MOScout Weekender: Big $$$ Into Osage Casino Effort - The Case for Kunce - Hallway Mood Darkens - Who Won the Week and more...
Big $$$ into Osage Casino Effort
In the large contributions (below), two $250,000 checks were received by the Osage River Gaming and Convention. That committee was formed yesterday. It’s stated purpose is to work on the initiative petition to “allow the Missouri Gaming Commission to issue one additional gambling boat license to operate on the portion of the Osage River.”
They are pursuing version #4 of their initiative petitions. See it here.
The Case for Kunce
I’m a few days behind on this. Writing in the Kansas City Star, former Secretary of State Jason Kander makes the case for Lucas Kunce being able to beat Senator Josh Hawley.
· After decades of Republican-led culture wars, the national Democratic Party struggles in states like Missouri. But in races where well-funded candidates can set themselves apart and make it clear to voters that they’ll fight for them in office, Democrats can outrun the party…
· Much like my race in 2016, 2024 pits a labor-backed veteran against a politician — except people actually liked my opponent. (Roy Blunt never tried to overthrow the government violently just to get his name out there.) Now up for reelection in 2024, Hawley faces Kunce, a Marine veteran and leading antitrust advocate who’s broken fundraising records, rallied Missouri’s election-winning labor movement behind him and built a reputation as a different kind of Democrat who speaks truth to power, regardless of party…
· Multiple public polls — including one from Morning Consult released last month — show Hawley has the lowest approval of any Republican senator running for reelection in 2024, lower than Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida…
· With Joe Manchin’s retirement taking West Virginia’s Senate race off the board, Missouri is the perfect candidate to replace it. And for anyone who cares about democracy, reproductive freedom, health care access and working families, this race should be a priority…
MOScout’s Hallway Index: Session Pessimism Deepens
I asked lobbyists, “What's your forecast for next legislative session?” 26 replies…
(Answers from same question three months ago, 9/16/23, in parenthesis).
RESULTS
1. More constructive, less combative than last year… 7.7% (10.5%)
2. About the same as last year… 26.9% (36.8%)
3. More combative, less constructive than last year… 65.4% (52.6%)
Sample of Comments
· Maybe we will be pleasantly surprised and there will be less acrimony, but I doubt it.
· 35.5 passed bills is the O/U. (-110). Place your bets.
· However things always get done even in horrible years bills pass. Work will get done and bills will pass.
· The number of statewide candidates, and those running in senate primaries, with access to a microphone create quality theater.
· Eigel's goal is to end session with name ID among primary voters approaching that of Ashcroft. And that doesn't bode well.
· "Missouri needs a Reckoning" - Bill Eigel. I presume he knows what a reckoning means but for those that don't - "the avenging or punishing of past mistakes or misdeeds".
· It will be roughly the same as last year, but they will pass more bills. It is lazy to throw your hands up and assume nothing will get done and it is inaccurate to claim that fewer bills pass during election years.
· Session hasn't even started and legislators are taking personal shots at each other about issues they agree on, with the encouragement from campaign consultants. Outrage sells so much better in campaigns than actually governing. The grievances will be strong in 2024.
Who Won the Week?
Wesley Bell – Picked up some labor endorsements this week, well on his way to creating a coalition of the disgruntled and making CD-1 a real live race to watch.
Both were viewed as critical funding for high-paying union jobs.
Lobbyists playing defense next session – Three words: Missouri Freedom Caucus.
Crystal Quade – Gets the Planned Parenthood endorsement, while Republicans debate whether a woman having an abortion should be charged with murder. So far, all’s going according to her plan to have abortion be the central issue of 2024.
Brad Hudson – Travis Smith bows out of the Senate 33 race, giving Hudson the unrivaled front-runner position.
Find a downloadable version here.
RIP Betty Hearnes
Post-Dispatch reports on the death of Betty Hearnes…
Former Democratic candidate for governor and Missouri first lady Betty Cooper Hearnes has died at the age of 96. Hearnes, who lost her bid to become the state’s first woman governor in 1988, died Thursday with family at her home in Charleston, Missouri, in southeast Missouri’s Mississippi County, KFVS-TV reported.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Warren Hearnes, a Democrat who served as Missouri’s governor between 1965 and 1973. The former governor died in 2009.
Betty Hearnes, who also served multiple terms in the Missouri House, told the Post-Dispatch in 1987 that she was considering a run for governor, before eventually launching a campaign against Republican Gov. John Ashcroft. Asked if she had discussed the race with her husband, Hearnes replied, “Not much. Ultimately, the decision is in your own hands, as it was when he did it. He is not discouraging me or encouraging me.”
$5K+ Contributions
Osage River Gaming and Convention - $250,000 from RIS, Inc.
Osage River Gaming and Convention - $250,000 from Bally's Corp. (Providence, RI).
American Dream PAC (pro-Kehoe) - $25,000 from JB PAC (pro-Justin Brown).
Missouri Senate Campaign Committee (Senate Republicans campaign committee) - $20,000 from MO Optometric PAC.
Missourians for Healthy Families & Fair Wages - $13,695 from Abortion Action Missouri Foundation.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Jon Carpenter, Jennifer Durham, and Lillian Williams.
Sunday: Kristian Starner, Talibdin El-Amin, and Sam Komo.