MOScout Daily Update: No Senate Fireworks - Elections Committee Kerfuffle - Stouffer Legacy - Malek Hires Cottom and more...
Quick Friday update…
Yawn: No Senate Fireworks
Brian Treece and Warren Erdman were confirmed to the State Highways and Transportation Commission yesterday without even a protest speech.
One lobbyist surmised that Floor Leader Cindy O’Laughlin “realized she was on an island and backed down.”
And so the fragile peace in the Senate remains.
· Another lobbyist joked that the lack of fireworks in the Senate has everyone uneasy. After last session, everyone has PTSD, and keeps expecting it all to fall apart. Not yet, folks, not yet…
Elections Kerfuffle
In the House Election Committee yesterday an awkward scene unfolded. Chair Peggy McGaugh presented a bill to basically undo a bill Rep. Dan Stacy has advanced last year. Stacy, vice-chair of the committee, grilled McGaugh as the committee members shifted uncomfortably in their seats. At one point Stacy warning her that she was in conflict with the Republican Party, to which McGaugh asked, “Is that a threat?”
Rep. Donna Baringer raised a point of order that Stacy was “badgering the witness,” and Rep. Ken Waller said he was “appalled.”
GOP’s Schitzo Education Impulses
It’s a tale of two education bills – pulling public policy in completely different directions…
· Sen. Andrew Koenig’s SB 4 (Parents Bill of Rights) is a top-down directive to tell all schools what’s prohibited in their curriculum and classroom teaching.
· Meanwhile Sen. Jill Carter’s SB 85 would embrace “local control,” freeing many school districts from any performance oversight from the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Scooplette: Cottom to Treas Office
Capitol veteran Mary Cottom has joined new State Treasurer Vivek Malek as administrative assistant, scheduler and gatekeeper in Room 121, a new first-floor statehouse space for the treasurer’s ceremonial digs (most of the staff is in the Truman Building). Malek is staffing up after ex-Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick took some folks along with him to the state auditor's office.
Stouffer Legacy
Yesterday I reported that former Sen. Bill Stouffer has retired from lobbying. It’s worth looking back at the political legacy he leaves…
Stouffer replaced Sen. Jim Mathewson (D-Sedalia) in a wave election for the GOP in 2004. He pushed for several ideas that were new at the time, but now common in Missouri: A standard biodiesel blend in Missouri fuels, an expanded I-70 in Mid-Missouri and he also worked with then-Rep. Tishaura Jones (now mayor of St. Louis City) to expand charter schools into failing districts like Normandy.
His biggest legacy might be the staff and interns he mentored who are still working in the capitol today: Heidi Kolkmeyer, Drew Dampf, Aaron Baker and Matt Michelson.
Previewing the Weekender
Tomorrow we’ll have Remington/MOScout polling on whether Missourians support changing the constitutional amendment process to a 60% vote, and whether it should be illegal for an accompanied minor to possess a firearm.
Lobbyists Registrations
John Bardgett, Jacqueline Bardgett, Chris Roepe, and Mark Habbas added Action Now Initiative, LLC.
John Cozad added Raptor Recycle and Transfer.
Jay Hahn and Ryan DeBoef added City of Marshfield.
Chad Mahoney added Missouri Broadcasters Association.
Johnny Moyer added CSC Holdings, LLC.
Kurt Schaefer added Locust Street Property 1 STL, LLC.
Nikki Strong added Operation Sand, LLC.
Dr. Mendoza deleted TDW Educational Resources.
Jessica Pabst deleted Consumer Technology Association FKA Consumer Electronics Association.
$5K+ Contributions
Kansas City Regional Association Of Realtors Missouri RPAC - $10,540 from Missouri Realtors PAC, Inc.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Rep. Phil Amato, Justin Alferman, Jason Crowell, Kent Hampton, and Warren Love.