MOScout Daily Update: Legislators Talk Immigration - Ethics Sets Next Meeting - Gray Games Gones Wild - DHSS Looks for COVID Help and more...

1 Big Thing: Immigration Still Red Hot Hot-Button

While immigration policy is normally considered a federal issue, Missouri Republicans running for higher office are quick to use the topic to tap into their constituents’ concerns.

·       Sen. Bill Eigel, running for governor, was at a St. Charles meeting last night where a resolution decrying the possible relocation of migrants was voted down.  Eigel: We must stop Missouri from becoming a dumping ground for illegal immigration… When I’m governor, our laws will mean something. We are going to put Missouri first.

·       Rep. Chris Dinkins, running for Senate 27, issued a letter to Governor Mike Parson asking him to “proactively prohibit the resettlement of any Palestinian refugees from Gaza in our state.”

Remember: this issue is largely seen through partisan lens.  Democratic leaders in the state’s urban areas welcome immigrants and refugees, having experienced them previously as a rejuvenating force in the local economy.  

Ethics Committee Sets Next Meeting

The House Ethics Committee will meet again next Wednesday, December 5.  It’s widely understood that the committee is investigating the various allegations facing Speaker Dean Plocher.

·       This process seems destined to linger on and loom over the start of the legislative session.

Franklin County GOP Goes Rogue

Dismissing warnings from the Republican State Party, the Franklin County Republican Central Committee says that they’ll be vetting candidates to weed out would-be RINOs.  They will not accept filing checks from any candidate that doesn’t meet their standard.

Bill Miller Jr. reports for the eMissourians.  Read it here.

• The committee said the vetting process will include a multiple-choice test taken on a computer, as well as background and social media check. “As a final step those who do not pass the process will have the benefit of a full Central Committee vote for or against their candidacy” the FCRCC said in a statement.

• The FCRCC said the goal of the vetting process is to be able to identify and prevent candidates from running for office who are “elected as Republicans and govern as Democrats.”

How We Got Here

This is the natural consequence of the tectonic plates that have been moving beneath Missouri politics for the past two decades.

The electorate has become more polarized.  Redistricting has generally reinforced that polarization.  Primaries have superseded general elections as the most important elections in an election cycle.  And campaigns have gravitated to base turnout tactics instead of making efforts to broaden their candidates’ appeal.

DHSS Looks for Help on COVID Vaxx

In a move which will give fits to Sen. Mike Moon and the other vaccine skeptics in the Missouri legislature, the Department of Health and Senior Services issued a Request for Proposals for community-based organizations to help widen distribution of the COVID vaccine.  Read the RFP here.

·       The mission of the Department of Health and Senior Services is to promote health and safety through prevention, collaboration, education, innovation and response.  The Department of Health and Senior Services promotes and implements evidenced-based interventions to improve health risks and reduce disparities in inequalities among Missourians.  The Department of Health and Senior Services intends on achieving this by increasing access to COVID-19 vaccinations in targeted areas.

·       The contractor shall be a community-based organization increasing COVID-19 vaccinations for the Department of Health and Senior Services…

GOP Primary in House 146?

Lucas Green formed a campaign committee to run in House 146 as a Republican.  See the paperwork here. 

The current incumbent Rep. Barry Hovis isn’t term limited.  But there is some talk that he might not run for re-election, instead seek a local office.

Green apparently is running whether Hovis is in or out, as he seeded the committee with $35,000, and unveiled a website and announcement video (see it here).

·       The tag-line: “Let me show you representation you can be proud of.”

Gray Games Gone Wild

Post-Dispatch’s Kurt Erikson reports that the so-called “gray machines” video lottery terminals have proliferated in St. Louis City.  By tracking the permits issued by City License Collector Mavis Thompson, Erikson estimates that the controversial devices have increased five-fold, from “about 50 machines to mor than 250.”

·       In the absence of a definitive court ruling, these games, not subject to regulatory oversight, have spread quickly. 

Hawley Punches WashU

I have great sympathy for the Washington University leadership.  It’s a sprawling institution with thousands of employees.  So when US Senator Josh Hawley dings them for a knucklehead professor of sociocultural anthropology who published a social media post cheering some overzealous protestors harassing a Jewish family on Thanksgiving, I’m disinclined to see it as some kind of cultural rot. 

·       Upsetting? Yes.  Wash U’s fault? Not really.

eMailbag on China Disinvestment

I’m thinking maybe someone stepped in it with this China talk. I certainly get it from a high vantage, resonating, political point…“don’t invest in China” sounds great. Are state agencies going to follow the same? As in no purchasing of goods or services that profit China? That’s a tangled web. After all, purchasing is investing….

Lobbyists Registrations

Jeff Smith added Campaign Zero; and deleted New Approach.

$5K+ Contributions

Friends of Lucas Green - $35,000 from Lucas Green.

MoCannTrade PAC - $6,000 from Hippos LLC.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Rep. Jim Kalberloh (the big 6-0), Janet Hirshman, David Schatz, Jeff Messenger, Lenny Jones, and Ed Schieffer.