MOScout Daily Update: Anti-Bush Ad - Enter Rod Jetton - Fed Soc Sight'em - Sarah PAC - SBF Behind Trump's Eric Endorsement and more...
Quick Friday update…
AIPAC’s Super PAC Readies Anti-Bush Ad
I don’t know if it’s on TV yet, but it’s sitting there on an unlisted YouTube page… United Democracy Project – the SuperPAC of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee – has a 30-second advertisement aimed at Congresswoman Cori Bush.
The October Seventh Massacre. 1,400 Israeli slaughtered by Hamas. Women raped. Babies beheaded. Over 200 hostages taken to Gaza. Isis-level savagery. And when Democrats and Republicans in Congress came together to denounce these barbaric acts of terror, Core Bush refused to stand with Israel. Cori Bush was one of just ten members of Congress to vote against condemning Hamas terrorism. Tell Cori Bush it’s time stand with Israel.
Enter Rod Jetton
Former Speaker Rod Jetton was announced yesterday as Speaker Dean Plocher’s new chief of staff.
Former states senator (now a lobbyist) Jeff Smith, writing in the Missouri Independent, thinks it’s the right pick. Read it here.
· No one is naïve enough to think that a scandal-plagued speaker bringing in a scandal-scarred former speaker is going to produce positive headlines on day one…
· Beset by crisis – first, the messiness related to the House’s constituent management software, compounded by the stunning dismissal of highly-regarded chief of staff Kenny Ross; and then the surfacing of documents showing taxpayer reimbursements for trips already financed by his campaign – Plocher must stabilize his speakership…
· So what can help him accomplish this? The sober discipline of an ex-Marine to get the trains running on time. The legislative acumen of an ex-speaker who mostly united a fractious caucus… The turnaround mentality of a guy who, a decade ago, could not get hired to drive a garbage truck in a town of 1,200 people...
But…
One lobbyist tells me they see the Jetton hire becoming fodder for Dem mailers in swing districts: “Women voters all across Missouri are about to hear about green balloons and donkey punches.” It was sentiment seemingly confirmed by Minority Leader Crystal Quade’s statement: “An admitted abuser of women has no business holding a position of influence in the Missouri House, and his hiring marks a failure of both judgment and leadership by the speaker.”
United Pro-Lifers > Divided Pro-Choicers?
Post-Dispatch looks at the implication of the Ohio vote for Missouri’s looming battle over abortion. Read it here.
· Missouri Democrats celebrated Ohio’s passage Tuesday of a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights, but similar efforts in the Show-Me State face significant obstacles in 2024.
· But with two competing abortion ballot initiative efforts underway in Missouri, no campaign yet to emerge for a more expansive plan and lingering court battles over the wording of potential ballot measures, passage in Missouri in 2024 is not assured.
· “Missouri is not Ohio,” said Sam Lee, director of Campaign Life Missouri, which supports the state’s current abortion law. “In Ohio, pro-abortion groups rallied behind one amendment and devoted all of the available resources to pass it.”
· “Neither group has yet collected one signature to put any of the proposals on the ballot,” Lee said, adding that with dysfunction within the two abortion camps, “they will have a hard time convincing heavy hitters to finance their efforts.”
Sight’ems at Fed Society Convention
Among the Missouri crew at the Federalist Society National Convention in DC… ! Mark Bremer, Jen Bukowsky, Eddie Greim, Jeff Johnson, Lucinda and Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, Michael Talent, Ann Walsh, and of course AG candidate Will Scharf.
Sarah PAC
Sarah PAC was formed. It’s a political action committee to support Rep. Sarah Unsicker who is running for attorney general. Its treasurer is Travis Hagewood. See the paperwork here.
SBF Behind Trump’s “Eric” Endorsement?
Michael Lewis’ latest book, Going Infinite, covers the saga of Bitcoin zillionaire (until he wasn’t) Sam Bankman-Fried. There’s an interesting anecdote that SBF was behind Donald Trump’s famous “Eric” endorsement. From page 185…
It was interesting, especially in retrospect, how well suited Sam’s mind was to understanding Donald Trump. At that moment, his team was using their mysterious line of communication into the Trump camp to seed Trump’s mind with an idea. In Missouri, a rabid Trumpster named Eric Greitens was in what looked like a close race with a less enthusiastic Trumpster named Eric Schmitt. Schmitt wanted to govern; Greitens wanted to tear thing down. Trump had not yet weighed in on the race, and the fear was his endorsement might swing the election to Greitens. Sam’s team had come up with an idea – which, Sam claimed, was just then making its way to Trump himself. The idea was to persuade Trump to come out and say, “I’m with Eric!” without specifying which Eric he was for. After all, Trump didn’t actually care who won. All he cared about was that he would be seen to have backed the winner… “I’m for Eric!” would attract even more attention to Trump than a more specific endorsement, and the attention is all Trump cared about in the end. “It’s very Trump,” said Sam. “It’d become a meme.” As he said that, he tossed popcorn into his mouth, in a herky-jerky motion that resembled a clumsy layup…
Two days later Trump announced, in a post on Truth Social, his intention to name his choice in the Missouri Senate race. Next, he released a written statement: “ERIC has my Complete and Total Endorsement!”
Congrats
Gamble& Schlemeier was named “Top Lobbying Firm” by Gov Business Review. See it here.
$5K+ Contributions
Missouri Alliance PAC (pro-Patterson) - $25,000 from Rex Sinquefield.
A Better Missouri Political Action Committee - $7,000 from Anheuser-Busch Cos.
XCALIBER MOPAC - $15,000 from Bruce Taylor (Palm Beach, FL).
XCALIBER MOPAC - $15,000 from Lee Levinson (Tulsa, OK).
Birthdays
Happy birthday to Chris Schappe.