MOScout Daily Update: Jetton Day? - Imagining LG Onder - Bruce For Ashcroft - Three Cheers for Zellers and more...

GOP House Caucus Today

It’s expected that Speaker Dean Plocher will announce that he’s hiring former speaker Rod Jetton at the Republican House Caucus today.

The move has been rumored for a while, and I’ve heard that Jetton has been phoning members over the past week.

It’s a remarkable turn of events for Jetton, 56, who left the House back in 2009 to be called back into service by an embattled speaker.  His task will be to help the speaker survive his current ethics troubles.  But also, to salvage a legislative session that most observers think will be a fruitless grind at best, but most likely a fruitless circus.

1 Big Thing: The 35th Senator?

It looks like we’ll have four former Conservative Caucus members running for statewide office.  Their rhetoric is more fiery than conventional Republicans, and they’ve pushed for more aggressive policies. 

Lobbyists are trying to game out the odds that they’ll be successful in their plans for higher office – and what it would mean for politics in Missouri.

For example, would a Governor Bill Eigel have approved of the Department of Economic Development giving $37 million worth of incentives to help Boeing add 500 jobs?  It’s unclear.  Would “crony capitalism” rhetoric give way to pragmatic governing?

More intriguing is one lobbyist’s suggestion that Bob Onder as lieutenant governor could be an impactful event.

·       First, if he was LG under a Governor Jay Ashcroft or a Governor Mike Kehoe, you’d likely not have the team effect you’ve had with Parson-Kehoe, or even the non-communicative years of Greitens-Parson.  It’d be more like Nixon-Kinder where there’d be policy critiques of the governor’s office emanating from the LG’s office.  Except now the sniping would come from the governor’s own party, aimed at his own base voters.

·       Second, and most importantly, this lobbyist imagines that Onder would seize the LG’s role as president of the Senate and play it to the fullest.  Gone would be the largely ceremonial opening of daily session ala Kehoe and Peter Kinder.  Onder could take an active role – strategizing with likeminded senators and becoming in effect the 35th senator.

Sports Betting Stalemate

MOINdy reports on the sports betting stalemate with some interesting quotes from Senate Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughlin.  Read it here.

·       She’s not a fan of gray machines: “That’s just wrong. I don’t know how we as a state can say if you’re going to run a casino, here’s all the things you need to do to be legal and then let this go on and proliferate all over.”

·       But it sounds like there’s no showdown on the Senate floor in the future: “If you want to try to get something done, you have to sit down with people and not make a big theater out of it, but try to figure out a path forward.”

Bruce Joins Team Ashcroft

Kalena Bruce has been added to Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s candidate committee filing as the deputy treasurer. (Former St. Louis County Executive Gene McNary is the treasurer).  Bruce is a CPA.

·       She ran for Congress in 2022 placing third in the 7-way Republican primary, losing to Mark Alford.

What It Means

·       Interestingly, in that congressional race, Bruce managed to win five rural counties in Southwest Missouri: Cedar, Dade, Dallas, Polk, and St. Clair.

·       Maybe Bruce stumping will help shore up Ashcroft’s rural vote in Southwest MO?

eMailbag

·       Rowden’s video is pretty interesting and genuine.  He’s taking a wild bet that talking to voters is actually worthwhile.  That’s how campaigns should be run.

·       The new capitol metal detector also is fast. Appearently hundreds can walk through each minute so it will remove the long outside lines when school groups come to the Capitol. OA Commissioner Ken Zellers deserves a thank you.

Lobbyists Registrations

Jeffrey Altmann added Freedom Foundation, Novo Nordisk Inc, Elevance Health and its Affiliates dba Anthem Inc.

$5K+ Contributions

Independence PAC (pro-McMullen) - $25,000 from Rex Sinquefield.

417 PAC (pro-Trent) - $10,000 from Rex Sinquefield.

Majority Forward (Dems Senate campaign committee) - $6,000 from Charter Communications.

House Republican Campaign Committee, Inc - $30,000 from AT&T.

House Republican Campaign Committee, Inc - $5,500 from Committee to Elect Jamie Burger.

House Republican Campaign Committee, Inc - $5,275 from Hausman for Missouri.

Birthdays

Happy birthday to Kathy Swan.