MOScout Daily Update: GOP's Same Sex Marriage Fight - Raymore's Lobbyists - Wrongful Imprisonment Testimony and more...
1 Big Thing: GOP Same Sex Marriage Crosscurrents
I’d missed this a few days ago, but apparently Rep. Chris Sander is under fire for his proposed constitutional amendment which would redefine marriage.
The Jackson County Missouri Republican Party is planning to vote to censure Sander for HJR 31 which would define marriage as between “two individuals” instead of the current “a man and a woman.”
The nation has largely moved past this debate, which same sex marriage now enjoying broad approval. From June 2022…
But it’s still a source of contention among conservative Republicans. Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, for example, was “flabbergasted” at Senator Roy Blunt’s acceptance of same sex marriage, writing a letter admonishing him. “I believe marriage is the exclusive, lifelong, conjugal, union between one man and one woman, and any departure from that design hurts the indispensable goal of having every child raised in a stable home by a mother and a father.”
Here's polling from Pew Research…
But playing to the conservative wing of the Party puts politicians at odds with the next generation. Younger Republicans aren’t buying it…
Senate Keeps At It
The Senate worked again yesterday with the chamber’s rifts still simmering just below the boiling point.
Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman joined Sens. Travis Fitzwater and Rusty Black as freshmen who have had their first bill perfected.
· Coleman amended her bill to accommodate some concerns, but seemed happy to do so, saying at one point that she was so happy to be “on this side of the building.”
And
It wouldn’t surprise me to see Floor Leader Cindy O’Laughlin go to something a little more controversial this week and see if they can check off another priority item. Sitting on the informal calendar, for example: Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder’s SB 39 deals with transgendered athletes.
Powerful Wrongful Imprisonment Testimony
Sens. Steven Roberts and Brian Williams presented their bills yesterday before the Senate Judiciary Committee to provide some compensation to individuals who were wrongly convicted and imprisoned.
The testimony from witnesses who had suffered that terrible fate were sobering.
· I’ll be surprised if this issue doesn’t have bipartisan support.
The Other Side of HB 909
All the lobbyists aren’t just piled up on one side of HB 909, the bill dealing with a potential landfill near Raymore. I wrote yesterday about 17 lobbyists hired by KC Recycle and Waste. But Raymore has also retained representation. Repping Raymore are Bardgett-ites Mark Habbas, Carol Kemna, and Chris Roepe.
· The Raymore rejoinder to KC Recycle crying foul the rules are being changed mid-game: We aren’t mid-game. They haven’t bought the land and started the project. That location isn’t even zoned for a landfill. No harm, no foul.
Smith on Santos
#4 on The Atlantic’s “most read” list this morning is a piece quoting former Sen. Jeff Smith about the predicament facing George Santos. Read it here.
Lobbyists Registrations
Trent Watson and Rich AuBuchon added TIAA.
Catalyst added Families Against Mandatory Minimums.
David Sweeney added HOK.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Rep. Donna Baringer, Craig Unruh, Jo Mannies, Harry Kennedy, and Steve Stenger.