MOScout Daily Update: Court Rewrites CLEANER - Senate Hearing Crime Bills - GOP Gubby Poll - Recession Over? and more...
Court Rewrite CLEANER Again
The Western District Court of Appeals rewrote the CLEANER ballot language yet again. The latest reworking is more favorable to the proponents of the proposal, but still not as advantageous as the original language put forth by the legislature.
The new language is….
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:
• Ban gifts from paid lobbyists to legislators and their employees;
• Reduce legislative campaign contribution limits;
• Change the redistricting process voters approved in 2018 by: (i) transferring responsibility for drawing state legislative districts from the Nonpartisan State Demographer to Governor-appointed bipartisan commissions; (ii)modifying and reordering the redistricting criteria.
What It Means
The redistricting bullet point is still one which will likely hurt the prospects of the proposal at the ballot box. Voters might get suspicious of changing “the redistricting process voters approved in 2018” and transferring responsibility from “the Nonpartisan State Demographer.”
· But moving it back to the third bullet point spot helps deemphasizing.
Driving the Day: Senate Hearings on Crime Bills
Senate Committee will conduct hearing on the five crime bills passed by the House last week.
11AM Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety Committee will hear…
· HB 11 – Schroer - Modifies the offense of endangering the welfare of a child in the first degree.
· HCS HB 46 – Hicks - Modifies the power of the City of St. Louis to impose residency requirements on certain municipal personnel.
· HB 66 – Patterson - Creates the "Pretrial Witness Protection Services Fund."
2PM Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee will hear…
· HCS HB 2 – Hovis - Establishes provisions relating to the admissibility of certain witness statements.
· HCS HB 16 – Schroer - Changes the offense of unlawful transfer of weapons to include a Class E felony for transferring a firearm to a minor for the purpose of avoiding, interfering with, or preventing an arrest, detention, or investigation.
And the Fiscal Oversight Committee is teed up for a 9:30AM meeting tomorrow pending referrals.
Rs Release Gubby Poll
Uniting Missouri, the pro-Mike Parson PAC, released a poll yesterday to rebut talk that Missouri is tightening. It shows Trump ahead of Biden in Missouri by 10, and Parson leading Galloway by nearly 15. See it here.
The poll was conducted last week by the Trafalgar Group.
Jami Eyes Next Run
Sen. Jamilah Nasheed on Facebook and Twitter asks “What do you all want me to run for in the STL?”
Nasheed is term limited.
Recession Over?
St. Louis Business Journal reports on comments by St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard. See it here.
· Bullard said, "I think the recession was only two months, even though it was very sharp."
· "You've gotten the disease under better and better control every day. Businesses are learning how to adapt and get their revenue streams back to where they were," he said.
· Third-quarter economic growth is on track for 20% or even 25% or more at an annual rate, Bullard said. "I think you'll continue to grow in the fourth quarter and the first quarter" of 2021, he said.
· He said mask-wearing is quickly becoming ubiquitous. “If we get to that situation, we’ll have the disease under control,” he said.
What It Means
Last week when I wrote about the big issues facing the next governor, a common theme was a fear of ongoing budget problems stemming in part from a weak economy. If Bullard is correct, perhaps that won’t be such a prominent feature of the landscape over the coming years.
Reader: SOS (Same Old Scoring)
Burst out laughing at your entry from the RFP for the Capitol cafeteria that “food quality” is only worth 10 out of 200 points… I ate in said venue virtually five days a week, 50 weeks a year, from 1980-84 when I was in the Governor’s Office. I would say the 5% scoring criterion must have been about the same back then….
eMailbag: Proliferation of Guns
Imagine your city is being overrun by cows, thousands of them, but the problem is that the inhabitants of the state in which the city is located believe that cows are sacred and cannot be corralled in any way. The St. Louis Public Safety director is correct to say that the problem of gun violence in St. Louis is an excess of guns. But the population of his state believes that guns are sacred and cannot be corralled. Gov. Parson's extra session on crime will do nothing to curb violent crime in the urban centers because there is no controlling the sacred cows.
New Committees
Joshua Shackles formed a candidate committee (Committee to Elect Joshua Shackles) to run for House 116 as a Democrat.
Dewanna Marquez formed a candidate committee (Citizens for Dee Marquez) to run for House 129 as a Democrat.
Fiscal Missouri PAC was formed. Its treasurer is Richard C Pfeifer.
Ready by Five STL City was formed. It’s a PAC. Its treasurer is Stephen Westbrooks.
$5K+ Contributions
Missourians for Healthcare - $100,053 from Organization for Black Struggle.
House Republican Campaign Committee, Inc - $15,000 from Ameren Missouri.
Missouri Forward PAC - $10,000 from RAI Services Company.
Missouri Forward PAC - $7,500 from Richard Miller.
Lobbyists Registrations
Christopher Hankins added Chris Hankins.
Shawn Furey and Francis Gerard Slay deleted Home State Health Plan.
Darryl Piggee deleted Rebuild Saint Louis Inc.
Morgan Scott Corder deleted Missouri Attorney General's Office.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Rachael Klarich and Brian McCallister.