Spend

Last quarter the pro-Mike Parson PAC, Uniting Missouri spent $2 million.  It still has $3.8 million cash on-hand. 

Most of it, about $1.7 million, went to Pinpoint Media (Alexandria, VA) for media buys.

The rest was largely to Missouri political firms and consultants…

·         Polling by American Viewpoint (Alexandria, VA) - $71,000

·         CS Strategies LLC (Washington DC) - $40,000

·         Majority Strategies (digital media) (Jacksonville FL)- $47,000

·         Capital Enhancement (Karen Day) - $34,000

·         Axiom Strategies and affiliated companies - $23,000

·         The Barklage Company - $23,000

·         Palm Strategies - $23,000

·         Swiftkurrent Inc. (digital media) (Manchester by the Sea, MA) – $19,000

·         Hancock & Prouty LLC - $17,000

·         Carolinas Campaign Consulting - $13,000

·         Christopher Ave (communications director) - $6,000

·         The Kam Co - $1,000

And

The pro-Mike Kehoe’s PAC, American Dream PAC, spent about $250K last quarter with consultant Camelback Strategy Group (see their website here).  It’s the firm run by Jon Seaton who ran John McCain’s presidential campaign.

DHSS Makes MMJ Tweaks

Playing catch-up on this news release from earlier in the week…

The Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) has settled two appeals of medical marijuana facility application denials. As a result of these settlements, DHSS will issue one new medical marijuana testing facility license and will exchange an existing medical marijuana dispensary license for a new medical marijuana dispensary license.

The new testing facility license will be issued to Green Precision Analytics, Inc., which was the fifth highest ranked testing facility applicant. This will become the only testing facility in the Kansas City area.

The new dispensary facility license will be issued to BeLeaf Medical LLC for a facility on Manchester Ave. in St. Louis, Missouri, which was the eighteenth highest scoring applicant within Congressional District 1. BeLeaf Medical LLC will surrender its existing dispensary facility license on Lafayette Ave. in St. Louis, Missouri. Both BeLeaf Medical LLC applications received the same initial score and were “tied” in Congressional District 1.

In both instances, DHSS determined settlement best serves implementation of Article XIV, as the settlements will provide for two of the highest scoring applicants to contribute to enhanced patient access without placing additional product in the marketplace. Neither case involved allegations with regard to scoring, as both applicants received scores among the very top….

New Committees

Saundra McDowell formed a candidate committee (Saundra McDowell for Missouri to run for governor as a Republican.

Jerry Adzima formed a candidate committee (Friends of Jerry Adzima) to run for House 70 as a Republican.  His treasurer is Mark Matthiesen.

Lobbyists Registrations

David Winton added FedEx Corporation.

Health Clarkston, Doug Nelson, and Kurt Schaefer added AIM Laboratories.

Steven Tilley and Thomas Robbins added Progressive Resources LLC.

$5K+Contributions

Citizens to Elect Charles Blair for Sheriff - $20,000 from Charles Blair.

Committee to Elect Ronald Haught Jr for Sheriff - $10,000 from Ronald Haught Jr.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Tom Rackers, Joe Pierle, Ryan Silvey, Vivian Murphy, Gregg Hartley, Sarah Fenske, and Patrick Shami.