MOScout Daily Update: Who's Working for MedEx Campaign - Anti-MedEx Committee Forms - More on STL County Exec Race and more...
Medicaid Expansion Battle Looms
With the Medicaid expansion question placed on the August ballot, the campaign is moving into action. Missourians for Healthcare, the campaign committee for the pro-expansion forces, filed a report last week with the Missouri Ethics Commission. It was for the 15 Days after the petition delaine and covered contributions and expenditures from the start of April through the middle of May.
There wasn’t much to see on the contributions side of the campaign. Although it’s important to note that since the middle of May, the campaign has recorded over $1.3 million in large checks.
The expenditures, though, did show some of the consultants who are working on the campaign. They’re from across the political spectrum who’s working on the campaign.
· Missouri Jobs with Justice is being paid for “grassroots outreach.” They’re a left-leaning organization.
· And so is Chris Molendorp, a former Republican state representative.
· Tightline Public Affairs is doing communications. That’s Jac Cardetti’s outfit. He’d previously served for Democratic officials.
· National Research Strategies LLC is being paid for strategic advising and planning. One assumes this is Republican strategist David Barklage. The address for Nation Research is the same as The Barklage Group.
· And Missouri Capital Solutions LLC was paid for “legislative management.” That presumably was to try to thwart some of the decoy ballot propositions floated during session from making it to the finish line. Missouri Capitol is registered to lobbyist Jacqueline Bardgett. She often works with Chris Roepe, former Republican staffer in the Senate.
The No Campaign
Meanwhile a committee has formed to oppose MedEx. No on 2 August was formed. See its paperwork here.
Its treasurer is Debra McClelland. This brings speculation that Travis Brown’s First Rule is coordinating the opposition. However, there’s no evidence (yet) that Rex Sinquefield will be funding the anti-campaign.
We’ll see….
Follow-Up on STL County Exec
Following up on what I’ve written about the St. Louis County race, I’ve heard from a few supporters of Mark Mantovani. They feel pretty good about where Mantovani is right now.
· Remington's IVR is spot on… I also wanted to point out [Remington’s poll from the last County Exec race in May 2018… It showed] Stenger at 50% and Mantovani at 15%; McCulloch at 46% and Bell at 28%. Stenger had similar tracking at the same time. Notice that the incumbents never moved and Mark tied and Bell one. I would guess that Sam [Page] is probably topped out.
· While over 70% of the respondents thought Sam was doing a good job on the COVID response, that only translated into 34% support. 2. Sam has been on TV nearly every day the last 2 months with nothing from his opponents so his name ID is pretty high yet he only has 34% support and 30% undecided. 3. Jake [Zimmerman]and Mark have a combined 3 times the amount of money has Sam. Once they start hitting him that number is gonna drop.
WSJ: Remote Learning Misfired
The coronavirus created a forced test-run to the long-promised notion of virtual schools, and the Wall Street Journal reports: it didn’t go so well. See it here.
This spring, America took an involuntary crash course in remote learning. With the school year now winding down, the grade from students, teachers, parents and administrators is already in: It was a failure.
School districts closed campuses in March in response to the coronavirus pandemic and, with practically no time at all for planning or training, launched a grand experiment to educate more than 50 million students from kindergarten through 12th grade using technology.
The problems began piling up almost immediately. There were students with no computers or internet access. Teachers had no experience with remote learning. And many parents weren’t available to help.
In many places, lots of students simply didn’t show up online, and administrators had no good way to find out why not. Soon many districts weren’t requiring students to do any work at all, increasing the risk that millions of students would have big gaps in their learning…
eMailbag: What The Greitens Comeback Says About Us
The sad thing about the Greitens video is that it will work. A candidate is better off having a tale to tell about being the target of a partisan witch hunt than actually having a record of accomplishment that involves building interparty consensus. That is the state of politics in America…
New Committees
Ron Fauss formed a candidate committee (Friends of Fauss for House Committee) to run for House 53 as a Democrat.
No on 2 in August was formed. It’s a campaign committee. Its treasurer is Debra McClelland.
STL Justice was formed. It’s a PAC. Its treasurer is Terence Niehoff.
Make Missouri Great PAC was formed. Its treasurer is William Greim.
Michael Todd formed a candidate committee (Citizens to Elect Michael Todd) to run for the House of Representatives in 2026. It being well after the next redistricting, Todd hasn’t decided on a district yet (or party affiliate). But he’s from Grain Valley, that’s currently in House 32.
Lobbyist Registrations
Joan Gummels terminated her lobbying registration.
$5K+ Contributions
St. Louis Rising - $167,500 from Pelopidas, LLC.
St. Louis Rising - $74,583 from Pelopidas, LLC.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Tricia Workman and Stephen Webber.
Congratulations
To Hannah Beers and Wes Sutton their marriage over the weekend. Hannah Beers is with Clout Public Affairs, and Sutton is the Legislative Liaison for the Division of Professional Registration. They plan to celebrate with friends and family in September.