MOScout Daily Update: Senate Works Through Night - Gelner TV Ad - TBV TV Ad - New Map - Budget Conference - Legal MO Signatures and more....
Senate Works Through the Night
The Senate worked throughout the night on various piece of legislation with varying success…
· HB 1472 was laid over after an amendment from Sen. Greg Razer was offered to expand discrimination protections.
· HB 2400 was perfected after Sen. Denny Hoskins withdrew his amendment to add sports betting to the bill.
· HB 2005 was passed with the Grain Belt / eminent domain compromise.
What It Means
The work happening in the House and Senate is giving hope that this session might not be a bust after all.
One lobbyist: Look at how big some of these Christmas Tree bills are and realize we have all next week. They can still pass a lot of legislation. The actual number of bills will be low but it may be that the number of provisions won’t.
Gelner on the Air
Brian Gelner, running in the Senate 20 (Burlison seat) Republican primary against Rep. Curtis Trent, has released his first TV ad. See it here.
It starts bemoaning the current inflation woes, and introduces himself as a “not a politician, I’m a small businessman… a dad… I’ll be a citizen-legislator.”
His tag: Conservative Common Sense Leadership.
· It’s good ad, and his money lead in the race may be giving his team the confidence to jump on the air a little early. It appears he’s the first state senate candidate up on tv in the state.
Another Map Proposal
House Redistricting Committee Dan Shaul unveiled a new compromise congressional map. See a picture of it here. The “Missouri Mapper” estimates that the new CD-2 in the map would have gone for Trump +7.5%.
Among the testimony…
· Former Sen. Mike Cunningham decried that Webster County is split, seeming to generate some sympathy from the committee.
· Susan Klein, from Missouri Right to Life, waved the white flag on “7-1” saying in testimony that “that ship has sailed,” and now they’re aiming for a “strong 6-2.”
Budget Conference
Rudi Keller reports on the Budget Conference Committee. See it here.
The House accepted a pair of big-ticket items from the Senate version.
· The conference agreed to fully fund the education transportation line item – although Senate Appropriations Chair Dan Hegeman warned that the $200+ million was a one-time decision and educators shouldn’t count on full funding in the future.
· The $500 million infusion into MOSERS was approved.
And
Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s budget cut wasn’t restored – a surprising rebuke to the Republican statewide officeholder. Senate Floor Leader Caleb Rowden, at his weekly press avail, expressed what seems to be the prevailing opinion in the legislature: Would I say that probably the attorney general went a little out of his way for political purposes? Yeah probably…
Valentine’s First TV Ad
Trudy Busch Valentine released her first TV ad. See it here. It’s an introductory bio piece, slimmed down to thirty seconds from her original 3-minute video.
· Meanwhile, Team Kunce gamely continues to fight on for the Democratic nomination, but the assumption among politicos is that Valentine will saturate the airwaves as necessary to insure a primary victory.
Legal MO Says They’ve Exceeded Signature Target
Legal Missouri 2022, aiming to make recreational marijuana legal, says that they’ve “collected more than 325,000 voter signatures.”
The deadline to submit signatures for inclusion on the 2022 ballot is Sunday. The process requires approximately 170,000 signatures from across the state.
Meanwhile
The no-cap legalization bill advanced by Rep. Ron Hicks remains stalled in the House.
“Women for Schmitt” Coalition
Team Schmitt announced their “Women for Schmitt” Coalition. Most prominent among them is Sen. Cindy O’Laughlin who wrote an op/ed (see it here) endorsing Schmitt.
The full list…
Kay Hoflander, Statewide Chair of Women for Schmitt
Renee Artman, St. Louis Co-Chair
Janice DeWeese, St. Louis Co-Chair
Susie Eckelkamp, Jackson County Co-Chair
Sharon Stackelhouse, Jackson County Co-Chair
Beverly Worth, Jackson County Co-Chair
Lana Crain, Lafayette County Co-Chair
Carla Young, Pettis County Co-Chair
Mary Hill, Clay County Co-Chair
Rebecca Rooney, Platte County Co-Chair
Stefanie Ostendorf, Green County Co-Chair
Sen. Cindy O’Laughlin, NWMO Co-Chair
Lori Smith, Adair County Co-Chair
Anna Voelker, SEMO Co-Chair
Carrie Yanson, Scott County Co-Chair
Christine Kleindienst, Callaway County Co-Chair
Rep. Cyndi Buchheit-Courtway Jefferson County Co-Chair
Penny Hanke, St. Charles County
eMailbag on Deposition
I got some pushback from a couple folks on my characterization that the deposition didn’t have any bombshell revelations.
Regarding “The Deposition” - you didn’t find it the least bit interesting that each of the Highway Patrolmen that have been tasked with rounding up “illegal” machines acknowledged that the Torch Electronic machines do not meet the legal definition for gambling in Missouri?
$5K+ Contributions
Legal Missouri 2022 - $100,000 from GL Partners LLC.
Legal Missouri 2022 - $100,000 from BD Health Ventures LLC.
Legal Missouri 2022 - $12,500 from V3 Holdings Missouri LLC.
Legal Missouri 2022 - $10,000 from MO Retail Products Group Inc.
Better Elections - $10,000 from John Kemper.
Lobbyists Registrations
Justin Arnold added Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc.
Ashley Hayek added America First Works.
Steven Tilley, Thomas Robbins, Brittany Hyatt Robbins, and Christopher Schoeman added Natrabis.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Michael Hafner, David Day, and John Hickey.