MOScout Daily Update: Jeanne Sinquefield Gives - Adjusting for the Long Term - SNL on Mask Mandate - Few Undecideds and more...

Jeanne Sinquefield Hearts Kehoe

Jeanne Sinquefield gave $200,000 to the American Dream PAC.  That’s the pro-Mike Kehoe PAC.

·         One MOScouter says: I know Rex is re-evaluating all the pledges…  but Kehoe has a personal relationship with Rex and Jeanne based on non-political ties which helped ensure the follow-through in this case.

·         It’s only the third time since 2008 that Jeanne Sinquefield has made a sole political contribution over $5,000.

·         Here are Kehoe and Sinquefield highlighting the Boy Scouts of America.

Adjusting for the Long Term

Wall Street Journal reports: “Plenty of CEOs remain stuck working from home and boards may still be meeting virtually, but companies are shifting their sights from surviving the coronavirus pandemic to charting new courses through it.  That attitude is a change from earlier in the year, when most U.S. companies spent the first months of the pandemic hunkering down, slashing costs, hoarding cash and pulling their financial forecasts. As the coronavirus’s spread continues in the U.S. and abroad, businesses have concluded they’ll coexist with it for some time. So they are reviving stalled operational plans, changing leaders and reissuing financial targets…”

What It Means

Live with a crisis long enough and crisis management eventually fades.  There are big questions facing state government as we consider “coexisting” with the coronavirus for “some time.”

·         Should there be a permanent shift in the state’s workforce?  How many can work from home? How many services can be handled remotely?

·         How necessary were some of the laws and regulations that Governor Mike Parson suspended? Can they be jettisoned as part of a broader systemic deregulation?

·         Have we learned enough about remote learning to undertake a massive overhaul of our educational institutions?

Few Undecideds in Final Weeks

Five weeks until the election, and a lot of money about to spent on radio, TV and internet, but it looks like there are relatively few undecided voters left.

·         This CD-2 poll which the Jill Schupp campaign highlighted late last week has her tied with Congresswoman Ann Wagner 49%-49% with 2% undecided.

·         The same poll shows the presidential race in that Congressional district with 3% undecided.

·         The MOScout/Remington statewide poll from the weekend had 2% undecided on the presidential election, and 5% undecided on the gubernatorial race.

·         There’re more undecideds farther down the ballot (recent MOScout polls showed 21% undecided in Senate 1, and 11% undecided in Senate 19), but on high profile races, things look pretty firm.

Rumorville: Greitens Polling?

One reader says that someone was recently in the field with a poll asking about 2022 Senate race and the questions included Eric Greitens as a possible candidate.

Never too early to plotting a 2022 campaign…

Politics of a Mask Mandate

Springfield News Leader’s Austin Huguelet reviews Governor Mike Parson’s rejection of a statewide mask mandate suggested by federal officials.  See it here.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has declined to order a statewide mask mandate, saying the decisions are best made at local levels.  Dr. Deborah Birx, the task force coordinator, first brought up the approach enacted in Texas with Parson in an Aug. 18 meeting in Jefferson City.

Parson had rejected other suggestions to issue a blanket statewide rule, including one from the task force dated two days earlier, contending it was largely unnecessary outside major cities. But Birx described the Texas approach, drawn up by a fellow Republican governor, as a way to walk the urban-rural divide…

If the 20-case threshold was implemented as written in the [White House Task Force] report on Aug. 23, it would cover nearly every county in the state. And even if it had been applied as written in Texas, where the threshold is actually 20 “active” cases, it would still apply to a substantial number of counties, including Christian County, which had around 200 active cases at the time, and the areas around Joplin, which had just rescinded its mandate despite a rise in cases.

Parson, whose office receives weekly reports from the task force, disregarded the recommendation, which has not been made public previously.  The task force has continued to recommend variations on the theme in subsequent weekly reports…

Since July 1, Missouri’s infection rate has ranked 16th-highest among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, the 10th highest since Aug. 1, and the 4th-highest so far this month….

Jeff City Sales Tax Steady

News Tribune reports that Jefferson City has surprisingly seen its sales tax revenues hold steady during the pandemic.  See it here.  However… “a bigger drop in incoming tax dollars can be seen when looking at the city's lodging tax. This comes alongside reduced occupancy rates of Jefferson City hotels since March. In previous years, Jefferson City's occupancy rates for March, April and May have been 57-63 percent. In 2020, the March occupancy rate was just 41 percent, and the rate dropped further to 34 percent in April…”

Gubby Appt

Governor Mike Parson appointed Holly Conger-Koenig as Associate Circuit Judge for the 1st Judicial Circuit. She will fill the Associate Circuit Judge vacancy created by the appointment of the Honorable Rick Roberts to Circuit Judge.

New Committees

MO Six PAC was formed.  Its treasurer is Andy Fechtel.

Dem Leg Camp Com Missouri-Out of State Committee was formed.  It’s a PAC.  Its treasurer is Mitchell Stille.

Missourians for Ranked Choice Voting was formed.  It’s a campaign committee to support a 2022 statewide ballot initiative for a constitutional amendment for ranked choice voting. Its treasurer is Nick Kasoff.

$5K+ Contributions

American Dream PAC - $200,000 from Jeanne Sinquefield.

CLEAN Missouri - $250,000 from National Redistricting Action Fund (Washington DC).

CLEAN Missouri - $16,500 from North Fund (Washington DC).

House Republican Campaign Committee Inc - $50,000 from American Federation for Children.

Truth in Campaigns - $10,000 from Simmons Hanly Conroy.

Lobbyists Registrations

Nancy Giddens and Shannon Cooper deleted Missouri Park and Recreation Association.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, Roman LeBlanc, and Joe Driskill.