MOScout Weekender: Overloaded Pub Defs - 2022 Senate Match-Ups - Hallway Imagines 2024 Gov - WWTW and more...
Overloaded Pub Defs
Post-Dispatch reports: A judge on Thursday said it was unconstitutional for Missouri to fail to provide lawyers for criminal defendants who can't afford them, leaving them on waiting lists for months or years. The waiting lists started in 2017, when overloaded public defenders couldn't take on any more clients. By November 2019, there were more than 5,800 felony defendants on the lists with cases pending in 29 counties, including in St. Charles County… The ACLU, as well as the Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center and the Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe law firm, filed the suit after years of fights over funding for the system…
Remington/MOScout Poll: Early 2022 Senate Look
Survey conducted February 17 through February 18, 2021. 954 likely 2022 General Election voters participated in the survey. Survey weighted to match expected turnout demographics for the 2022 General Election. Margin of Error is +/-3% with a 95% level of confidence. Totals do not always equal 100% due to rounding. Survey conducted by Remington Research Group on behalf of Missouri Scout. See the full results here.
Q1: Do you approve or disapprove of Joe Biden’s job performance as President?
Approve: 43%
Disapprove: 53%
Not sure: 4%
Q2: Do you approve or disapprove of Mike Parson’s job performance as Governor?
Approve: 50%
Disapprove: 38%
Not sure: 12%
Q3: Possible candidates in the 2022 Election for U.S. Senate are the Republican Roy Blunt and the Democrat Scott Sifton. If the election were held today, for whom would you vote?
Roy Blunt: 50%
Scott Sifton: 40%
Undecided: 10%
Q4: Possible candidates in the 2022 Election for U.S. Senate are the Republican Eric Greitens and the Democrat Scott Sifton. If the election were held today, for whom would you vote?
Eric Greitens: 49%
Scott Sifton: 41%
Undecided: 10%
MOScout’s Hallway Index: Early 2024 Gov GOP Nominee Look
I asked: Who is most likely to be the Republican gubernatorial nominee in 2024? 30 replies…
RESULTS
1. Jay Ashcroft… 53.3%
2. Eric Greitens… 0%
3. Mike Kehoe… 40%
4. Eric Schmitt… 6.6%
Sample of Comments
· It is [Ashcroft’s] to lose-the name recognition in a primary will be hard to beat.
· Kehoe has the best network of support and donors around the state, and he is a great “retail” politician.
· My heart says Kehoe, but my head says Ashcroft.
· I think it is just {Ashcroft’s] for the choosing with name ID and his ability to stay to the right on a variety of positions including Medicaid and other red meat areas. However, it seems to me that Kehoe would be the smart pick for a Governor that will actually run the state well.
· Ashcroft / Kehoe primary. Family name carries the day.
· Kehoe will simply outwork that group. He wants it more than they do and will put in the effort it takes to overcome advantages the others might have.
· Lt. Governor Kehoe will have the support of the business community, solid on education reform, and championed key policy wins during his time as floor leader in the MO Senate.
· I love me some Mike Kehoe but [Ashcroft’s] name ID is gold.
· Kehoe would be the best Governor but will be difficult to overcome the Ashcroft name.
· Ashcroft +300
Greitens +450
Kehoe +700
Schmitt +800
Others +650
Who Won the Week?
Don Hinkle – The seriousness with which his concerns about SB 51 were taken show the power of his advocacy – and constituency.
Infrastructure advocates – The rolling blackouts that hit western Missouri have reinvigorated talk about energy infrastructure spending to avoid a Texas-like crisis.
Kate Casas and David Jackson – The two former Team Rexers get tapped to rep the Sinquefield account.
Missouri healthcare workers – With the vaccine rollout, COVID deaths are declining, cases are in retreat, and hospitalizations are well below peak. There’s light at the end of the tunnel for Missouri heroic healthcare workers.
Find a downloadable version here.
eMailbag: One More Round on Blackouts
· So not to drag this out but if someone thinks there should be more interconnections, they are advocating for more transmission. Interconnections are transmission...and transmission helps unlock other sources of generation to add more and diverse sources of energy to the mix and allows for moving power more efficiently around the grid. More pipelines wouldn’t have helped Texas because the infrastructure used to make electricity were frozen
· Your reader whose solution to power grid probs is ‘more generation” and not transmission is right ..... as long as folks don’t care their electric bills become $500/month. Building power plants is more (WAY MORE) than expensive than transmission lines.
· While you may be 'done' with the back and forth, I wanted to react to the comment, 'nothing has been reported that points to a shortage of electric transmission resources being the cause.' In any major crisis, there are multiple causes, and one contributing factor to this event, in Texas, SPP and across the county, is transmission constraints. It makes sense too. Think about the current electric system. What we rely on today was mostly built in the 1960 and 1970s predicated on large central station generation (coal and nuclear) and the transmission grid designed on this central power model. Over the last twenty years, we have seen a transition to wind, and now more scaled solar. These resources are not built on top of the current coal and nuclear, instead hundreds of miles away. This means the current transmission systems isn't built for these renewables – it takes more and new transmission lines.
$5K+ Contributions
One St Louis PAC (pro-Lewis Reed) - $20,000 from Andrew Taylor.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Rep. Ben Baker, Doug Galloway, Matt Bartle, and Kenny Biermann.
Sunday: Rep. Donna Baringer, Craig Unruh, Jo Mannies, Harry Kennedy, and Steve Stenger.