MOScout Weekender: MedEx Submits Sigs - MEC for Trent - Poll Shows Parson Lead - Hallway on Process - WWTW and more...

MedEx Campaign Submits Signatures

From the press release: At a time when access to healthcare is needed more than ever, a group of Missouri doctors and Medicaid expansion advocates on Friday submitted more than twice as many signatures from Missourians as required to put the initiative directly before voters in November.

If approved, Medicaid expansion will help keep rural hospitals open, deliver billions in economic stimulus and help hundreds of thousands of hardworking Missourians, who have jobs that don’t come with insurance, get access to life-saving care…

Thanks to a strong, early start in fall 2019, the Healthcare for Missouri campaign and its volunteers were able to collect voter signatures before the coronavirus outbreak shut down public life in March, submitting to the Secretary of State’s Office petitions signed by nearly 350,000 Missourians. Roughly 172,000 verified and validated voter signatures are required to qualify for the November general election ballot…

MEC for Trent

Word is that Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman is now backing Rep. Curtis Trent for majority floor leader.

The leadership race election will take place in November immediately following the general election.

Trent and Rep. Dean Plocher are vying for the spot in a race most consider too-close-to-call.

Coleman is considered a leader in the freshman class, and she’d previously support Plocher.

Remington/MOScout Poll: Parson Holds Lead

Survey conducted April 28 through April 29, 2020. 1,356 likely 2020 General Election voters participated in the survey. Survey weighted to match expected turnout demographics for the 2020 General Election. Margin of Error is +/-2.6%. Totals do not always equal 100% due to rounding. Survey conducted by Remington Research Group on behalf of Missouri Scout.  Find full results here.

Q1: Do you approve or disapprove of Donald Trump’s job performance as President?

Approve: 51%

Disapprove: 45%

Not sure: 4%

Q2: Possible candidates in the November 2020 General Election for Governor of Missouri are the Republican Mike Parson and the Democrat Nicole Galloway. If the election were held today, for whom would you vote?

Mike Parson: 52%

Nicole Galloway: 39%

Undecided: 9%

Q3: Governor Mike Parson announced a plan to reopen Missouri’s economy on May 4th. Do you approve or disapprove of this plan?

Approve: 50%

Disapprove: 40%

Not sure: 10%

Q4: What is your opinion of the state government’s response to the coronavirus?

They’re overreacting: 14%

They’re handling it correctly: 50%

They’re not doing enough: 29%

No opinion: 7%

Q5: Do you support an amendment to the Missouri Constitution to expand Medicaid for persons 19 to 64 years old with an income level at or below 133% of the federal poverty level, as set forth in the Affordable Care Act?

Strongly support: 30%

Somewhat support: 24%

Somewhat oppose: 17%

Strongly oppose: 15%

Not sure: 14%

MOScout’s Hallway Index: Process Concerns

Given the social distancing rules in place, and the omnibus bills growing in the legislature, I wondered: How concerned are you about transparency and the fairness of the legislative process during these final weeks of session?  29 replies…

RESULTS

1.  Very concerned…62% 

2.  Somewhat concerned…24%

3.  Not concerned…3%

4.  No more concerned than usual…10%

Sample of Comments

·         There are going to be bad things put into legislation that will have to be undone that in the meantime will be damaging to Missourians. If I had a competitive election, I would be very tempted to vote “NO” on everything that I didn’t have time to read.

·         It’s like a legislators’ dream - lock the lobbyists out of the building and pass what we want.

·         Here is what we heard-Stay out of the building, watch remotely whenever possible and we are working on budget and COVID priorities. What we have is mega omni bus bills with no amendment discussion, sketchy remote access and everything is in play. I think there was better process at the Oklahoma land rush.

·         Trying to re-invent a system for crafting laws that wasn't meant to work like this during the most critical time of the session is bound to have bad outcomes. Building up robust systems to handle this and lines of communication takes years to accomplish. Give credit where its due...the House is in a better position than the Senate but both will experience significant growing pains.

·         I think the House and Senate have made a very good effort to open the process as much as possible. Members and staff have been very receptive to calls and emails. There will be a lot of complaining that individuals were left out, but that's just the way it always is. Some days you just have to do the work for yourself.

·         There are always omnibus bills at the end of session as time crunches down. Legislators are doing their best to roll non-controversial provisions into the underlying bill and making their colleagues offer other provisions as stand-alone amendments that must be voted up or down.

·         This process is atrocious. The legislature needs to take a step back. Many lawsuits are coming.

·         These monstrous subs are ridiculous. Why people hate government

·         The first 3 days have been a mess. Nobody is sure what’s in any bill and it’s hard to track via web. The legislature, through their actions, are inviting everyone back to the Capitol to make sure they don’t continue to bungle through the next 2 weeks. They’re also demonstrating that they have a hard time lawmaking without lobbyists holding their incompetent hands.

·         Legislators I have reached out to electronically have been incredibly responsive and I think they are doing the best they can but taking on ambitious policy items in this environment will likely cause problems.

·         After the last few days...very. Used to having factors beyond my control but the current situation makes it particularly rough.

Who Won the Week

Ron Hicks – This week the Special Committee on Regulatory Oversight and Reform became the central factory for House omnibus bill making.  Hicks is the chair of ROAR.

Medicaid Expansion campaign – They dropped twice the number of required signatures at the secretary of state’s office; the country’s in the middle of the greatest health crisis in a generation; and still no well-funded opposition campaign organizing.

Chuck Hatfield – As close to a local celebrity as a Jeff City lawyer can come, Hatfield is expected to be in demand as groups consider Hammerschmidt challenges to the omnibus bills moving through the House.  One lobbyist quipped: Hatfield will need an agent.

Legislative leaders – These are the times – extraordinary times – with a time crunch, when the power tends to consolidate to an even greater degree into the hands of those in leadership.

Find a downloadable version here.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Scott Dieckhaus, Jac Cardetti, and David Smith.

Sunday: Sarah Unsicker, Sarah Steelman, Roy Temple, Susan Henderson Moore, Joe Carmichael, Alvin Brooks, Steve Danner, and Michael Frame.