MOScout Daily Update: State of the Senate - Crime Hearing Today - Razer Interview - Bailey Fundy and more...
Hoskins Mollified?
RECAP FROM LAST WEEK: Sen. Denny Hoskins filibustered the start of session on Thursday. He was upset that his sports betting / VLT bill was voted down in Appropriations Committee, insinuating that he’d been promised that the bill would come to the floor for debate.
· One lobbyist says you have to look in the mirror when these things happen: What a joke… So Senate Appropriations posts a notice for exec session announcing to all bothering to pay attention that any bill heard in committee may be voted on (aka the two gaming bills). One bill passes 11-1 and the other goes down 10-2. How many lobbyists are on the VLT side??? Seems like a bunch of folks didn’t do their job and assumed that bill was just supposed to magically get to the calendar.
Some folks believe Hoskins has been mollified by a bill referral (below), and by the expectation that when Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer’s sport betting bill does come up for debate, Hoskins will have a chance to attached his VLT language as an amendment.
What It Means
Floor Leader Cindy O’Laughlin may have averted a derailment of the Senate train, but some are worried whether leadership is striking the right balance, veering too closely to appeasement that could have disastrous consequences. As one observer warns: This session is shaping up to be a few individuals who don’t get exactly what they want torching proposals that have overwhelming support.
We’ll see…
More Sports Betting Vehicles
It feels like sports betting is going to be one of the issues which “dies” several times and then comes back to life again and again this session.
There are several bills moving. Reps. Phil Christofanelli and Dan Houx had their bills voted out of the House Emerging Issues Committee last week. And another Hoskins’ bill was referred to committee….
Pro Tem Caleb Rowden referred another batch of about 100 bills to committee on Thursday, filling the thinning Senate pipeline. One of those was Hoskins’ SB 279.
Driving the Day: Crime Bill
Rep. Lane Roberts’ crime bill gets a Senate hearing today at 1:30 in Judiciary. It comes amid the turmoil and controversy over St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner.
And
The MOScout/Remington poll over the weekend asked about one provision which was dropped from the bill.
Q1: Should it be illegal for an unaccompanied minor to possess a firearm on public property?
Yes, it should be illegal: 73%
No, it should not be illegal: 16%
Not sure: 11%
· Interestingly, there wasn’t a huge partisan split on the issue. Republicans want it to be illegal by a wide margin: 67% to 19%.
Politico Interviews Razer
Politico has a long interview with Sen. Greg Razer. It’s worth reading. Find it here. This is an excerpt where he analyzes how the transgender bills will play out in the Senate…
Gilsinan: Are all [the bills dealing with transgender kids] likely to pass?
Razer: No, they’re not all going to pass… when they bring this up, if I’m going to filibuster… I think they’re going to pass something. They’ve gotten themselves so worked up over this issue, that doesn’t really even exist, that they have to pass something so they can go home and tell their constituents they did. I think most of them would like to pass some sort of sports ban and then never talk about this again. There is a group of two to four in the Senate that want to add all the other stuff as amendments… So the question will be in the Senate, you know, do we have 18 — there’s 10 Democrats — can we find eight Republicans willing to vote no on those amendments?
Gilsinan: Do you see any pathway to eight persuadable votes?
Razer: Not on sports. On the medical stuff being added as amendments, you know, I think I can get to eight if it weren’t for reelections coming around the corner. I think a lot of folks that I serve with generally are uncomfortable with male-to-female transgender kids playing in the sport for the gender that they choose… However, I think they are highly uncomfortable going beyond that. But if it is brought to a vote, then how do they vote no? Because somebody on the right is going to primary them. And run the ad: “Voted to support gender affirming care for transgender kids.”
Gilsinan: Do you have any theories about Missouri? Because it is striking — granted that some of these bills are the exact same bill with different people’s names on it — how far of an outlier Missouri is.
Razer: I would say the Missouri Senate has to be one of the most conservative chambers in any state capital in the country. It’s gotten that way for a number of reasons. One, I think, is self-segregation. You know, liberals are moving to the cities, and conservatives to the suburbs and rural areas. A little bit is gerrymandering… You have districts that can’t be won by the opposite party. No Republican can come into my district and win. It was drawn that way. So I have nothing to fear here in the general. I have to worry about somebody running to my left in a primary. And the same holds true for Republicans. No Democrat’s going to win some of these rural districts. They just have to make sure they’re still Trumpy enough, Newsmax enough. So they have to kind of check the box by taking these types of votes.
And
The MOScout/Remington poll over the weekend asked gender transition and also discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Q3: Should it be illegal for a doctor to provide gender transition procedures to a minor?
Yes, it should be illegal: 63%
No, it should not be illegal: 27%
Not sure: 11%
Q4: Should it be illegal to discriminate in employment, housing or in places of public accommodations based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity?
Yes, it should be illegal: 53%
No, it should not be illegal: 35%
Not sure: 12%
Bailey Fundy
Several Jeff City denizens are holding a fundraiser for Attorney General Andrew Bailey next week. Hosts include Caroline Coulter, chief counsel at OA; Jeff Earl, formerly with the Parson administration, now at Clean Fuel Alliance America; and MOChamber’s Phil Arnzen.
Boggs Takes Reins of DHEWD
Press release: Governor Parson announced that the Coordinating Board for Higher Education voted to select Dr. Bennett Boggs as the new Commissioner of the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development (DHEWD)… With over 30 years of higher education experience, Dr. Boggs joins the State of Missouri after most recently serving as the Deputy Executive Director and Chief of Staff for the Colorado Department of Higher Education, a position he had held since 2019.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays Hannah Beers Sutton, and Doug Crews.