MOScout Daily Update: Sports Betting Eyed Next Session - Anti-Legalization PAC - Teflon Trump? and more...
Special Session Continues
The legislature continued moving the tax cut and tax credit bills forward.
Missouri Independent notes that “only one thing hasn’t gone the way Parson and legislative leaders hoped. While the Missouri House was able to muster just enough votes to pass the $40 million package of tax credits and low-interest loans intended to support agriculture, it fell short of the number needed for the bill to take effect with Parson’s signature.”
Sports Betting Targeted
In a press availability, both Senate Majority Floor Leader Caleb Rowden, and Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo punctuated their desire to see sports betting pass next session.
Emily Manley has the video here.
· Rowden: Yeah [it will be a priority in January]. We look dumb.
· Rizzo: These chambers look like fools for not having gotten that done.
In past sessions, sports betting has fallen victim to an entanglement with the video lottery machine debate. Sen. Denny Hoskins still has two more years in the upper chamber, and he’s made it clear in the past: he wants VLTs included in any sports betting bill. With Sen. Dave Schatz moving on, it’s possible there’d be less resistance to this. Still casinos might balk as they view the expansion of VLTs as harmful to their business model.
Bottomline: Still a thorny issue.
Anti-A3 PAC
I wrote yesterday that I hadn’t seen a campaign committee formed to oppose the marijuana legalization ballot question, and one reader pointed me to Save Our State. It’s a PAC (see the paperwork here) formed earlier this month.
The same source says there’s a broad coalition coalescing… “Law Enforcement, Medical, Religious, Banking/Financial, Right-Leaning Political, Urban Left, Municipalities…”
So far, no large contributions have been recorded for the PAC. Next filing to see how much they’ve raised will be October 15, showing funds raised through the end of the month.
Telfon Trump?
New York Times reports that polling shows no change in attitudes about Donald Trump despite revelations from the January 6 committee and the FBI raid of missing documents.
· The American public’s views of former President Donald J. Trump have remained remarkably stable across a number of different measures in recent months, even as he faces multiple investigations and as he remains a central figure in the midterm elections…
· Voters held nearly identical views from those earlier in the summer on whether they had a favorable view of Mr. Trump, whether they thought he had committed serious federal crimes, and whom they would support in a hypothetical 2024 Trump-Biden matchup.
Moving Forward STL
Yesterday I wrote about a new pro-Mark Mantovani / anti-Sam Page PAC, Safer STL. A second PAC with the same purpose (and treasurer) has been former, Moving Forward STL. See the paperwork here.
Now we’ll wait and see if any bid contributions come in for either PAC…
eMailbag: Which Schmitt?
Asking which Schmitt will go to DC assumes there are more than one version of him. It will be the same Schmitt who abandoned moderate positions as he looked to make the move statewide, which started before he left the MO Senate because he no longer needed to be moderate for his next goal. This election the goal is to get to DC and he will stay the course as long as it keeps him there… It’s like asking “which Greitens” would be governor in August of 2016, the Democrat who was front row cheering on Obama, or the guy who was damn near too MAGA for Trump. There’s only one of each…the morally ambiguous opportunist…
Lobbyists Registrations
Rich AuBuchon deleted The 109 Group LLC, and Association of Missouri Nurse Practitioners.
Tom Dempsey deleted Exemplar Public Affairs LLC.
$5K+ Contributions
theLOUpac - $16,000 from A Better Missouri.
Jack PAC - $25,000 from theLOUpac.
Missouri Senate Campaign Committee - $15,000 from AGC of MO PAC.
Missouri Senate Campaign Committee - $20,000 from Ameren Missouri.
Nexus PAC - $35,000 from Paric Holdings, Inc.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to David Willis, and Bruce Franks Jr.