MOScout Daily Update: GOP Sens Get Primary Challengers - Sports Betting Up for Committee Vote - Parson's Date with the Press and more...

1 Big Thing: Incumbent GOP Sens Get Primaries

I’ve been focused on the Senate Republican primaries in open seat where it seems the expansion or diminishment of the Conservative Caucus will be determined.

But there’s also another phenomenon occurring – several incumbent Republican senators running for re-election have a primary challenge.  (Last cycle only one incumbent had a challenge.)

·         Senate 8 – Mike Cierpiot faces Joe Nicola

·         Senate 16 – Justin Brown faces Rep. Suzie Pollock and Scott Riedel.

·         Senate 28 – Sandy Crawford faces Bill Yarberry.

·         Senate 30 – Lincoln Hough (not yet filed) faces Angela Romine.

·         Senate 32 – Bill White faces Jill Carter.

Certainly, some of these opponent do not look to be problamatic. Some haven’t started a campaign committee yet, or have no active website or candidate footprint yet.

But it’s possible that these senators (all members of the Republican Regulars) have second thoughts on votes now which could be used against them in a primary.

The Conservative Caucus, as much as they have dominated the tempo of the Senate, has been on the losing side of nearly every vote this session.  With primary challengers filed, might they be able to peel off a vote or two on selected issues.  We’ll see…

Driving the Day: Sports Wagering Vote in Committee

The House keeps chugging along despite little action from the other side of the building.  Today it’s scheduled to vote out of committee one of the session’s high-profile issues: sports wagering.

The bills had their hearing last week – with seemingly every major lobbying firm crammed into the room – at the Special Committee on Public Policy. 

Rep. Dan Houx has been credited with crafting a coalition which includes the major stakeholders agreeing to a framework for Missouri to join the sports betting world.   All the professional sports teams, and all the casinos (except one) are on board.  The only dissenter was Boyd Gaming.  Rep. Jason Chipman, in committee, expressed befuddlement that Boyd’s limited object to the mandating of use of league data was the basis of their opposition.

It appears there are enough votes to advance the bills out of committee.

Meanwhile

The Senate reconvenes at 4PM.  The question is: which Senate will we see?  The one where the reading of the Journal is filibustered, or the one where some work is accomplished in moving a bill forward?

If they head to the perfection calendar, Sen. Bill Eigel’s 50-year phase-out of St. Charles’ personal property tax is in the cue.  He’s a leader of the Conservative Caucus and they presumably wouldn’t thwart that action.

More Anti-Public Health Legislation

The legislature’s attempt to rein in public health officials continues today with a hearing on HB 2631 (Workforce Development Committee, 12:30PM, HR1).  The Republican majority has been rebelling against what they viewed as extreme overreach during the COVID crisis by public health officials.

HB 2631, sponsored by Rep. Jim Kalberloh, simply states: “The pay of any elected official who orders the unauthorized closure of a private business in order to prevent or limit the spread of a contagious disease during a pandemic or address any other public health concern shall be suspended for the length of the business's closure.”

Brown Ethics Case Dismissed

An ethics complaint against Sen. Justin Brown was dismissed.  The allegation was that he’d used campaign money to pay for personal meals.  Rather he used to campaign funds to pay for constituents’ meals when they were visiting the capitol.  Therefore the Commission dismissed the case.  See the dismissal here.

MOScout Poll

Last weekend’s Remington/MOScout poll of Independent voters in Missouri yielded a few interesting insights.

·         MO Indys lean GOP. Answering a series of questions about which party they trusted to deal with various policy areas, Independents favored Republicans in each case.  This shows that MO Indys lean Republican, another indication that the path for Democrats to win statewide races is exceedingly difficult.

·         Public safety remains the GOPs strongest police area.  The greatest gap between the two party’s was in the area of public safety where 51% of Independents favored Republicans and only 22% favored Democrats.  The smallest gap was in dealing with COVID (40% for GOP vs 29% for Dems)

Thursday’s Date With Press

For 31 years, the Missouri Press Association has hosted MPA Day at the Capitol for its member newspapers. The 32nd MPA Day is Thursday, March 3. “Members will start their morning with coffee and pastries in the Capitol building, followed by meetings with their local legislators to discuss issues critical to the Missouri newspaper industry,” MPA says.

“Afterwards, attendees will walk to the Governor’s Mansion for lunch. Following lunch, Gov. Mike Parson has confirmed he will be available for a question-and-answer session.” That’s the same Gov. Parson who continues to wrongly suggest a St. Louis Post-Dispatch data reporter is a criminal state computer “hacker,” despite findings of a taxpayer-funded Missouri Highway Patrol investigation that there was no hacking, and Cole County Prosecutor Locke Thompson declining to file any charges. Although Post-Dispatch reporter Josh Renaud is vindicated, Parson stubbornly refuses to apologize for wrongfully accusing Renaud of breaking the law.

·         From a long-time Capitol observer: “Parson has put that reporter through hell. The decent thing is for Parson to admit he was wrong and publicly apologize. Yet Parson doubled down on his spiteful stupidity. I wonder - if Josh Renaud shows up at the MPA luncheon, would Parson have the guts to look him directly in the eye and call him a criminal, in front of newspaper people from across Missouri? Because surely someone in the newspaper luncheon will call Parson to account...”

New Candidate Filings

Anthony Ealy filed to run in House 36 as a Democrat. This creates a 3-way Democratic primary with incumbent Rep. Annette Turnbaugh the obvious favorite.

$5K+ Contributions

Prop R For Roads - $10,000 from Build Saint Louis PAC.

Lobbyists Registrations

First Capitol Advisors added Empower Missouri (formerly Mo Association For Social Welfare).

Gamble & Schlemeier added Missouri CASA Association.

Birthdays

Happy birthday to Rep. Steve Butz.