MOScout Daily Update: Kunce Breaks Fundraising Records? - PSC Appt Talk - Dec State Tax Revenues - Miller Registers and more...

Kunce Launch

The Kunce campaign is thrilled with their campaign launch against Josh Hawley on Friday.

·       Lucas Kunce’s Twitter following has nearly doubled, aided by his video being shared by some big-time politicos and influencers like Jason Kander, Lis Smith (“Lucas Kunce takes a metaphorical bat to coward Josh Hawley in his first ad.”), Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Adam Kinzinger, Andy Cohen, Joe Scarborough, and Adam Jentleson, Chief of Staff to the newly sworn-in John Fetterman.

·       Those shares helped his launch video gain millions of views online (2.3M as of this morning).  It also received a nearly full play-through during prime time by Joy Reid on MSNBC.

But maybe the biggest data point for the campaign… I’m told that fundraising numbers to be released at the end of the week will reveal Lucas Kunce’s launch haul dwarfed all previous Day 1 and Week 1 fundraising totals reported by any other campaign in Missouri history.

And

Kunce is filling out his team… 

·       Emma Dillon as deputy campaign manager — a Missouri native and lead online fundraiser for U.S. Senator John Fetterman’s successful 2022 campaign. She’s supported by Liz Bennet of Middle Seat, John Fetterman and Beto O’Rourke’s long-time digital fundraising consultant.

·       Dan Sorenson and Jenn Liu leading the national finance shop — whose money-raising resume includes U.S. Senators John Fetterman, Jon Ossoff, Alex Padilla, and John Hickenlooper.

·       Elizabeth Sena on polling — a senior partner and managing director for 100% woman-owned GQR Research, whose most recently led research for clients like U.S. Senator Gary Peters, recently-elected Governor Katie Hobbs, and Congresswoman Ellisa Slotkin.

·       The Win Company leading paid media — coming off a major win for John Fetterman in Pennsylvania, with the team including Kaitlin Fahey (long-time chief and campaign manager to U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth) and red-state veteran Bill Hyres (of wins for John Fetterman and Governor Andy Beshear in Kentucky).

·       The team is also joined again by Connor Lounsbury as senior communications advisor (most recently a senior advisor to now-governor-elect Wes Moore), Tyler Tran as political director (an alum of LeadMO and Sam Page), and Caleb Cavarretta as campaign manager (an alum of Chris Koster and Nicole Galloway and formerly a lead content strategist, online fundraiser, and creative director for Dem agencies like Wide Eye and Authentic).

Chatter: PSC Talk

With last week’s announcement from PSC Chair Ryan Silvey that he would be soon resigning, folks are starting to imagine who Governor Mike Parson might pick as a replacement.

·       If Parson looks to the legislature (all five current members of the PSC are former legislators), he might tap recently termed-Rep. Bill Kidd who was chair of the House Committee on Utilities.

·       But one source says Parson’s own staff could be the place he turns for a pick.  You could make the case for Chief of staff Aaron Willard, Policy director Kayla Hahn, or deputy policy director Jamie Birch.

People on the Move

·       In the lobbyist registrations (below) former Rep. Rocky Miller has registered to lobby.

·       Former Rep. Mike Kelly has started at DOR as Assistant Deputy Director.

·       Michael Moorefield was promoted to chief counsel of PSRS/PEERS.

·       With the start of session, we’re seeing some familiar faces in new offices… Jamey Murphy (who staffed Paul Wieland last year) is now with Sen. Nick Schroer; Frank Catanzaro (previously with Sen. Andrew Koenig) is now with Sen. Ben Brown; and Matt Choinka (who staffed Jeanie Riddle) is now with Sen. Rusty Black.

Strong December Revenues

The Office of Administration released the state’s December tax receipts numbers; it showed collections were up 9.5% compared to last year.  That’s very solid.

Jim Moody has explained that this month’s numbers are unreliable due to a reporting error from the previous year.  This is noted in the report from OA: “The growth rate shown for total Sales and Use Tax is artificially low as the collections amount last December was artificially high due to a distribution error.”

That means this report understates the strength in state revenue growth.  Indeed, individual income tax collections were up 10.8% for the month.

What It Means

If Speaker Dean Plocher pushes for more tax cuts, so far the numbers are supporting his case.

“People’s House” Rules

There’s some push-back on the new House rules from a couple of fringy right-side groups.

Missouri First, the non-lobbyist Ron Calzone group, has problems with them.  See it here.  And I was forwarded an email blast from a group called Personhood MO.  (I’m not familiar with them, but one building denizen told me they’re “a goofball organization.”) 

The critics don’t necessarily agree with each other. Calzone, for example, doesn’t like the new rule limiting each member to only filing 20 bills, while Personhood MO thinks 20 is too high and each member should only be allowed to file 3 bills.

Personhood MO points to a blog post by Jodi Grace who is advocating for a different set of rules, the “People’s House Rules.”  See it here.

We need to return to what our Founding Fathers in Missouri intended for the rules to be…

We've rewritten a set of rules inspired by those written in 1869 which would bring balance of power back to our House and ensure fair and equal representation for all Missourians.  We are calling them the PEOPLE'S HOUSE RULES.  Here are some highlights.

·       Session days start at 8:00am and ends at 10:00pm unless the Governor declares a State of Emergency.

·       Speaker elected by majority party OR rotated on a daily basis based on House district numbers and seniority starting at 1.

·       Committees appointed by request or blind drawing if there are too many requests.

·       All members may file only three bills, rated according to their priority.  Each representative will have their #1 priority bill heard by committee with a public hearing and on the floor before any priority #2 bills are heard.

Meanwhile onetime Plocher antagonist Rep. Phil Christofanelli was on Twitter defending the new House rules, signaling his loyalty to the new sheriff in town.

Richey Open Letter

Rep. Doug Richey released an “open letter” regarding his ongoing campaign to succeed Speaker Dean Plocher.  Read it here. It may be considered politically disadvantageous to compete with a sitting Floor Leader for the Speakership, should he choose to run; however, I'm confident that when we vote in September, our caucus will do so with the understanding that we must elect our next Speaker, free of a blind commitment to political expediency.

Harmon Creates Statewide Committee

December Harmon formed a campaign committee to run for statewide office in 2024.  See the paperwork here.

Harmon serves on the Citizens Police Review Board in Columbia.  See a profile of Harmon from the Columbia Missourian here.

Lobbyists Registrations

Note: We’re at the time of year when some folks’ registration renewal has inadvertently lapsed. I’ve tried to wean those out and list only actual changes in registration.

Rockne Miller added Trail Consulting LLC, Presidio Environmental LLC, Osage Beach Marketplace LLC, Missouri Association Management LLC, and R. Miller Companies LLC.

Tracy Kelly Kimberlin deleted Tracy K. Kimberlin.

$5K+ Contributions

Majority Forward (Senate Dems) - $10,000 from Southwestern Bell Telephone LP d/b/a AT&T Missouri.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Caleb Jones and Marshall Griffin.