MOScout Daily Update: Burilson in CD-7 - The Fight for Franklin - Walsh Resumes Campaign - Hill Antes $100K and more...

Burlison Announces in CD-7

Sen. Eric Burlison declared himself a candidate for CD-7.  The announcement came one day after his colleague, Sen. Mike Moon, jumped into the race.  They join Dr. Sam Alexander in the Republican primary.  And former Sen. Jay Wasson is said to be calling calls and lining up support for his bid as well.

·         Burlison is well-liked in the building as a principled conservative who has been able to pass meaningful legislation during his time in the legislature.  See his website here.

·         Burlison also unveiled an endorsement from the Club for Growth PAC.

And

Word is that Rep. Curtis Trent is prepping to run for Burlison’s senate seat (and one source says they see Rep. Bruce DeGroot as Trents chief of staff should these dominoes all fall).

The Fight for Franklin

Franklin County has had two different types of state senators in the recent past.

John Griesheimer was a folksy straight-shooting pragmatic senator.  He was so respected and honest that a fellow senator colleague once marveled on the floor that he had been in the used car business.  He was completely different from that stereotype bending over backwards to be above-board.

After Griesheimer came Brian Nieves, a firebrand, an ideologue.  He was Trumpy before Trumpy was cool.

Nieves only served one term, and Dave Schatz took his place.  Schatz has been more in the Griesheimer mold.  He’s climbed to become the president pro tem of the senate, but has been too moderate for some in his caucus.  Schatz pulled every lever and string he could find to get a gas tax increase to the governor’s desk last session.  Conservatives were aghast.  You’re supposed to move heaven and earth to cut taxes, not raise them.

Schatz is termed and Franklin County now will have to decide between these two proto-types again.

Aaron Griesheimer, son of John, is a lot like his dad.  And taking up the Nieves mantle is Ben Brown.  Brown is a restauranteur who’s made fighting COVID government overreach his raison d’etre.

It’s not that Greishemier isn’t conservative, he’s just not going to go looking for a fight.  That’s what Brown has done.  He’s chair of the Franklin County Republican Central Committee. They rebuked Schatz over his gas tax hike.  That’s presumably pushed Schatz onto Team Griesheimer.

And it makes Griesheimer more of the establishment candidate versus insurgent Brown.

Brown has a grassroots following.  We the People of Franklin is a Facebook group that’s sprung up to counter mask mandates.  They have monthly meetings; Brown is regular attendee and speaker.

There are still unknowns in this race.  One is whether former Rep. Dave Hinson will enter.  But another – larger factor – is what the map will look like.

It’s thought that if West St. Louis County is still lumped in with Franklin County, that will provide a boost to Brown.  But if the district goes west into Gasconade and Osage, Griesheimer will benefit.

Walsh Resumes CD-4 Campaign

Rep. Sara Walsh announced that she’s resuming her congressional campaign.  Her husband, Steve Walsh, passed away two weeks ago.  She is running to replace Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler in CD-4.  

See her twitter announcement here.

See an interview with KRCG here.

·         MOScouter: Where’s the ‘please vaccinate’ statement?

Hill Antes $100K

In the large contributions (below), Rep. Justin Hill added $100,000 to his campaign committee, Hill For Missouri.  Hill is one of three Republican state representatives looking to succeed Sen. Bob Onder as a state senator from St. Charles.

Onder is termed in 2022. But, of course, the map hasn’t been drawn, so the exact lines of his district are still unknown.  Reps. Nick Schroer and John Wiemann are also campaigning for that seat.

Reading $5K+ Contributions

Tipster: That $12,500 [Speaker Rob] Vescovo received earlier this week [in his PAC] wasn’t a coincidence. He has had some very productive conversations with some of the state’s biggest donors and some key constituencies. He is putting the pieces together for an Auditor run…

Parson Does Joint Fundraising

Governor Mike Parson is holding a big fundraising event later in September.  Checks are being made to Missouri Victory Fund, “a fundraising joint venture composed of the Missouri Republican Party and Uniting Missouri PAC.”  The fine print on the invite explains the breakdown of the joint fundraising.

Any contributions to the FJV [fundraising joint venture] permissible under Missouri law from donors who have not exceeded their applicable contribution limits shall be allocated among the Committees pursuant to the following method: I. An individual or political action committee contribution to the FJV shall be allocated as follows: A. The first $25,550 per election to the Party; and B. The remainder to the PAC….

What It Means

Parson may be term limited, but he’s sticking with fundraising to help out the party, and keep his PAC active.

COVID Hits State Workers

News Tribune reports that one out of every four state workers has contracted COVID during the epidemic.  See it here.

·         One in four state employees have contracted COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and the number of cases continues to climb.

·         Statewide, 10,390 state employees in Missouri have contracted the virus so far. With more than 41,000 staff members throughout the state, that's roughly 25 percent that have tested positive for COVID-19.

·         Last week, state government offices in Cole County reported 80 new COVID-19 cases among employees, 34 of which were at the Truman Building.

New Committees

Bootheel Values PAC was formed.  Its treasurer is Melissa Largent.

Lobbyists Registrations

Amy Blunt added Husch Blackwell LLP.

Heath Clarkston, Doug Nelson, and Kurt Schaefer added MightyGood Solutions and Garcia Laboratory; and deleted Colonial Management Group LP, Opportunity Solutions Project, National Auto and Travel Organization, Vera Institute of Justice, and Valerie Schlitt & Associates.

Steve Martin Cohen added National Association of Parent Aides.

Nathan Nickolaus deleted City of Peculiar, City of Grain Valley, Village of Kingdom City, and City of Fayette.

$5K+ Contributions

Hill For Missouri - $100,000 from Justin Hill.

Missouri Leadership Forum - $15,000 from Witte Bros. Exchange Inc.

Majority Forward - $10,000 from Schupp for Senate.

Cerner PAC MO – Federal Committee - $26,250 from Cerner Corporation PAC.

Evergy Employee PowerPAC - Missouri - $19,000 from Evergy Employee PowerPAC.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Phil Christofanelli, and Amy Pridmore.