MOScout Daily Update: The Revenge of the Speaker - Rowden's Message - Bahr Memo - Child Care and the COVID Economy and more...
Haahr Strikes Back
In a power move, the House adjourned from special session yesterday without even debating several of the pending pieces of legislation from the governor’s anti-crime package.
Some saw this as Speaker Elijah Haahr’s revenge on the Senate.
During session, the House and Senate warred in legislative combat over a prohibition against the use of eminent domain in a proposed energy transmission project. The speaker strongly supported the prohibition and the Senate, after unknowingly passing the provision, took the unprecedented act of reconsidering a TAFP bill.
Now months later, after watching the Senate muster extraordinary effort to pass the governor’s jurisdiction bill, the House’s refusal to even consider the proposal was a return slap in the face.
Meanwhile
The governor tried to put a happy face on the disappointment outcome of his long and increasing tiresome special session. From the News Tribune: Most of Parson's agenda never came to a final vote, after House lawmakers declined to take any action Wednesday on bills returned to it from the Senate with changes. "Look, you're not going to hit a home run every time in this building," Parson said Wednesday afternoon after the session had ended…
· When asked about a special session for COVID liability, the governor said he supported it, but needed the legislature to have a path for the legislation plotted out beforehand. Good idea.
Senate 19 Battle
Republicans are concerned about all three battleground Senate races this year. But for lobbyists the Senate 19 race has the highest stakes. Floor Leader Caleb Rowden is up for re-election there. If he were to lose to Democrat Judy Baker, it would plunge that Senate leadership position into a sudden frenzy.
Team Rowden is confident while acknowledging that environment is challenging. MOScout’s poll a few weeks ago showed Rowden up 5 points, but still under 50%. And President Donald Trump’s favorability was negative in the district.
Their message appears to be that Rowden is someone who can work across the aisle. He’s a bipartisan problem solver while Baker is hyper-partisan.
Their plan is to overwhelm Baker on resources and hammer their message home like they did against Stephen Webber four years ago (missed votes, anyone?).
Child Care and COVID Economy
DSS’ recently rescinded their COVID policy of reimbursing child care centers for enrollment rather than attendance. “Child care subsidy payments for August 2020 will return to normal and be based on the child’s actual attendance.”
This puts the incentives in the wrong place.
The Centers for Disease Control published a report observing the transmission of COVID-19 from young children to adults in childcare settings in Utah. See it here.
It confirms that “COVID-19 is less severe in children than adults but children can still play a role in transmission.”
“The study found that transmission likely occurred in children with confirmed COVID-19 in a child care facility to 25% of their non facility contacts…”
This means that when a child is sick, it’s best if the child stays home so they don’t get the staff and parents of other kids sick.
By returning to payments for attendance rather than enrollment, child care centers will lose the revenue when they turn away a sick child, or find themselves following the financial incentive by caring for children who can COVID.
Advocates concern is that the reduction in revenue as centers only received payment for attendance will lead to closing of centers, and a long-term decline in capacity for child care – a critical component for Missouri economy as employment returns and parents rely on those services.
Voting about Voting
During their caucus meeting, Republican representatives voted 53-30 in favor of using the electronic method (versus paper ballot) when they vote on leadership races after the election.
One Dean Plocher supporter saw the vote as favorable tea leaf for Plocher: Curtis Trent supporters pushed for the change and spoke in favor of the paper ballot method… If that isn't a sign Curtis Trent is going to lose his race, I don't know what is.
We’ll see…
Bahr Memo
Former Rep. Kurt Bahr, now Elections Director in St. Charles County, got dinged in the press yesterday when a memo surfaced instructing poll workers about wearing (or not wearing) a mask on Election Day. See it here.
The email sent at about 11 a.m. from the St. Charles County Election Authority told poll workers they would not be required to wear a mask, but would have to keep one handy and put it on if a voter asks. But in announcing the policy, the email suggested poll workers confronted by voters about their masks to “act surprised.”
“You may act surprised that you don’t have a face mask on properly and then apologize as you put the mask on,” an elections recruiter wrote in the email. “Wear your mask correctly until the voter leaves the polling place. Please do this every time a voter says something to you.”
Critics of the email’s instructions were misinterpreting it, said Kurt Bahr, Election Authority director, after the office received complaints about the directive.
The directive to “act surprised” was meant to give poll workers a way to quickly acknowledge that weren’t wearing the mask, if confronted by voters, put it on and then continue with administering elections, Bahr said...
$5K+ Contributions
Uniting Missouri PAC - $2,000,000 from Republican Governors Association – Missouri.
Rural Missouri Healthcare PAC - $6,000 from William Solomon.
House Republican Campaign Committee, Inc - $10,000 from Spirit of Missouri.
House Republican Campaign Committee, Inc - $5,250 from Friends of Rusty Black.
Lobbyists Registrations
Mike Gibbons and Tricia Workman added Dan Hinkle.
Sonette Magnus added Central West End Neighborhood Security Initiative (NSI).
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Governor Mike Parson, Bill Webster, Margaret Kelly, Ryan Burke, Tom McDonald, and Travis Smith.