MOScout Daily Update: Redistricting Omens - SAPA To Be Revisited - Grain Belt Ads - SLU Poll - Lucas the BCCer and more...

State Redistricting Opening

The bipartisan commissions that will attempt to draw the new state House and Senate districts met yesterday. 

These were organizing meetings as they await the redistricting data.  It might be a mistake to extrapolate too much, but…

The Senate Commission would seem to have a better chance at coming to a bipartisan agreement.  One source told me that it’s somewhat data-dependent.  There are scenarios where population lumps could create conflicts – Republicans not wanting to accept an obviously new Democrat district, for example.  But there was more congeniality on the Senate Commission than the House Commission.

One Dem, remarking on the House Commission, thought it was obviously already headed to the judges.  “After the Republican House commissioners behavior today I don’t see any way they get 4 Democrats to vote with them and it’s almost certainly going to court…”

Senate Commission elected Marc Ellinger (R) chair and Susan Montee (D) vice-chair.

House Commission elected Jerry Hunter (R) chair, and Keena Smith (D) vice chair.

DAR: Bean To Revisit SAPA

Daily American Republic reports on Bootheel legislators promising “to help fix” SAPA, the Second Amendment Protection ACT passed by the legislature last session. Read it here.

·         [Sen. Jason] Bean said, the law has seen an “unintended consequence.”  Under the law, local law enforcement officials cannot work with federal agencies or law enforcement on any weapons charges, and if they do, they can face large fines… “We’re going to work with prosecutors and local law enforcement to try to come up with some fixes for that,” Bean said…

·         Rep. Hardy Billington said he has spoken with Poplar Bluff Police Chief Danny Whiteley, Sheriff Mark Dobbs, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and others, and will work to correct the bill…

·         The governor’s office, the state attorney general and the leadership in both the House and Senate, [Rep. Darrel] Atchison said, are “going to go back and look at that closer, and if there’s something lawful there that can be tweaked, I think everyone will be happy to tweak it to keep bad actors off the streets and not hinder law enforcement.”

·         The “last thing we want to do is create an environment that makes it more suitable for a criminal,” Bean added, “so we’re going to try to do everything we can” to fix it…

SLU Poll

St. Louis University released a wide-ranging poll it conducted last month.  See it here.

Inside the crosstabs (see them here), Republican voters’ fav/unfav of US Senate candidates (Billy Long not polled)…

·         Greitens: 56% fav, 23% unfav, 20% not sure.

·         Hartzler: 38% fav, 12% unfav, 51% not sure.

·         McCloskey: 40% fav, 13% unfav, 47% not sure.

·         Schmitt: 50% fav, 9% unfav, 42% not sure.

Lucas The BCC-er

Liberty Alliance posted an email from Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas admonishing Sammy Panettiere for a tweet.  No biggie there, folks disagree on twitter all the time.  But Lucas BCC-ed several others on the email.  See the email here.

·         Lobbyist: What a coward. Send this and then Bcc others without telling your own consultant… It’s just another “Everything is about image” move… All the reply tweet said was for [Cori Bush] to stay out of KC affairs, as she sent out a fundraising email (for herself) asking to defund police in another members city.

Grain Belt Media Offensive

The Grain Belt Express project – which has seen several capitol battles over its ability to use eminent domain – is apparently planning to take its case to the people.  They’ve produced a TV and radio spot which place the project within the context of Missouri’s history of innovation.  The spots also hit on the benefits of the project: jobs and lower energy costs.

·         See the radio spot here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFgaoUK0AMc

·         See the TV spot here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6XEycJ-b_E

FYI

Invenergy is represented in Jefferson City by: Andy Arnold, Aaron Baker, Hannah Beers Sutton, Rodney Boydm Kate Casas, Brian Grace, Nicole Luckey, and Kelvin Simmons.

Court Rules on Pelopidas Spat

Missouri Independent reports on a court ruling that Travis Brown owes Rachel Keller, his ex-wife and former business partner over $7 million.  See it here.

·         Under the settlement agreement from September 2019, Brown and Pelopidas agreed to pay Keller $8.6 million in annual installments….

·         Brown and Pelopidas filed suit against Keller in February 2020, accusing her of failing to fulfill her part of the settlement by refusing to sign documents necessary to complete it. One document was an acknowledgment that she had turned over her ownership interest in Pelopidas as of the date of the settlement… Keller filed a counterclaim, alleging the agreement was breached when she did not receive the first $1.1 million installment by April 1, 2020.

·         Sinquefield cut ties to Pelopidas in September 2020, shortly after ending a push to privatize Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. Pelopidas closed up shop shortly thereafter…

Brown is a lobbyist with Strategic Capitol Consulting.

Lobbyists Registrations

Lily Elizabeth White added Columbia Chamber of Commerce.

Michael Gibbons and Tricia Workman deleted Parents As Teachers National Center.

$5K+ Contributions

House Republican Campaign Committee, Inc - $10,000 from Spire.

House Republican Campaign Committee, Inc - $10,000 from Archer Daniels Midland Company.

House Republican Campaign Committee, Inc - $7,500 from CFM Insurance Inc.

National Democratic Redistricting Missouri PAC - Federal Committee - $18,500 from National Democratic Redistricting PAC.

SOCO Red PAC - $10,000 from Educational Services STL LLC.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Rep. Bruce Sassmann, and Doug Healy.