MOScout Daily Update: Bush's Roe Tour - Cards for Coatar? - Eigel 2024 Impact - New Schmitt Ad - Alford Interview Hoflander and more...
The $6M Non-Candidate
KCStar reports that Jack Danforth spent $6 million on the non-campaign for US Senate by Independent John Wood. See it here. “$102,218 for every day he was in the race.”
Bush’s Roe the Vote Tour
Congresswoman Cori Bush spent the last few days zipping across the state in an attempt to pump up Democratic enthusiasm ahead of next month’s election. Her “Roe The Vote: Reproductive Freedom Tour” though drew applause from Republicans eager to tie local Democratic candidates to seemingly out-of-touch national party.
· Eric Schmitt’s spokesman Rich Chrismer: By co-hosting this tour with Cori Bush, the Missouri Democratic Party and Trudy Busch Valentine demonstrate they are 100% aligned with these radical, anti-police policies. Valentine's silence and inability to condemn these anti-police positions is shameful…
· A Remington/MOScout statewide poll from August put Bush’s favorable rating at 20% among Missourians…
Cards Jump into BOA Prez Race?
Post-Dispatch’s Austin Huguelet writes that a recent $50K check to Alderman Jack Coatar’s PAC was traced back to an entity connected to the St. Louis Cardinals. See it here.
Coatar is running for President of the Board of Alderman. He faces Alderwoman Megan Ellyia Green. She’s considered the progressive candidate.
This morning in the large contributions (below) there’s another $50K check into that same Coatar PAC. This one is from Lodging Hospitality Management. They operate two hotels in Downtown St Louis: Union Station Hotel, and Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark.
One observer sees this as the St. Louis business community’s “desperation over crime. There is a growing frustration about the lack of city action on crime and dismissal of calls for increased policing. Expect more big checks to land in the JackPAC this week.”
FYI
Public safety is a top priority for incoming-speaker Dean Plocher. It’s a topic that could dominate next session.
Schmitt Calls Valentine a “Limousine Liberal”
In his latest ad “Heiress,” Attorney General Eric Schmitt calls his Democratic opponent Trudy Busch Valentine a “limousine liberal.” See it here.
Trudy Busch Valentine is an heiress. She comes from billions and does not care what inflation is doing to your wallet.
In DC, Trudy will be a vote for more spending and higher taxes.
I'm Eric Schmitt. My dad worked seven days a week in the midnight shift at Anheuser-Busch.
My blue-collar roots run deep.
I'll stop Biden's tax-and-spend agenda--dead in its tracks.
A limousine liberal, or a fighter for Missouri families. You decide.
Eigel for Gov Impact
A Republican state rep zapped a curt reaction to Sen. Bill Eigel’s re-announcement that he’ll be seeking the Republican nomination for governor in 2024… “Eigel will never carry rural Missouri.”
It’s a judgement I believe not only of Eigel’s suburban roots, but his mannerisms and personality being less approachable to out-staters.
What It Means
This made me reconsider my thinking of this primary. I’d thought about it in ideological terms. I’d assumed a firebrand Eigel might siphon votes from Jay Ashcroft, creating more space for Mike Kehoe to run right-center.
But thinking about it in geographic terms is different. Eigel presumably wins the St. Charles cache of voters, but plays well in Greene County, and who gathers up the large diffuse rural voters?
MEC Fundy for Earle-Sears
Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman is hosting a fundraiser this weekend for Winsome Earle-Sears, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. See the invite here.
Wikipedia notes that “Sears is the first woman to serve as lieutenant governor of Virginia, and is the first woman of color and first Jamaican-born American citizen elected to statewide office in Virginia.”
Alford Interview Hoflander
Mark Alford is starting a side project interviewing folks. He’s calling it “Truth Matters,” and his first guest is Kay Hoflander. Catch this first episode here. They talk about how her life, and how she got started in politics, and her views of the current environment while sitting in the Lafayette County courthouse. “[The Republican Party isn’t] very far apart with some of the groups that use the ‘Rino’ term, the ‘establishment’ term… I think that’s name-calling. It’s a slur… what bothers me is our good volunteers that are hard-working volunteers get some of those attacks made against them… The way to beat the Republican majority is to divide us…”
· MOScouter: “Alford is a communicator which is kind of rare in the GOP.”
Terrell to Commerce
Benjamin Terrell is the new Legislative Director for the Missouri Department of Commerce & Insurance. He was previously with the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.
Lobbyists Registrations
Roxsen Koch added Overland Property Group.
$5K+ Contributions
Legal Missouri 2022 - $50,000 from Poplar Bluff Investments LLC.
Legal Missouri 2022 - $25,000 from Blue Arrow Missouri LLC.
Legal Missouri 2022 - $25,000 from MocannTrade PAC.
Jack PAC (pro-Coatar) - $50,000 from Lodging Hospitality Management.
Together KC - $10,000 from SMG.
Together KC - $25,000 from Greater KC Chamber of Commerce.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Deb Lavender, Jeanne Kirkton, Jamala Rogers, and Jay Hardenbrook.