MOScout Daily Update: Shull Eyes Senate Seat - No Dogan for County Exec - Reisch on Furries - MO Teacher Shortage and more...

Return of Shull?

Former Rep. Noel Shull has formed a campaign committee to run for state senate in 2024.  According to the filing (see it here), he’ll be running in Senate 17.  Shull, a retired banking executive, served for 8 years; he was succeeded by Rep. Chris Brown.

·       Shull is a Republican, and the district leans Democratic.

·       It’s currently represented by Sen. Lauren Arthur.  She’s term limited. Possible Democratic candidates include Reps. Mark Ellebracht, Maggie Nurrenbern and Wes Rogers.

What It Means

The 2024 cycle is already here.  With very little in the way of 2020 state senate battlegrounds, folks are already eying 2024. 

·       Reminder: Dems with pick up the Boone County seat (Senate 19, Caleb Rowden termed) in 2024 due to redistricting.  And Republicans will likely take the Independence seat (Senate 11, John Rizzo termed).

More on STL County

I wrote over the weekend that Rep. Shamed Dogan was the obvious choice to replace Katherine Pinner – who says she’s going to drop out of the St. Louis County Executive race.
Apparently not! KMOV reports, “Per Missouri’s ‘sore loser’ law, Dogan cannot be the GOP candidate or run as an independent.”

One MOScouter tips: Everyone wants Tim Fitch, who will need lots of convincing.

·       The big problem for GOP: It’s hard to find a legit Republican candidate because most sober observers believe that St. Louis County has shifted too far Democratic to wage a successful county-wide campaign.  Dogan had hoped to siphon off some Black Democratic voters to build his coalition.  No one else seems to have charted a strategy to break the Dems’ electoral grip.

Reisch Spreads False Information

Columbia Tribune reports on Rep. Cheri Reisch “spreading an unfounded rumor on her Facebook page that Columbia Public Schools students dressed as animals are using litterboxes as their bathroom.”  Read it here.

·       "This is happening in Columbia Public Schools also," Reisch wrote in a Tuesday post linking to another post. "Yes, the janitor has to clean the litter box. To read more comments, click on the original post."

·       Some on Facebook asked her to provide evidence or proof, but she didn't. Others believed her claim and questioned what the school district was doing about it.

·       "There are no litterboxes and there never have been," Superintendent Brian Yearwood said Thursday after investigating the claim… "Running down these unwarranted rumors is a tremendous waste of time," Yearwood said. "Our focus is on the education of our scholars." Yearwood said Reisch knows the claim is untrue.

Teacher Shortage

Missouri makes the NYTimes article on teacher shortages.  Read it here.

·       In Missouri, where teachers receive among the lowest salaries on average in the country, John Downs, the superintendent of the rural Hallsville School District, said that the pool of qualified applicants has all but dried up in recent years. A few days before the start of the school year, positions in speech language pathology and math were still unfilled.

·       This year, Hallsville schools are trying to entice educators with a four-day workweek. “We’re competing against more affluent districts who can offer more lucrative salary benefit packages,” Mr. Downs said. “So we decided we needed to think outside of the box.”

·       Hallsville is not alone. In Missouri, 25 percent of all districts will be on a four-day schedule this fall.

Driving the Week: 30-Day Afters Coming

Campaigns will be filing their 30-Day After reports this Thursday.

Why it matters…

·       It’ll give us a rearview mirror look at the primary races, yielding some insights into successful and unsuccessful campaigns.

·       But more importantly, it’s the baseline cash on-hand numbers for the battleground races this November.  After this filing, the next deadline isn’t until October 15 which will show fundraising through the end of September.

Jones Files

Unsuccessful candidate, Bob Jones (running in Franklin County’s Senate 26) filed his 30-Day report early, and terminated his committee, swallowing about $73,000 he’d loaned himself.  He won’t be the only candidate doing that…

Panel Announced

Press release: The Appellate Judicial Commission submitted to Governor Michael L. Parson its panel of nominees to fill the vacancy on the Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District. This vacancy exists due to the June 2022 retirement of Judge Gary W. Lynch. The commission unanimously supports the three nominees. After approximately 7 hours of public interviews, approximately 2.5 hours of deliberations and eight rounds of balloting, the nominees are Becky J.W. Borthwick, Ginger K. Gooch and Raymond E. Williams…

Lobbyist Registrations

Jake Silverman added Gateway Human Trafficking.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Robin Smith.