MOScout Daily Update: Last Normal Day for the Senate? - Greitens Internal Poll - Pro-Lifers Looks Past Dobbs - Open Enrollment Dies and more...
Last Normal Day for the Senate??
The House passed a second congressional redistricting map. See the Post-Dispatch article here.
All eyes will turn to Sens. Bill Eigel and Bob Onder to see whether they accept the map, rally Conservative Caucus opposition to it, or offer a new counter proposal.
Onder’s tweet yesterday did not inspire optimism. It is insulting to the overwhelming majority of MO Republicans that once again “the fix was in” and members were not allowed to vote on a #7-1 map. This does not bode well.
What It Means
The Senate is expected to take up the new map on Wednesday. So this could be the last full day before things get off-filter again in the Senate…
Driving the Day: Dobbs Resolution
Emily Manley points out that the Senate Rules Committee (8:30AM) will hear Sen. Justin Brown’s resolution to “trigger” Missouri’s abortion ban.
Now Therefore Be It Resolved that the members of the Missouri Senate, One Hundred First General Assembly, Second Regular Session, the House of Representatives concurring therein, hereby notify the Revisor of Statutes that this resolution shall serve as the General Assembly’s
notice pursuant to the provisions of Section 188.017 that the provisions of such section shall become effective upon the issuance by the United States Supreme Court of the Dobbs opinion overruling Roe v. Wade…
· Sponsoring the resolution will be a nice talking point in Brown’s Republican primary against Rep. Suzie Pollock. But I’m surprised they’re not waiting until AFTER the ruling to issue the proclamation…
Meanwhile
If you think Missouri Right to Life is sitting around planning their victory lap for the impending Roe v Wade ruling, you’d be wrong. They have a full agenda for the final days of session. From their email blast…
· The Missouri House passed a pro-life omnibus bill, HCS HB 2012, in late March. The bill was heard in the Senate Seniors, Families, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee on April 20th and was voted out on April 27. As of today (May 9) the bill is sitting in the Senate Government Accountability and Fiscal Oversight Committee (GAFO)…
· With the possible overturning of Roe v. Wade, efforts by pro-abortion forces to “find” a “right” to abortion in State Constitutions has been a recent and successful tactic. Our neighboring state of Kansas is fighting to change their State Constitution after the Kansas Supreme Court found a right to abortion in their Constitution. To prevent this here in Missouri, the Senate has moved forward a combined Joint Resolution SJR 52 & 53 (Senator Andrew Koenig and Senator Bob Onder) that would ensure that abortion is not a constitutional right in Missouri….
And
Axios reports that there’s some disagreement among Republicans nationally about how far and how fast to push the pro-life agenda, worrying about “overreach.” That does not seem to be a concern among MOGOP.
House Rejects Open Enrollment
Rep. Phil Christofanelli’s HJR 110, one of several “Parents’ Bill of Rights” filed this session was defeated yesterday with a bipartisan vote 60-81. While it contained some of the anti-CRT language that Republicans have been advancing all session, likely the open enrollment provision was too much for many House Republicans to swallow.
Greitens: I’m Winning
Eric Greitens is now the third US Senate candidate to tout internal polling to say that they’re winning the race. See the Washington Examiner article here.
Former Missouri governor and candidate for U.S. Senate Eric Greitens released new poll numbers today indicating he firmly remains the frontrunner in the U.S. Senate Republican primary. The survey was conducted from May 2 through May 4, 2022…
Eric Greitens: 26%
Vicky Hartzler: 19%
Eric Schmitt: 14%
Billy Long: 7%
Mark McCloskey: 5%
Dave Schatz: 2%
MEC Still Quorum-less
Two more ethics complaints met with no action from the Missouri Ethics Commission because they lack a quorum of commissioners.
One was a campaign finance complaint against Rita Heard Days in St. Louis County. See it here. The other was a nepotism complaint against Laurie Draughon in Clay County. See it here.
Cornell Passes
Joplin Globe reports on the death of Harry Mack Cornell Jr. See it here. As one political observer tells me “Before Humphreys, Rex and others there was Harry.”
The grandson of a founder of Leggett & Platt Inc., Cornell became president and CEO of the company in 1960 and helped turn it into a Fortune 500 manufacturing giant. Achievements at the company included the initial public offering of Leggett & Platt stock in 1967 and the 1979 listing on the New York Stock Exchange…
Cornell's support helped bring many projects to fruition.
At the University of Missouri, his alma mater, he was instrumental in the development of a new home for the business school, dedicated as Cornell Hall in 2002. In 2003, the university awarded him an honorary doctor of law degree.
In more recent years, he committed major gifts to the Harry M. Cornell Arts & Entertainment Complex, a state-of-the-art visual and performing arts center in downtown Joplin which will be home to Connect2Culture and Spiva Center for the Arts; the Cornell-Beshore Cancer Institute at Freeman Health System; the Harry M. Cornell Medical Education Center at Kansas City University's Joplin campus; and the Harry M. Cornell Dental Education Center, currently under construction at KCU-Joplin.
eMailbag More on Abortion Poll
Re the abortion poll response today… it’s actually not a mistaken understanding about conception and birth control, it’s that “when life begins” might not be the relevant question for views on the law. You can believe it’s “life” at conception (and even that an abortion after that is morally problematic) while also believing that a woman’s right to control her own body and her future supersedes the rights of a “living” zygote or embryo. Clearly many people that believe life technically starts then still believe women should have the right to terminate their pregnancy even after that point. Same way we all know a sick adult is a living person, but still don’t think they have the right to force another person to give them their kidney or even donate blood in order for them to survive.
$5K+ Contributions
JanePAC (pro-Dueker) - $30,000 from Commercial Development Company.
JanePAC - $22,400 from August A Busch III.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Rep. Ron Hicks, and Michelle Sherod.