MOScout Daily Update: More on HB 1854 - CL PAC Responds - Greitens Again? - Schmitt Hearts Flynn and more...
Follow-up on HB 1854
MOScout building denizens say HB 1854 was vetted and should stand…
· Those TDD/CID provisions were in the Senate Sub version of HB 1854 for two weeks until the House passed it late Friday afternoon. Only bill where Lincoln Hough/Elijah Haahr Springfield early childhood education ballot provision made it across the finish line. No veto...
· Had to chuckle about the 1854 “freak out” this morning. Andrew Koenig’s bill had a senate hearing, was vetted on the senate floor in HB1854 and was vetted in a House committee. When 1854 languished on the Senate calendar for a week no one said a word. No one said a word after hours of debate and there was never any attempt to hide the intent of the language. It was pretty clear. But now that it’s TAFP’d... Sorry, but this is no #dontdigdeep situation.
Hummel Gets AFL-CIO’s Top Spot
Press release: The Missouri AFL-CIO, the state's leading voice for working families, is proud to announce the election of Jake Hummel as the next President of the Missouri AFL-CIO and Merri Berry as the organization’s next Secretary-Treasurer. Hummel and Berry were elected Tuesday by a unanimous vote of the Missouri AFL-CIO’s executive board to replace out-going President Mike Louis who has announced he will be retiring on June 30, 2020… Hummel, current Secretary-Treasurer of the Missouri AFL-CIO, is an electrician with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local One. He previously served as the President of the St. Louis City Labor Club, a Missouri State Senator, and as the Democratic Floor Leader in the Missouri House of Representatives.
Berry, current Political Director of the Missouri AFL-CIO, is the first woman elected as a state-level officer in the organization’s history. Berry, a 40-year member of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 655, previously served as the Organizing and Political Director of UFCW Local 655…
Senate 29: CL PAC Responds
One day after Peter Herschend sent $10K to a pro-David Cole PAC, the Conservative Caucus’ CL PAC responded by sending $10K to the Table Rock Conservative PAC, a pro-Mike Moon PAC.
· And one FOCC (Friend of the Conservative Caucus) tells me that “There isn’t any real challenge to Eigel that CL PAC will have to pull support from others about. Any limited support or defense of Eigel would likely come from BILL PAC, but don’t expect that to be significant…”
Greitens Again?
Former governor Eric Greitens drew eye-rolls once more as he unveiled a new website, presumably part of some image rehabilitation effort. See it here.
Social media, predictably, wasn’t kind, noting for example that his biography crows about his “Black Belt in Taekwondo,” but doesn’t even have a cursory mention that he’s a father.
· What’s Greitens’ end-game? One GOP operative: “You never know with him. I could see him attempting to challenge Roy Blunt in a few years or try to get an appointment in a 2nd Trump Administration.”
Schmitt Bits
· Attorney General Eric Schmitt is among 15 GOP AGs supporting Michael Flynn’s effort to extricate himself from his previous guilty pleas. See it here. In a legal brief obtained by CNN, the Republican attorneys general wrote they believed that Judge Emmet Sullivan's questioning of the Justice Department was the court "inserting itself" into "prosecutorial discretion" and politics. They urged Sullivan to dismiss the case, ending Flynn's legal jeopardy. They also asked him to dismiss Flynn's charge "without irrelevant or personal comment."
· P-D’s Jack Suntrup reports that the second floor braced for retaliation from China after Schmitt’s lawsuit last month. See it here. On April 22, the day after the attorney general’s office sued, Rob Dixon, director of the Department of Economic Development, sent an email to Aaron Willard, Parson’s chief of staff, and Drew Erdmann, the state chief operating officer. Sandra Karsten, director of the Department of Public Safety, was copied on the email. “We are expecting some degree of retaliation against Missouri as a response to the Attorney General’s lawsuit against the Chinese government, Chinese Communist Party, and other Chinese officials and institutions,” Dixon said. “Of most immediate concern: the potential to disrupt PPE shipments and cyberattacks.”
Read Talks of Complaint
Annette Read tells KSDK of her sexual harassment complaint against St. Louis County Councilman Ernis Trakas, and says Sam Page “discouraged” her. See it here.
“When asked if Page discouraged Read from filing the complaint, his spokesman Doug Moore wrote: ‘No. The County Executive told the County Counselor to look into her complaints. The investigation’s results are consistent with what she told him – that Councilman Trakas is a difficult person to work for.’
Thompson Coburn, concluded in November that it could not substantiate any conduct by Trakas that ‘violates St. Louis County policy or applicable law,’ according to documents obtained by 5 On Your Side… Despite exonerating Trakas of any wrongdoing, the firm then worked for about four months to negotiate the $60,000 settlement with Read. Her yearly salary was about $45,000…”
$5K+ Contributions
Table Rock Conservative PAC - $10,001 from CL PAC.
Pfzier Missouri Political Action Committee Federal Committee - $6,000 from Pfizer Inc PAC.
True North PAC - $5,001 from Teamsters Local 41 Political Action Fund.
Uniting Missouri PAC - $10,000 from Alkin Co.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Justin Arnold, Jim Guest, and Kyle Juvers.