MOScout Daily Update: Griesheimer to Resign - New House Committee Chairs - Return of Rex $$$? and more...
Griesheimer to Resign
Rep. Aaron Griesheimer will announce today that he plans to resign on January 6. According to his statement, Griesheimer is “leaving the House to fill a larger, more encompassing position with SITE Improvement Association.” See SITE’s website here.
“My new role provides long-term stability and a chance for me to be home for dinner with my family nearly every night. I know it’s the right move for us.”
· He chose January 6 so that he could return for the start of session and tell him colleagues goodbye.
· Griesheimer plans to refund donors of his state senate campaign.
With this news, the Franklin County senate race gets a sharp plot twist. That Republican primary (Senate 26, Schatz district) had been looking like it’d be a duel between Griesheimer and Ben Brown. It was pitched as a proxy battle of establishment Republicans (represented by Griesheimer) against the new insurgent Republicans (represented by Brown). Brown is favored by the Conservative Caucus which is trying to add to their numbers for the 2023 session.
· I’m told supporters of the “regular” Senate Republicans are wasting no time to search a replacement candidate. One consultant told me that they were already close to having one lined up.
· But they’ll be starting from scratch. Brown has been organizing for months and has $50K in his campaign account.
Porter Gets Transportation
Last week, Rep. Jeff Porter was appointed chair of the House Transportation Committee by Speaker Rob Vescovo. He takes the spot of Becky Ruth who resigned to take a gubernatorial appointment last month.
And
With new resignations, speculation turns to those committees...
· Rep. Aaron Griesheimer chairs of the Emerging Issues Committee. Rep. Jon Patterson is vice-chair of that committee and may ascend to the chairmanship for the upcoming session. The broad portfolio of that committee allows the speaker any number of issues there. For example, last session it heard Rep. Chuck Basye’s bill on trans athletes, Rep. Travis Fitzwater’s bill on robotic delivery devices, as well as Rep. John Wiemann’s local government bill and Rep. Derek Grier’s professional registration bill.
· Rep. Justin Hill chairs the Insurance Committee. The vice chair of that committee is Jeff Porter so it’s less clear who the obvious successor is there. One good guess: Rep. Nate Tate has the most seniority among the Republicans on the committee.
Return of Rex $$$?
In the large contributions (below), Rex Sinquefield gave $50K to the Republican Senate Caucus’ campaign committee, Missouri Senate Campaign Committee.
· The Sinquefields gave over $2 million in campaign contributions in 2020.
· However, they’ve been far less visible since dropping Pelopidas as their consulting team last year.
· In fact, this is their very first large contribution of the 2021. With the 2022 election cycle starting to rev up, we’ll see if the Sinquefields resume their prodigious political contributions.
Eyes on Columbia
Jeff City politicos will be watching to their neighbor to the north tonight… Columbia Missourian reports that “The Columbia School Board will vote Monday on whether to extend its COVID-19 plan for another month as it faces a state order to remove its mask mandate and other mitigative strategies. This school year, public officials and parents have attended board meetings to voice strong opposition or support for the plan, which gives the district superintendent the authority to direct a mask mandate. Attorney General Eric Schmitt sent a letter to the district Wednesday that demanded it stop enforcing its mask requirement…”
Hospitalizations A Better Metric Than Cases?
An op/ed in the NYTimes argues it’s time to stop focusing on COVID case count and use hospitalizations as the metric by which we measure our battle with the virus. Read it here.
· America is in the slow process of accepting that Covid-19 will become endemic — meaning it will always be present in the population at varying levels…. Learning to live with the virus in the long term will require changes in both mind-set and policy. Relying on Covid-19 hospitalizations as the most important metric to track closely will provide the most reliable picture of how an area is faring with the virus. And by focusing attention on the number of hospitalizations, health professionals can better focus on reducing them.
· This becomes especially important as case counts become more complicated. A case of Covid-19 doesn’t mean what it used to if you are vaccinated. Most breakthrough infections, which will grow as the number of vaccinated people increases, so far remain mild
· If the United States focused more on hospitalizations versus cases, health authorities could expend more resources on reaching people who are unvaccinated and at high risk for hospitalization… This is millions of Americans.
FYI
According to the state’s dashboard, the number of Missourians hospitalized by COVID has roughly doubled in the last month. Yesterday 1,866 were in the hospital (226 of them on ventilators) with COVID.
Former LG in Dog Trouble?
On Casenet: 210277063 – City of Cape Girardeau v Peter Dickson Kinder… “Animal At Large” sounds like maybe a ticket for an unleashed dog?
Initial Appearance Scheduled For: 12/14/2021; 9:00 AM
Gubby Appts
Governor Mike Parson appointed the Honorable Janet L. Sutton to the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District. Judge Sutton will succeed the Honorable Thomas H. Newton, who retired in July 2021.
Lobbyists Registrations
Jeff Aboussie added Missourians For A Balanced Energy Future, Noah's Arc Foundation of Missouri, and Ygrene Energy Fund.
Cassi Baker added Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and its subsidiaries, including Greenwich Biosciences, Inc.
Dan Harbeke added Google LLC and Its Affiliates.
John Nations deleted KPMG LLP.
Jewell Patek deleted Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc., Lexington Law, Progrexion ASG, and Commonwealth Missouri LLC.
$5K+ Contributions
Missouri Senate Campaign Committee - $50,000 from Rex Sinquefield.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Rep. Dan Shaul, Jennae Neustadt, Gary Fuhr, and Curt Dougherty.