MOScout Daily Update: Joplin Tops in Nation in COVID Hospitalizations - Hospitals Requiring Vax - Battle-Tested Rowden - Rebuilding Dems and more....
Just a couple quick early morning bits before I jump on a plane. Remington/MOScout Weekly Poll returns I tomorrow’s edition of the Weekender. See you then….
COVID Rages in SWMO
From the Twitterverse
· Eli Yokley tweets this amazing (in a bad way) statistic: Joplin, Mo., has the highest COVID-19 hospitalization rate in America.
· And over in Springfield, Fire Chief David Pennington tweets: This is a mass casualty event, happening in slow-motion. EMS resources are depleted, and the hospital systems are overwhelmed. Our community is in crisis.
· Meanwhile, Mike Mahoney quotes Governor Mike Parson doing his vaccine confusion thing again. “I don’t think we need to be out there trying scare people into taking a vaccine.”
MO Hospitals Start Requiring Employees to Vax
Wall Street Journal reports on the healthcare industry starting to require COVID vaccinations of employees. Read it here.
· Some hospitals are starting to mandate workers get Covid-19 vaccines as new immunizations flag and variants of the virus spread nationwide, spurring pushback from employees.
· More than a dozen hospital systems have announced in recent months they will require the shots, including major hospital systems in Missouri and Michigan, states where less than half the total population is fully vaccinated. St. Louis-based SSM Health said its workforce must have at least one dose by Sept. 1, with an earlier deadline for leadership. Two other St. Louis-area hospital systems set deadlines for September and August…
· “We would have missed our window” without a mandate, Dr. [Shephali] Wulff said. About 65% of SSM Health’s roughly 40,000 employees are vaccinated. SSM operates 23 hospitals across four states. That includes Missouri, where federal data show the Delta variant rapidly spread and now accounts for about one-third of cases. SSM hospitalizations have increased in the past month as Covid-19 cases have climbed, Dr. Wulff said. Continued positive results and global monitoring of the vaccines’ rollout have underscored the safety and efficacy of the shots, making SSM leaders comfortable to push ahead with the mandate, Dr. Wulff said. “We feel confident the vaccines are safe,” she said.
And
Springfield News Leader reports that Mercy is also implementing the requirement with a September 30 deadline. Read it here.
FYI
EEOC says that employers can require a vaccination. See it here.
Under the ADA, Title VII, and other federal employment nondiscrimination laws, may an employer require all employees physically entering the workplace to be vaccinated for COVID-19? The federal EEO laws do not prevent an employer from requiring all employees physically entering the workplace to be vaccinated for COVID-19, subject to the reasonable accommodation provisions of Title VII and the ADA and other EEO considerations…
“Battle- Tested” Rowden
In Sen. Caleb Rowden’s statement about CD-4 he says, “It is imperative that we nominate a battle-tested conservative…”
It sounds like Rowden is thinking of himself. He’s had a few arrows slung his direction as he’s navigated various tough issues in the Senate.
But it does raise the question how some of the other declared candidates (Emery, Johnson, Walsh, Burks) will react if/when negative pieces start dropping on them. Rowden certainly has run rough campaigns before. That might matter in this CD-4 scrum.
Rebuilding Dems
One reader, responding to my questions about who will lead the Missouri Democrats out of the wilderness, shared these thoughts…
· I find it hard to believe that anyone with a national profile will emerge as a statewide candidate/party leader.
· I think both Lauren Arthur and Brian Williams have the track record and districts that could lead them to emerging as state leaders.
· Sam Page is having problems within his own party in St. Louis County and if someone with money runs against him I could see him having a real problem retaining his seat in the primary in 2022.
· I also think a candidate that Dems should be recruiting is Barry Aycock. He is an outsider, farmer, rural credentials, but also has a favorable view among many metro/suburban politicians.
Samuels for Congress
Post-Dispatch reports that “a Creve Coeur Democrat is running for the suburban St. Louis congressional seat held by incumbent U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, a Republican elected five times to the seat who survived competitive contests in recent years. Ben Samuels, 30, who most recently worked as director of special projects under Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, said in an interview he was motivated to run for Congress following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by thousands of Donald Trump supporters who sought to stop the certification of the 2020 election results…”
What It Means
· It’s hard to see the path for Samuels, after a top tier candidate like Schupp lost last cycle.
· And… we don’t even have district lines yet, but odds are that this seat will become redder.
IE PACs Updated
The ongoing list of Independent Expenditure PACs has been updated. Find it here. These are PACs aligned with candidates that don’t have to abide by contribution limits.
· Added JW Leadership Fund which is allied with Speaker Pro Tem John Wiemann.
New Committees
Pike County Republican Central Committee was formed. Its treasurer is Larry Allen.
Jefferson City Firefighters L671 PAC Fund was formed. Its treasurer is Michael A Bainbridge.
$5K+ Contributions
Spirit of Missouri - $50,000 from RightCHOICE Managed Care, Inc.
The 1821 PAC - $50,000 from RightCHOICE Managed Care, Inc.
American Property Casualty Insurance Association Political Account - $10,000 from American Property Casualty Insurance Association.
Lobbyists Registrations
Cody Alan Atkinson added The Humane Society of the United States.
Zack Brown added Missouri Association of Realtors.
James Harris added NaphCare Inc., and deleted World Wide Technology.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Ron Fitzwater, and Don Ruzicka.