MOScout Daily Update: Fitz to Announce for Auditor, Antes $250K - O'Laughlin Suggests Cameras for Classrooms - Schmitt's Suit of Errors - ALEC Ideas and more...

Now Comes Fitz…

Sources say that we’ll get a formal announcement from Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick this morning: he’s officially jumping into the 2022 Republican auditor primary.  Putting an exclamation point on the move, Fitz added $250,000 to his campaign account.

·         Fitz is the first Republicans to formally declare. Two other possible candidates have been mentioned.  Rep. David Gregory has been laying the groundwork for a campaign.  And House Speaker Rob Vescovo is said to be mulling the race as well.

·         A July 10 Remington/MOScout poll showed Fitz starting with a twenty-point lead over his two rivals, presumably due to his higher statewide name ID.  However, the majority of voters (61%) were undecided.

·         The Democratic incumbent, Nicole Galloway, has announced she won’t seek re-election, and no Democrats have come forward to indicate interest in the race.

O’Laughlin Suggests Cameras in Classrooms

Springfield News-Leader reports on a panel discussion about Critical Race Theory.  They quote Senate Education Chair Cindy O’Laughlin wondering aloud if cameras might be necessary in classrooms to keep an eye on what’s being taught. (Might be a fiscal note to that…) Read it here. 

·         "[CRT is] racism against white people," she said. "It's a Marxist ideal that is meant to create societal upheaval based on your skin."  O'Laughlin said "we are being deceived" about what is happening in classrooms and a new tool may be needed.

·         "Maybe we need cameras in the classroom, recording what is happening," she said. "Teachers won't like that and I'm not just saying teachers who, you know, might be trying to deceive people but they are not going to want to feel like they're being watched."

Schmitt’s Suit of Errors

Missouri Independent’s Rudi Keller reports on data errors in Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s lawsuit against the St. Louis mask mandates.  Read it here.

·         “Despite having the most restrictive and unconstitutional orders in Missouri, St. Louis County and St. Louis City suffered some of the highest COVID-19 case rates and death rates in Missouri,” the lawsuit filed Monday states.  The problem is that it is wrong. Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services data shows both St. Louis and St. Louis County cumulative case rates are lower than the statewide rate. And both are in the bottom half of the 117 local health departments reported by the state.

·         Schmitt asserts that St. Charles County, which “never imposed a government mask mandate,” has a lower overall infection and death rate than neighboring St. Louis County. That is true only if the local data for St. Louis County is compared to state data for St. Charles County and no notice is taken of the antigen case rate. A comparison that only uses state data, with antigen data included, shows the infection rate in St. Charles County is about 12 percent higher than St. Louis County. Comparing data from the local dashboards shows an even larger gap of 16.5 percent.

·         Asked for more information on how the data was chosen, Schmitt spokesman Chris Nuelle did not provide any explanation on Tuesday.

An Eye on ALEC

With the annual American Legislative Exchange Council happening in Utah, I thought I’d point folks to the model legislation that being shared this year.

Republicans often look to ALEC as a resource to gather ideas ahead of session.

ALEC has posted legislative ideas on their website.  See it here.  It won’t be surprising if some of these are filed in Missouri next session.

Same Old Broken Senate?

Some web-surfing yesterday brought me across this 2012 article.  It’s an “exit interview” with Kevin Engler as he was leaving the Senate.  What I found fascinating is that it feels like the complaints of the Senate being “dysfunctional,” or no longer “the Old Senate,” or in this case, “broken” have been with us for a decade now.  So maybe things aren’t as broken as we think?  Here are some Engler 2012 quotes….

·         [T]he respect is not there anymore…it used to be the Senate would bind together, Republican and Democrat, to get things done for the people…now we don’t, we bind together to kill things…we’ve got groups that are formed solely to filibuster, and these are people that always say they have principled positions…it’s not a principled position to kill things that you believe are right just so the people you’re working with will kill things for you next week…that’s not the way you get good legislation passed…hopefully with the new group coming in and some of the long bitterness leaving they’ll be able to change that back a little bit…whether you call them the Four Headless Horsemen or the Nutty Nine or whatever, you can’t have groups with their sole purpose to kill things.

·         [Former] Senator [Charlie] Shields (R, St. Joseph) said one time that you spend the first four years learning and the next four years not caring…I’m for term limits…when I got here the average age of the Senate was around room temperature, and some of these guys were completely out of touch…but I think term limits probably need to be a little bit longer, maybe a 12-year period where you have a steep learning curve but you then you’ve got a few years where you can use that learning curve…in the Senate, half the time you’re here you have no repercussions to your actions because you’re going to be leaving…[in your second term] you’re unaccountable, the people can’t vote you out and you don’t have to really listen to them…I think that’s been for the worst.

McConnell, Captain of Team ABG?

Politico Playbook this morning (read it here) casts Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as firmly in the Anyone But Greitens crowd as he pursues regaining control of the chamber in 2022.

·         Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL wants to flip the chamber in 2022. But one potential obstacle keeps coming up time and again: multiple DONALD TRUMP-inspired candidates who might sweep their GOP primaries but go on to lose in the general election…

·         In Missouri, former Gov. ERIC GREITENS is hugging Trump’s big lie about the 2020 election in hopes of winning the GOP nomination for retiring Sen. ROY BLUNT’s seat. But Greitens also has major vulnerabilities: In 2018, he was forced to resign after being accused of sexually assaulting a woman, tying her up and taking nude photos of her in order to blackmail her into silence. (Greitens admitted to an affair, but denied the blackmail accusation.) If he wins the primary, senior Republicans worry that they can kiss goodbye what should be a safe seat.

Dandamudi to Sandberg Phoenix

Sreenu Dandamudi, who spent a decade as an administrative judge, has joined the law firm of Sandberg Phoenix.  Dandamudi was a Nixon appointee who was replaced by Governor Mike Parson.

$5K+ Contributions

Fitzpatrick For Missouri - $250,000 from Scott Fitzpatrick.

Union Pacific Corp FFEG MO Federal Committee - $15,000 from Union Pacific Corp. Fund for Effective Government.

Lobbyists Registrations

Catalyst added ShiftKey, and Asthma Allergy Foundation of American, St. Louis Chapter, and Clovr.

Dean Johnson added Quality Schools Coalition; and deleted Dean Johnson.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Sen. Karla Eslinger and Vicki Englund.