MOScout Daily Update: Team Kehoe Raises $700K - Alford Announces $200K - Eigel Floats 7-1 Map - Rizzo Has COVID - EC Debate and more...

First in MOScout: Kehoe Numbers

Lieutenant Governor Mike Kehoe will file his January campaign finance report this morning.  It will show over $200,000 raised.

American Dream PAC, his allied PAC, filed its report yesterday.  It raised over $500K, powered by a $250K contribution from Rex and Jeanne Sinquefield and a $50K check from August Busch III.

This $700K combined number comes after a similar $500K haul last quarter.

What It Means

The governor’s race might not be until 2024, but Team Kehoe is on a full campaign footing, digging out each quarter as if their election were right around the corner.

1 Big Thing: State of the Billionaires

The Sinquefield money in Kehoe’s report is significant because they have a pattern of making multiple investments in candidates.  In other words, that $250K check probably won’t be the last check he’ll see from the GOP mega-donor.

Because of campaign contribution limits these checks must go into an allied PAC, not the candidate PAC.  The two can’t coordinate, and the PACs will pay higher prices on TV and radio ads.  But having a well-funded PAC is critical to a statewide campaign.  Here’s the state of other Missouri mega-donors…

• Stewarts – World Wide Technology founder David Steward made a big slash in 2019 when he gave over a $1 million to Conservative Caucus PACs. He’s been less visible lately. He dropped his long-time lobbyist and apparently hasn’t replaced him; an MEC search shows only one large check ($50K to Sen. Bill Eigel’s PAC) in the last year.

• Humphreys – David Humphreys, like Steward, has been less active lately. He’s repped by Gamble and Schlemeier in the building. But the family’s campaign contributions – once topping $14 million to Republican candidates in 2006 – have all but stopped in recent years. Humphreys was vocally at odds with a GOP anti-abortion bill in 2019 that didn’t include an exception for rape.

• Arnolds – John and Laura Arnold are Texas billionaires who appear to be interested in influencing criminal justice reform as well as perhaps ranked choice voting. John Arnold’s “pinned” tweet from 2018 - I’ve now been called the next Koch brother by the far left press and the next George Soros by the far right. I’m an equal opportunity special interest pot stirrer.

Alford Preannounces $200K

Press release: Mark Alford, Republican candidate for U.S. Congress in Missouri’s 4th congressional district, announced his campaign raised over $200,000 in less than three months from more than 500 individual contributors in the last quarter of 2021, a display of campaign strength and deep support statewide which sets his campaign apart from other self-funding competitors. Alford launched his campaign in October of 2021, after leaving a 23-year career in journalism due to increasing unwillingness of the industry to permit conservative perspectives in its coverage.

Eigel Floats Alternative Map

On Twitter, Sen. Bill Eigel floated an alternative congressional redistricting map.  See it here.  It is a “7-1” map. And it also accomplishes the goal of putting all of St. Charles County into one congressional district.

·         One Republican guffawed, “Eigel releasing a map that draws the Senate redistricting chair’s district (Cole County) in with downtown Kansas City might be the funniest thing we will see all year…”

·         But it’s a signal that there will be some “vigorous debate” in the Senate when the issue comes up there.

Emergency Clause

The other redistricting debate – besides where the lines will fall – involves the emergency clause.  Jeanne Kuang reports that House Minority Leader Crystal Quade isn’t “sure Congressional redistricting qualifies as an emergency for emergency clause. Right now Republicans need some D votes to pass map with the EC to have it in effect in time for August primaries…”

But an alternative theory circulating is that an emergency clause isn’t necessary because the primary elections aren’t “real” elections, they’re just party elections.  In this line of thinking as long as they’re in place by the November elections – and early enough to give the secretary of state’s office and county election officials time to prepare for August – that will suffice.

We’ll see…

Rizzo Positive for COVID

Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo announced on twitter that he has COVID.  This morning I took a home BinaxNow & tested positive for a breakthrough case. I’m glad my vaccination & booster have kept my symptoms almost nonexistent. As was said yesterday, Omicron will find just about everybody. Vaccinations are critical to getting through this. Stay safe.

What It Means

Omicron is running through the legislature.  There were a slew of state representatives who were absent this week, some of them apparently isolating due to COVID.  

New Dogan Hire

Rep. Shamed Dogan, running for St. Louis County Executive, announced he’s hired his campaign manager, Derek Armer.

“Derek is a proud product of Missouri’s public school system, having attended public schools in his hometown of Jefferson City. He is also a proud graduate of Lincoln University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Jefferson City, where he studied Business Administration and Economics. From there, Derek received scholarships to attend the University of Missouri School of Law, where he focused his studies on policy development and the legislative process. Derek’s work experience ranges from legal work in the Missouri Governor’s Office to policy and legislative work in the United States Senate in Washington D.C.. His work spans every branch of government and shows his unwavering commitment to public service on behalf of Missourians…”

New Committees

BB Freedom Fund was formed.  It’s an independent expenditure PAC to support Ben Brown who’s running for the Franklin County Senate seat to replace Sen. Dave Schatz.  The treasurer of the committee is Mark Milton.

Lobbyists Registrations

Gamble and Schlemeier added City of Warrenton.

Mark Rhoads added S2Tech; and deleted Midwest Energy Consumers Group, and Avis Budget Group, Inc.

Elizabeth Smith added Missouri Association of Municipal Utilities.

Eapen Thampy added Cultured Cultures.

Jake Silverman added City of Wildwood.

Thomas Dempsey and Dave Berry deleted Development Dynamics, LLC.          

$5K+ Contributions

AGC of MO PAC - $8,200 from Emery Sapp & Sons, Inc.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Sen. Mike Cierpoit, and Margaret Donnelly.

Saturday: Brendan Cossette, Virvus Jones, and Esther Haywood.

Sunday: Mary Still, and Don Gosen.

MOScout Schedule

I’m taking off for the long weekend.  Back on Tuesday.  (The legislature is off Monday as well in observance of Martin Luther King Jr Day.)