MOScout Daily Update: Schmitt Gets Trump Shout-out - Previewing MOSEN $$$ - The Coming Sports Betting Battle - COVID Peak? - Snow Day Coming? and more...

Schmitt Gets Trump Shout-Out

We’ll start from Texas over the weekend where Attorney General Eric Schmitt got a shout-out from former President Donald Trump. See it here.

I’ll leave it to the Trumpologists to explain how this figures into the handicapping for his endorsement.

Snow Day Coming?

It sounds like both House and Senate leaders are keeping one eye on the weather forecast. Snow is expected to come into Jefferson City Tuesday night.  It’s possible we could see a shot week depending how things shape up.  It wasn’t too many years ago that the legislature stayed during a storm and when they did go home several ended up in accidents, including Rep. Wanda Brown who broke her neck and was out the rest of session.

And

House is working to move the supplemental budget out of committee this week, while all eyes will continue to be on the Senate’s effort to pass a redistricting map.  I didn’t hear of any progress on a compromise map over the weekend….

Federal Filings: What To Watch For

Today is the campaign finance deadline for federal candidates.  Here’s what to watch for…

US Senate

·         Last quarter Eric Greitens’ candidate committee was nearly empty when you subtracted its debt and its general election donations.  Will he show any life on that front, or is he depending on his SuperPAC during the final stretch of this race?

·         Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s big war-chest is loaded with oodles of “general election” money.  I’m interested to see how much usable cash he has for the final six months.

·         Can Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler keep chugging out solid quarters?

·         Mark McCloskey’s fundraising and lack of traction in the polls have some wondering if he’ll file next month.  We’ll see if there are any tea leaves in his filing that he’s folding up his political operation.

·         This will be Sen. Dave Schatz’ first quarter.  I’m curious to see how much of his own money he’s putting in, and if he’s repeated his feat from several years ago and corralled a bunch of Franklin County businessmen to write checks as well.  He needs a lot of money to build his brand in the limited time ahead.

·         Finally, I’m interested to look inside Congressman Billy Long’s quarter.  How much did he raise and how is he spending that money, and does he have any chance outside of a Trump endorsement?

CD-4

·         I’ll be watching for first quarters from Sen. Rick Brattin and Mark Alford.  Alford, in particular, with a strong quarter could become the legitimate front-runner after an early poll showed that he has lots of name ID in the district.

·         After a generally lackluster October quarter, I’m not expecting too much from the others, so any strong quarters will be a positive surprise.

CD-7

·         Jay Wasson set the tone with his $800K on hand.  Now it’s time to see who among the others will compete on money.

·         Sen. Eric Burlison has an early lead in a baseline poll a month ago.  Will he have money to keep some momentum going?

·         Sam Alexander was supposedly going to tap into a network of doctor donors, is there evidence of that?

·         Sen. Mike Moon has demonstrated grassroots strength in his past state House and Senate races.  But that’s harder to convert into a winning vote total in a congressional district. Can he raise some dough?

Hoskins and Sports Betting

SportsHandle.com reports on the odds of sports betting legislation succeeding in Missouri this year.  Read it here.

Missouri Sen. Denny Hoskins has long said that the road to legal sports betting winds through his Jefferson City office. A week after Missouri’s six professional sports teams and casinos announced that they were aligned and backing an effort to legalize sports betting this session, Hoskins maintained his position. But he’s not the lawmaker who will carry the bill.

The story of how titans from some of the biggest businesses in the state came together isn’t terribly complicated. But how they will move forward and negotiate with a powerful senator who wants to attach Missouri’s “gray machines,” formally known as video lottery terminals, to legal sports betting is the challenge….

·         A key part of the agreement is the idea that while no retail books would be allowed in stadiums or within an adjacent “entertainment zone,” the stadiums and the surrounding areas would not be geofenced. So even if the Cardinals are partnered with, for example, PNG’s Barstool Sportsbook, a fan in the bleachers could bet on the app of DraftKings, FanDuel, Caesars, or any other operator while inside of Busch Stadium….

·         The agreement, which is possibly the first of its kind where major stakeholders came together ahead of bills being filed, has already been incorporated into multiple bills in Missouri. Dan Hegeman and Tony Luetkemeyer have filed in the Senate, and Phil Christofanelli and Dan Houx have filed in the House.

·         “I’ve been working on this for five years,” Hoskins told Sports Handle last week. “Number one, if you think I am just going to sit back and let somebody else take the bill, make the compromises, and have the discussion, you don’t know how the Senate works.

·         “Any sports betting comes through my office. It’s great that they have been working together, and they gave language to Dan Hegeman. But I am a ‘no’ on this bill. I can run circles around anyone who brings it up and tie it in knots. It’s not what I want to do, but I will, and I will make someone look silly in committee.”

Redistricting Talk

Washington Monthly looks at Democrats’ past frustrations in CD-2, and Ben Samuels current run.  Read it here.

Yet moving Missouri’s 2nd into the Democratic camp will be tough. That’s partly because of Biden’s low poll numbers, as well as a potential GOP-led redistricting plan that, depending on how it plays out, could increase Wagner’s advantage. But at a deeper level, Missouri’s 2nd lacks a key factor that has propelled other suburban districts from red to blue in recent cycles: high levels of economic growth, and with it, rapid demographic change. That anemic growth, common in other heartland metro areas, is an underappreciated reason why Democrats continue to struggle politically…

COVID Peak in MO?

It appears the COVID hospitalizations have finally started to recede just a bit from their surge, and ICU patients are plateauing as well.  We’ll see…

Gubby Appts

Governor Mike Parson appointed…

·         Corey K. Herron to be Circuit Judge for the 4th Judicial Circuit, which includes Nodaway, Atchison, Holt, Gentry, and Worth counties.

·         Heather R. Cunningham to be Circuit Judge for Division 3 of the 21st Judicial Circuit.

·         Kristal Hine to be the Ralls County Clerk.

·         John Schoen to the State Milk Board.

·         Jody Vance to be the Miller County Collector of Revenue.

Lobbyists Registrations

Brent Bayer, Samantha Green, David Kirby, and Michael Moorefield added Missouri State Auditor's Office.

Nexus Group added Home Run Financing.

Tony Dugger added Boyd Gaming Corporation.

Brian Robert Hackett added Animal Legal Defense Fund.

Strategic Capitol Consulting added Legal Missouri 2022.

Shawn Rhoads added Advantage Capital Partners.

Jay Reichard deleted Elara Caring.

$5K+ Contributions

Hagedorn for Mayor - $6,000 from James Hagedorn.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Robin Wright-Jones, and Zach Dunn.