MOScout Daily Update: Five Weeks Left - Wagner Talks Wall - Fitzwater for Mayor - Cannon Gets CFGF Fellowship and more...
Time, Time, Time…
Five weeks left of session. One lobbyist told me in considering the fate of legislation: “I think time is the biggest enemy right now.” This is really a Senate consideration; The House and move with lightning speed when they need to.
Medicaid Expansion
This is the issue that seems to be have the greatest potential for blowing up the session.
· On the one hand, Democrats are pretty furious that the Republican House refused to fund expansion despite November’s vote endorsing it as a constitutional amendment.
· Meanwhile in the Senate there appear to be some senators echoing the House GOP position. Sen. Cindy O’Laughlin recently wrote that MedEx “seems to be a classic case of urban areas making the bed and rural areas having to sleep in it… In fact, when it was all said and done, 2 out of 3 voters in rural Missouri opposed Medicaid Expansion.”
· What will happen when the Senate does (or doesn’t) add MedEx funding back in? It could be a BOOM!
FRA
The “Wieland amendment” that was tacked on to the FRA tax appears to have put the bill in limbo. Early rumors of a compromise have dissipated. And Sen. Paul Wieland has since voiced frustration with the way he was steamrolled in the Gubby Appts Committee. This looks like a classic game of chicken.
· Who will blink? The FRA tax always passes; you got to assume it will again.
Education
Folks are scanning the list of bills, looking for the right vehicle to make a new run at education reform.
· Sen. Denny Hoskins’ SB 152 will have a House hearing on Tuesday. One lobbyist thinks it will get loaded up in the House with the potential to become a new vehicle for education reform. In part it’s because it has a nice big vague title: provisions related to education.
That time of year
· One lobbyist jokes that it “feels like a reunion every January with a lot of love in the air, but we all get sick of each other by April.”
· House bills are filling up the Senate committee hearings now.
· The first hints of panic are emerging for individual senators looking to pass their specific priorities.
· And we’ll start hearing more talk of special sessions. It’s a lever to try to push compromise. “You know the governor could just call a special on this and ram it through over the summer….”
US Senate Talk
Congresswoman Ann Wagner continues to act like someone staking out positions for a Senate run. The latest example is this is a visit to the border where construction on “The Wall” has seemingly stopped. Followers of her congressional re-election might not remember her talking much about The Wall, but a Senate Republican primary is an entirely different voting constituency.
Big Picture Fear: CoronaDivide Forever
I’ve been imagining the end of the CoronaDivide (Republicans: it’s a flu; get over it. Democrats: you’re killing my grandma by not double masking as you walk down the sidewalk) as vaccines become widespread and cases plummet.
Axios this morning offers a terribly different scenario. Read it here.
· Although the pace of vaccinations is still strong, there’s a growing fear that it’s about to slow down…
· The more widely a virus can spread, the more opportunities it has to mutate. If the U.S. and ultimately the world don’t vaccinate a sufficient percentage of the population, we’ll be setting ourselves up to let the virus keep spreading, and keep mutating, continuing to give us new variants that will continue to pose new threats…
· [I]f we don’t control the virus well enough, then even years into the future, we could be living through more new variants — some of which might be more deadly, some of which might be more resistant to vaccines, some of which might be more dangerous for certain specific populations.
McDaniel Ballin
My son explained to me recently that “anything can go viral on TikTok.” I made eye contact, and silently nodded, knowing I must maintain the illusion of authority for a few more years. Anyway, see Rep. Andrew McDaniel lip-synching to some pop country here.
Fitzwater Announces Mayoral Bid
Ron Fitzwater announced on Facebook that he is running for Jefferson City mayor. The election is in 2023.
Jefferson City is an amazing place to live, work and raise a family. We have many exciting things going on. But we have some serious challenges as well. I am a fiscal conservative that builds consensus when dealing with the difficult issues we face at City Council. I am not afraid to ask the tough questions as issues move through the debate process. We have critical issues to address such as infrastructure, public safety and appropriate economic development. Community involvement is the key to resolving those issues…
Fitzwater is current on the city council. He’s no stranger to the capitol, as he’s the father of Rep. Travis Fitzwater, and he’s also CEO of Missouri Pharmacy Association, which has a presence in the building.
Fitzwater himself is no longer a registered lobbyist, so he won’t have that lobbyist/committee problem which bedeviled Brian Treece.
Cannon CFGF Fellow
Joelle Cannon was named to the 2021 Class of Club for Growth Foundation Fellows.
The Club for Growth Foundation Fellowship program equips civic leaders to explain the relationship between a free society, economic liberty, and limited government… The Fellowship is a yearlong program that consists of two seminars and also regularly-scheduled virtual meetings that will provide media training on how to pivot towards winning messages and using impactful stories to convey the human cost of the radical socialist agenda.
Lobbyists Registrations
Joshua Klarich added Inheritage, LLC.
$5K+ Contributions
Mahacek for Missouri - $25,000 from Robert Mahacek.
Birthdays
Happy birthday to Courtney Curtis (the big 4-0).