MOScout Daily Update: Schmitt's Bounce - SCC Hires - Gov's Response to Biden Vax Action - Kehoe Headlines Fitz Fundy and more...
Schmitt’s Bounce
Attorney General Eric Schmitt made a little move in last week’s MOScout/Remington Research poll. He was up 4 points to 28% (from the August poll) while Eric Greitens stayed pat at 27%.
Looks like Schmitt’s campaign against mask mandate over the past several weeks has had an impact, raising name ID if nothing else among the GOP primary voters.
What It Means
· I’d expect Schmitt to continue this strategy. Could be a long eleven months of lawsuits out of the AG’s office….
Hottest Fundraiser?
On MOScouter correctly observes: “Looking at the fundraisers for Tuesday night, with Floor Leader Dean Plocher being the presumptive next speaker the House, the one fundraiser every lobbyist should be at is his at Bar Vino, 5PM.” Co-hosted, by the way, with Rep. Dan Houx and Jeff Knight.
Fist-Shaking at Biden Mandate
Press release: Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, sent a letter to Governor Parson urging him to call an extraordinary session of the Missouri Senate and House to fight federal vaccine mandates announced by President Biden this week. The letter, signed by over half of the Republican senators in Missouri’s upper chamber, comes on the heels of the President announcing on Thursday that his Administration would be passing a federal rule forcing private employers with 100 or more employees to vaccinate workers or face fines up to $14,000 per infraction….
· But despite the fist-shaking, one building denizen shakes his head: Only an act of God [would bring] a special next week. The specific reason is Biden only announced something that will be an OHSHA rule so no one even knows what is in it to do anything about it. That is weeks to months off. You can’t even file anything in the courts until something is public.
· That’s the subtext of Governor Mike Parson’s press release on the issue. He condemned Biden’s announcement, but what’s he going to do about it? He’s going to align resources! “The Office of the Governor has been in communication with leadership from the Missouri General Assembly and the Attorney General's Office to align resources for a pending legal fight.”
Kehoe Headlines Fitz Fundy
Statewide officials continue to offer their name to help Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick in this auditor campaign. The latest: Lieutenant Governor Mike Kehoe and Second Lady Claudia Kehoe will headline an October event. See the invite here.
Governor Mike Parson is headlining an event at the end of this month for Fitz.
Webb and Schoemann Join SCC.
Steven Tilley’s firm, Strategic Capitol Consulting has hired Garrett Webb and Chris Schoemann.
· Webb joined on a contract basis last year. He’s “a familiar face in the hallways of the Missouri Capitol Building. He brings over a decade of experience in politics, public policy, communications and government affairs to the team.”
· Schoemann was brought on full time earlier this summer. “Schoemann is from South Africa and played Division I rugby at Lindenwood University and studied international business and finance. SCC poached him from Stifel Nicolaus.”
Third Way GOP Map
On Twitter the “Missouri Mapper” offers another possible scenario for congressional districting. It’s worth looking at. See it here. The explanation…
· One under-discussed possibility in MO congressional redistricting is that instead of drawing a 7-1 or 6-2 map, the MOGOP could draw a map with one Democratic sink, 6 safe GOP seats, and one competitive district in KCMO (that leans GOP)…
· Drawing a more competitive district in the KCMO area could be used to reduce "dummymander" risk by shoring up the remaining two KCMO area GOP districts. Alternatively, it gives more freedom to meet certain parochial concerns (like not splitting Boone, as depicted in this map)
· From a simple partisan perspective, this map isn't the best way to secure the maximum number of GOP seats, but it might be necessary to draw a map like this to satisfy incumbent preferences (or facilitate the congressional ambitions of influential state legislators)
Lebanon Bits
· Jim Bohannon, the Lebanon, Missouri, native who for decades has hosted his self-named nationally syndicated Westwood One talk show, last week tweeted cheers for Ozarks Congressman Billy Long’s campaign for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination. Long had tweeted, “Guess 'where in the world the #BillyBus is now?...” And Bohannon, on overnight radio duty, replied at 3:06AM: “On its way to the U.S. Senate, that's where it is.”
· Last month, the Lebanon Downtown Business District Board announced it hired Cynthia Honssinger-Coffman as executive director. Honssinger-Coffman has an interesting background: the Republican recently served four years as Colorado attorney general, and she lost a 2018 bid for the GOP nomination for Colorado governor. From the business district’s news release: “A Lebanon native and 1979 Lebanon High School graduate, Honssinger-Coffman, currently manages the Coffman Partnership, a consulting firm for government affairs, public policy, legal and regulatory compliance, and state attorney general relations. She served as Attorney General for the State of Colorado from 2015 to 2019. Honssinger-Coffman is a 1983 graduate of the University of Missouri with bachelor’s degree in speech communication with minors in marketing and political science. She received her juris doctorate degree in 1991 from Georgia State University College of Law…”
eMailbag
· Rep. Donna Baringer is one of the most effective Dems in the House. Would be a huge loss for their caucus.
· I’m not convinced the vaccine mandates will matter come 2022. The abortion fights will still be happening. If 80-90% of Missourians are vaccinated and no longer dying from covid so much, do you think they’ll still be mad enough about having to get the vaccine to vote based on that?
Lobbyists Registrations
Brent Hemphill added Beta Bionics.
Garrett Webb added Mission St. Louis.
$5K+ Contributions
Nexus PAC - $9,000 from Invenergy Transmission LLC.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Congresswoman Ann Wagner, and Sam Lee.