MOScout Daily Update: Meet MoEEP - Bipartisan Senate Race - Sports Betting IP? - COVID Peak - Poll Good for Dogan and more...

CRT and DEI Hot Buttons

A new group, MO Equity Education Partnership, has formed in the ongoing battle over school curriculum. According to paperwork filed with the secretary of state’s office last month, MoEEP is a grassroots organization that supports “anti-bias and anti-racist approaches to education.”

Their website (see it here) says that they’re a 501(c)(4) non-profit, and (in the registrations below) they’ve registered a lobbyist to work their issue in Jefferson City.  MoEEP believes…

·         “Diversity and equity education belongs in our schools as much as math, science, and language arts… This work is NOT about shame and blame but about embracing different perspectives, backgrounds, and stories that deserve to be told... Education prepares kids for the rest of their lives, and equity education gives them essential skills.”

·         “It is wrong and misleading to conflate equity work with Critical Race Theory, or CRT, which is an advanced academic concept studied in college and beyond, not K-12 classrooms.CRT is not being taught in Missouri classrooms. CRT is not the same thing as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work.  Our opponents are intentionally conflating the two as a way to attack any lessons and ideas they disagree with…”

But this seems to be in direct conflict with the sentiments of Senate Education Chair Cindy O’Laughlin, who has has written…

·         “[P]eople can parse words and suggest that CRT principles are actually not CRT, but… the fact remains that our public schools are indoctrinating students in the name of “‘diversity, equity and inclusion.’”

·         “[T]here’s a destructive ideology in education from the higher ed level to the K-12 level. It not only exists in public education but in some private schools as well. We must stop this indoctrination and it is only through vigilance and soundly rejecting class warfare based on race that we will achieve this.”

And

One MOScouter says it’s important to step back and look at the bigger picture here… CRT and DEI are just one of the many educational skirmishes we’re seeing erupt.  COVID brought a whole different set of them: Mask mandates, quarantines, and distance learning.  Add in the controversies last session about how to treat trans students (athletics and bathrooms etc).

·         Their conclusion: “All roads lead to more school choice.”

Each of these controversies is much less about educational instruction than it is about a cultural disconnect between Missourians at different places on the ideological spectrum.  In the past the most obvious solution has been “local control.” Let the local school districts determine policy, and they’ll generally fall right in line with their constituents.

Now with a more aggressive state government (be it the AG’s office fighting school’s COVID protocols, or legislative committees looking at policy), it’s the marketplace where blue families will find refuge from red state government.

Driving the Day: Schmitt on Abortion Law

The press advisory… Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt will hold a press conference following his Office’s oral argument in front of the 8th Circuit en banc in the case Planned Parenthood v. Eric Schmitt. The Attorney General’s Office will defend the law, specifically the provision that prohibits an abortion solely based on a pre-natal down syndrome diagnosis.

What It Means

This continues the pattern we’ve seen in the past few months: Schmitt given his platform in the Attorney General’s office is able to take action on a issue that’s important to Missouri Republican voters as opposed to the other candidates who left simply speechifying.

It’s a critical difference that gets him earned media day after day.

Quote of the Day

Scott Sifton in the Daily American Republic (reporting from last weekend’s Truman Day Rally in Poplar Bluff): “This race has become a bipartisan effort to keep Eric Greitens out of the U.S. Senate.”

COVID Peaks (Again)

COVID Hospitalizations and ICU admissions have both declined from their peak.  Assuming no third wave, we’re through the worst of it.

Source: DHSS

But, there’s no cause for optimism that the unvaccinated will change their mind.  We’re at 55% of the 12+ population fully vaccinated.  Maybe we’ll get to 60% by the end of the year?  I would sort of doubt it based on the lackluster vaccination data.

Source: DHSS

Sports Betting Eyes IP??

One tipster says there’s a poll in the field (American Viewpoint) asking about gambling expansion, speculating that there’s groundwork being laid for a potential initiative petition on the issue of sports betting.

That issue has been tangled up with the so-called gray machines controversy, a thorny know legislators haven’t been able to untie.

Sen. Denny Hoskins and Rep. Dan Shaul told SportsHandle that they’re optimistic about making progress in the 2022 legislative session.

But this poll could mean that there are interested parties looking to solve the problem on their own, by taking their case directly to the voters.

Or – sometimes the threat of an IP is used to give the legislature an extra incentive to find a compromise before the matter is taken out of their hands completely.

eMailbag: Poll Good News for Dogan

I think your analysis is way off on what that [the recent MOScout/Remington] poll means for Shamed Dogan.  Sam Page's team just spent $1.5 million to re-elect him less than a year ago compared to the $55,000 spent by Dogan in 2020 in a very specific part of St. Louis County.  Add in the fact that Sam Page spent $2 million in taxpayer money since then on a PR Team and has been in the press for free nearly every day post-2020 election..... the fact that he is UNDER 50% and Shamed is over 30% county-wide is great news for Shamed and the GOP.

Lobbyists Registrations

Amber Benge added MO Equity Education Partnership.

$5K+ Contributions

Mighty Missouri PAC - $10,000 from Penn National Gaming, Inc. (Las Vegas, NV).

HCA Missouri Good Government Fund - $50,000 from MidAmerica Division Office (Nashville, TN).

Missouri Gaming PAC - $8,096 from Isle of Capri Casino, Boonville.

Missouri Gaming PAC - $27,000 from Boyd Gaming Corp. (Las Vegas, NV).

Truth in Campaigns - $10,000 from System Services INC.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Sen. Tony Leutkemeyer, Joe Driskill, and Roman LeBlanc.