MOScout Daily Update: Greitens Goes Viral - Trump Endorsement Overstated? - MOFOP Backs Roorda - SCOTUS Hearts School Choice and more...
Greitens Goes Viral
One MOScouter notes that while I cited the video’s YouTube views (80,000-ish) yesterday, it had also racked up over 2 million views on the more sharable Twitter platform.
“Eric Greitens, Rino” plugged into Google this morning returns over 50,000 news articles including all the major outlets from around the nation: The Hill, NPR, NBC News, AP…
And it earns him rebukes from editorial pages across the spectrum…
· Left-center Washington Post: Whatever you think of your political opponents, it is never acceptable to implicitly threaten violence against them. But in the current political environment, it’s positively vile.
· Right-center Wall Street Journal: Plenty of politicians appear with guns in ads as a show of support for the Second Amendment. But the Greitens ad is a call to target those with differing political beliefs, potentially with violence. Mr. Greitens is angling for a Donald Trump endorsement before the Aug. 2 primary, but this is desperate stuff… a reckless message at a time when some on the right and left seem to think violence is justified to achieve their goals.
Meanwhile
Sen. Dave Schatz continued his non-viral, retro-ish campaign. Calling for a “Return to Reaganism” by holding a presser in the blazing heat.
Roorda Lands MOFOP
In Senate 22, Jeff Roorda landed the endorsement of the Missouri Fraternal Order of Police, and a max check….
School Choicers Cheer SCOTUS Ruling
The Supreme Court yesterday ruling in Carson v Macon will likely have a big impact in the school choice efforts in Missouri.
· SCOTUS Blog: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that Maine violated the Constitution when it refused to make public funding available for students to attend schools that provide religious instruction. The opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts was a broad ruling, making clear that when state and local governments choose to subsidize private schools, they must allow families to use taxpayer funds to pay for religious schools.
· Rep. Phil Christofanelli, one of the champions of the Education Saving Account legislation, cheered the ruling on Twitter: The US Supreme Court has once again sided with parents and families over establishment bureaucrats in ruling that state school choice programs may not exclude religious schools. Another great victory for kids!
Trump Brand Losing Some Shine?
Politico Playbook this morning looks at recent Georgia results and wonders if the Trump endorsement is all that? The conventional wisdom in Missouri is that Donald Trump could be a decisive factor if he endorses. Maybe we’ll overestimated his potential impact? Read it here.
TRUMP LOSES BIGLY IN GEORGIA: “Georgia Republican voters rebuked Donald Trump for the second time in a month Tuesday by rejecting his picks for a pair of open U.S. House seats,” writes AJC’s Greg Bluestein.
· In GA-10: Businessman MIKE COLLINS crushed VERNON JONES, a Trump-endorsed former Democratic state representative-turned-MAGA Republican, winning by nearly 50 points.
· In GA-06: RICH MCCORMICK, who had the backing of Cruz, the Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity, defeated Trump-endorsed JAKE EVANS by a more than 2-to-1 margin.
GORDON RHODEN, chair of Georgia’s Athens-Clarke County GOP: “At this point in time, the Trump endorsement is neutral. It’s not a plus and it’s not a negative. … People are moving beyond that.”
Hruza’s MedEx Memory
A Post-Dispatch profile of the upcoming Senate 24 battle had one Dem guffawing. The article (see it here) states that Republican candidates “[George] Hruza and [Brett] Schenck both couldn’t recall how they voted on Medicaid expansion.”
· Dem: “This is laughable and insulting. He was the President of the Missouri State Medical Association… This would be like Jake Hummel, President of the Missouri AFL-CIO, not remembering how he voted on ‘right-to-work.’”
$5K+ Contributions
Missouri First - $30,000 from Republic Services.
Committee To Elect Steve Ehlmann - $10,000 from Stephen Brauer.
Missouri Conservative Alliance - $25,036 from Sheet Metal Workers International Association/Local Union No. 36.
Uniting Missouri PAC (pro-Parson) - $20,000 from Rightpath PAC.
Conservative Solutions for Missouri PAC - $25,000 from Mo Coalition for Video Lottery PAC.
House Republican Campaign Committee, Inc - $5,500 from Missouri United.
JanePAC (pro Dueker) - $10,000 from Kevin M Short.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Rep. Chad Perkins, Margo McNeil, and Ann Auer.