MOScout Daily Update: Parson for Schatz? - Senate Drama - House Passes Ed Bills - MEC in WaPo - Webb for Kunce and more...
GOP Old Guard For Schatz?
Are the old guard Republicans beginning to push for Sen. Dave Schatz in the US Senate race? On the heels of this week’s news that KC GOP go-to Warren Erdman is leaning in for Schatz, yesterday the Schatz campaign sent a “save the date” for a March 31 event in St. Louis headlined by Governor Mike Parson.
Parson had demurred when asked about endorsing in the race, but here he is, a week later, lending his name to a Schatz fundy.
Recent MOscout polling showed Parson’s favorability among Republican primary voters at 55% (vs 21% unfavorable) nine points lower Senator Josh Hawley’s polling (64% fav vs 21% unfav).
Team Schatz thinks their candidate, with his pragmatic, pro-business record, is the tip of the spear for the old guard GOP looking for a traditional Republican alternative in the race. But polling has placed Schatz at the bottom of the race.
· With less than five months to the primary election, is it even possible to raise Schatz’ statewide brand fast enough to catapult him into the top tier of candidates?
Senate Drama Continues
Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder led a press conference in the rotunda yesterday morning with 21 senators behind her, decrying the Conservative Caucus’ sinking of bipartisan legislation.
See Missouri Independent coverage here.
See Springfield News-Leader coverage here.
Senators not standing behind Thomason Rehder: Sens. Brattin, Burlison, Crawford, Eigel, Hoskins, Koenig, Moon, O’Laughlin, Onder, Roberts (who was away on reserve duty), Schatz, and Wieland.
After the presser, the Senate went into session. Sen. Denny Hoskins held the floor, giving an hours-long forceful rebuttal of the accusations leveled during the press conference. The Senate recessed with no business accomplished.
In the afternoon, the body rallied and perfected a few bills. What would have been an average afternoon in any other session felt like an amazing accomplishment, with senators exclaiming, “We perfected a bill!”
That puts the House into some context.
Yesterday, it powered through two tough education bills: charter funding, and open enrollment.
Both passed narrowly with just a smidge of votes above the 82-vote threshold. One observer described the frogs-in-a-wheelbarrow situation: “Rep. Ian Mackey, who supported it in previous years and on perfection, voted no because he was angry at Speaker Rob Vescovo for allowing the trans athletics bill to have a hearing…”
But like everything that the House passes, its fate lies in the Senate. And bills that would have been difficult to get through the Senate in a normal year seem impossible given that nothing is getting through the Senate right now.
Obviously, lobbyists play the hand they’re dealt. Getting legislation out of the House before Spring Break puts it in good position. But it’s hard to optimistic about the odds of passage for any legislation this year.
Driving the Day: Kunce Touts Webb Support
Team Kunce is out today with an endorsement from St. Louis County Councilwoman Shalonda Webb…
"Lucas is a person who gets this state and who can actually win this race," said Councilwoman Webb. "He's talking about the issues that actually matter to working people. It's about time we had someone in the Senate who loves his country and fights for Missourians."
MEC’s Latest Anti-Abortion Angle
Washington Post reports on Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman’s anti-abortion efforts. Read it here.
An unusual new provision, introduced by state Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman (R), would allow private citizens to sue anyone who helps a Missouri resident obtain an abortion out of state, using the novel legal strategy behind the restrictive law in Texas that since September has banned abortions in that state after six weeks of pregnancy. Coleman has attached the measure as an amendment to several abortion-related bills that have made it through committee and are waiting to be heard on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Abortion rights advocates say the measure is unconstitutional because it would effectively allow states to enact laws beyond their jurisdictions, but the Republican-led Missouri legislature has been supportive of creative approaches to antiabortion legislation in the past. The measure could signal a new strategy by the antiabortion movement to extend its influence beyond the conservative states poised to tighten restrictions if the Supreme Court moves this summer to overturn its landmark precedent protecting abortion rights…
· With outraged tweets from former US Senate Claire McCaskill (see it here) and Washington Congresswoman Primila Jayapal (see it here), it is, in the rods of one lobbyist, “the best earned media that MEC could hope for.”
Coleman is in a 4-way Republican primary for the Jefferson County Senate seat.
Tech Summit in STL
Press release: Mayor Tishaura O. Jones and World Wide Technology Chairman and Founder Dave Steward will host a tech summit for fellow Black mayors at the company’s headquarters…
Participants include Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens; Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis Jr; Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin; Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin; East Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston Broome; Montgomery Mayor Steven L. Reed; Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan K. Barnett; and Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins. The summit will unite leaders to work towards solutions to common problems as well as build ties between Black leaders in both the public and private sectors…
COVID Hospitalizations Under 1K
The collapse in COVID hospitalizations in Missouri continues…
eMailbag: Leadership and CC
· Cute sentiment for whoever is complaining but what would talking to them accomplish? If the bar for a book read filibuster is "I, a freshman, wasn't consulted enough" then you're just going to get a filibuster after you waste time talking to them because Moon will say "I, a freshman, was consulted and I didn't like what I heard."
MOScout Schedule
With the legislature heading for Spring Break, I’ll be taking this weekend off.
New Committees
Parents Bill of Rights PAC was formed. Its treasurer is Kathie Conway.
New Candidate Filings
Eric Woods filed to run in House 18 (North Kansas City) as Democrat. This is a safe Democratic seat.
$5K+ Contributions
Conservative Leadership for Missouri PAC - $10,000 from Rivertown Enterprises, Inc.
Legal Missouri 2022 - $100,000 from Green Four Ventures LLC.
Legal Missouri 2022 - $11,250 from Hippo's LLC.
Legal Missouri 2022 - $25,000 from Green South Missouri LLC.
Lobbyists Registrations
Andrew Wyatt added Zoological Association of America.
Ray Price deleted Alkermes, Inc.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Mayor Tishaura Jones (the big 5-0), Jamey Murphy, Eddy Justice, Matt Jessee, and Luke Scavuzzo.