MOScout Daily Update: Hruza Launches Ad - Smith Seeks Corp Tax Cut - Tilley Hosting McCarthy - Carpenters Fund PAC and more...

First in MOScout: Hruza Launches First Ad

Republican George Hruza is set to launch his first commercial.  He’s running for Senate 24 against Rep. Tracy McCreery to replace termed Sen. Jill Schupp.  See his ad here.

It’s a biography piece introducing Hruza and telling the American Dream-like story of his life…

Ten year-old George Hruza and his parents risked their lives to escape from behind the iron curtain of communism to secure the freedom and promise of America where George Hruza quickly learned English working past every challenge to become a surgeon, educator, and physician leader.

“This is the country where you can really achieve anything you set your mind to.”

George Hruza knows the mission.

“So making life better is really not partisan at all.  It is our duty to help our fellow citizens.”

House Aims to Phase Out Corporate Tax

House Budget Chair Cody Smith proposed eliminating the corporate tax rate through a series of cuts as state revenue targets are met.  This would be in addition to the income tax cut endorsed by the Senate. It’s a major change in the tax cut envisioned by Governor Mike Parson.

Missouri Independent reports that it almost doubles the fiscal note from the Senate version from $1 billion to $2 billion.

The House is slated to debate the bill this afternoon. 

What It Means

·       It’s a slow-moving special session.

·       We’re maybe in the middle innings of this because it’s hard to see how the Senate would approve anything close to this. 

·       And with no incumbent senators in tight races this November, it’s not like they’re itching to be home campaigning.  I don’t see easy capitulation from the Senate.

Tilley Hosts Kevin McCarthy for Alford Fundy

A fundraiser next month for Mark Alford will feature Congressional Minority Leader among other special guests.  It’s being held at Steven Tilley’s Strategic Capitol Consulting.  Other hosts of the fundraiser at Kit Bond and Ray Wagner, whose wife Congresswoman Ann Wagner, will was also be a special guest.

·       One pol calls it a “big fucking deal [to get McCarthy to come in] for an open seat candidate in a safe district… Props to Casey Burns.”

Protect Missouri Freedom

In the large contributions (below), there’s a $100,000 check from the Carpenters’ union into Protect Missouri Freedom PAC.  That PAC has been around for a while, but changed treasurers last month.

I’m told that the PAC was set up to support labor friendly candidates this November.  “Protect Missouri Freedom will support candidates that will protect working families and fight back against government mandates on women’s healthcare decisions.”

Smith’s Ways and Means Duel

Axios reports on the top two contender to take the gavel of the Ways and Means Committee and how they’d deal with the debt limit.  This assumes of course that Republicans retake Congress in November.  Congressman Jason Smith is in the hunt.  Read it here.

·       The top two contenders are currently Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), ranking Republican of the House Banking Committee, and Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), who is seen as the Republican next in line.

·       Smith is more of a political firebrand and a close friend of McCarthy, while Buchanan is seen as a more mainstream Republican. The business community is more wary of how Smith would handle a debt limit fight, multiple sources tell Axios.

·       Smith told Axios in a phone interview he thinks Republicans should leverage debt limit negotiations to "reverse" the administration's "radical" policies — including by sending a bill gutting the Democratic agenda to President Biden's desk and daring him to reject it.

St. Mary’s Closing

In St. Louis – where high schools amount to a scared bond – the archdiocese announced the closure of two city schools.  One of them St. Mary’s is the alma mater of prominent politicians Franics Slay and Jake Hummel.  Post-Dispatch reports on it here.

Lobbyists Registrations

Cassandra Allana Grewing and Christopher Schoeman added Tremco CPG Incorporated.

$5K+ Contributions

Protect Missouri Freedom - $100,000 from Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council Missouri-Kansas Area Political Action Committee.

Conservative Solutions for Missouri PAC (pro-Coleman) - $15,000 from Conservative Justice PAC, LLC.

Missouri Leadership Forum - $15,000 from Drury Development Corp.

Committee for Liberty (pro-Ashcroft) - $10,000 from John Tlapek (Englewood, CO).

House Republican Campaign Committee, Inc - $20,000 from Burns McDonnell.

House Republican Campaign Committee, Inc - $10,000 from CFM Insurance Inc.

House Republican Campaign Committee, Inc - $20,000 from Ameren.

House Republican Campaign Committee, Inc - $16,000 from Citizens for Jeff Coleman.

House Republican Campaign Committee, Inc - $20,000 from Alex Riley for State Representative.

House Republican Campaign Committee, Inc - $10,000 from Korein Tillery.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Erin Brower, Brad Jones, Benjamin Terrell, Rich Magee, and Lee Ann Pitman.