MOScout Daily Update: Osage Gaming IPs - Kunce Gets SEIU Nod - Leo-Blunt Fight - Hamra Path? and more...

First in MOScout: Osage Plots IPs Path

Greta Bax, an attorney with Stinson, filed four initiative petitions to amend the constitution to allow a new gambling boat on the Osage river.

The four proposals differ in how they would allocate the state revenue from the new gaming operation.  One would send it to STEM programs, another to raise teacher salaries, and another for early childhood education.

I assume advocates for the new casino will poll the different versions to see which funding proposal would win over voters.

Both the House and Senate had legislation in play last session to bring this to the voters.  The Senate resolution withered on the calendar; the House version died in Rules.

·       This effort is separate from Osage Nation’s plans for a gaming development at the Lake of the Ozarks.

SEIU for Kunce

Press release: Today, over 14,000 healthcare providers, higher education faculty, janitors, nursing home workers, first responders, and social service workers united in the SEIU Missouri/Kansas State Council announced their endorsement of Lucas Kunce for U.S. Senate.

What It Means

·       This is another big labor endorsement for Kunce. He previously received the Missouri AFL-CIO endorsement.

·       His Democratic rivals, Sen. Karla May and Wesley Bell, have been unable to gather much momentum thus far.

·       If they – May and Bell – show lackluster fundraising results with next week’s filing, it will solidify Kunce’s front-runner status, and raise questions whether they should continue their campaigns into next year.

Leo Pushed Blunt on Judge Plan

ProPublica published a story yesterday about Leonard Leo.  Leo is expected to be a strong supporter of Will Scharf’s attorney general campaign.  In the sprawling profile there’s an interesting account of Leo urging then-governor Matt Blunt to pushback against Missouri’s Nonpartisan Court Plan.  Conservatives have bemoaned the system for producing more liberal judges than a straight electoral system would.  Read the article here.

·       In 2007, Leo gave the young Republican governor of Missouri, Matt Blunt, a career-defining test. A vacancy had opened up on the state Supreme Court. Missouri has had a nonpartisan process for picking new justices, in which a panel of lawyers and political appointees select candidates for the governor to choose. Known as the Missouri Plan, it had been adopted in some way by dozens of states. Blunt, the scion of a Missouri dynasty, was likely to uphold that tradition as his state’s governors had for the last 60 years. But Leo pressed him to jettison it…

·       In the summer of 2007, the judicial panel offered Blunt three finalists. Two were Democrats. The third was Patricia Breckenridge, a centrist Republican. When her name appeared, Leo and his team mobilized, collecting negative research on Breckenridge and lobbying the governor. “I was shocked to see the slate tendered by the Commission the other day,” Leo wrote in an email to Blunt. “It would be very appropriate for you to scrutinize the candidates, and if they fail to pass those tests, to return the names.”

·       “Return the names” sounded anodyne; it was not. Leo and other Federalist Society leaders had a strategy: They wanted to tarnish Breckenridge’s reputation, spike her candidacy and then use the ensuing disarray to pry Missouri away from its long-standing way of picking justices. Blunt found the character attacks distasteful and worried that if he rejected Breckenridge, the panel would pick one of the Democrats, according to a person familiar with his thinking. Leo wasn’t having it. “He will have zero juice on the national scene if he ends up picking a judge who is a disgrace,” Leo wrote to [chief of staff Ed] Martin, the chief of staff. “If this happens, there will be fury from the conservative base, the likes of which you and the Governor have never seen.”

·       Blunt appointed Breckenridge anyway. Leo piled on. “Your boss is a coward and conservatives have neither the time nor the patience for the likes of him,” he wrote to Martin.

Dem Skeptical of Hamra

One Dem operative who tells me he’s “not working for anyone, [just providing] an outsider's perspective” is skeptical that Mike Hamra can win the Dem gubernatorial nomination.

·       I truly do not see Hamra's path to the nomination… He was born with a sliver spoon in his mouth and inherited restaurants – quite a stark difference from [Crystal] Quade who was raised by a waitress. One resonates with the Democratic base. One does not.

·       Hamra might not have a voting record but he does have a business record. Not like fast food chains have a good history of paying their employees well, providing things like healthcare and sick leave. Not to mention... labor unions.

·       I did a quick search on Hamra he has only voted ONCE since 2004. No way that can resonate with donors…

·       This is a Democratic primary. Women voters drive the day. Another rich white guy that thinks he knows best... I don't see how that goes far. Not to mention the lack of STL connections which are key.

·       Why not go for a different office?

Strategic Capitol Consulting Targets Psychedelic Industry

Press release: Today, Strategic Capitol Consulting (SCC), Amendment 2 Consultants (A2C) and Robbins Law Firm (RLF) announced that the companies are entering into a strategic partnership to expand government affairs, campaign management, public relations, and general consulting and legal services in the St. Louis region, and the cannabis microbusiness and psychedelic public policy areas. The expanded collaboration will seamlessly integrate SCC and A2C’s professional services portfolio in the cannabis market in addition to helping clients seeking guidance navigating governmental agencies, highly regulated industries and emerging markets such as Psilocybin… A2C was founded by Managing Partner John Payne in 2019, following his success as campaign manager of New Approach Missouri, which legalized medical marijuana via Amendment 2 in 2018.

·       Strategic Capitol Consulting is the lobbying firm founded by former Speaker Steven Tilley.

Lobbyists Registrations

Maddie McMillan Green added Meta Platforms Inc, Nucor Steel, and Missouri Automobile Dealers Association.

David Bunge added Azimuth Renewables LLC.

Nikki Strong deleted Elevance Health and Its Affiliates dba Anthem, Inc.

$5K+ Contributions

Uniting Missouri PAC (pro-Parson) - $7,500 from John O’Connell.

Uniting Missouri PAC - $7,500 from Steven Trulaske.

MoCannTrade PAC - $6,000 from Flora Ceres Inc.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Rep. Rick Francis, Alexandria Cypert, Ken Menges, Jeff Mazur, Mavis Busiek, and Jason Chipman.