MOScout Daily Update: Conflicts Ahead This Week? - Case for Childcare $$$ - Camden Contra ATF - Gardner Gets Challenger and more...

Eyes On This Week…

Here’s what folks will be watching this week…

·       Trans issues: The two Senate bills (SB 39 and SB 49) dealing with gender transition and trans athletes will have their House hearing today (General Laws, 4:30PM).  It’s unlikely the Senate moves off its hard-won position.  If the House amends these and sends them back to the Senate, they’ll likely just get a shrug in return.  The worse-case scenario,  though, is another big chunk of time devoured in the Senate haggling over a compromise.

·       DEI: Diversity Equity and Inclusion language has emerged as another flashpoint this session.  Folks will be watching if the rhetoric rachets up in the Senate about how to handle the language in the budget.  Also, Rep. Doug Richey’s HB  1196 is sitting on the House Informal Perfection calendar, and could come up for debate.

·       Gaming: Rep. Dan Houx’s HB 556 was referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee.  This is another potential vehicle to pass sports betting – if an agreement on VLTs (or dropping VLTs) can be finessed.

·       IP reform: Changes to the initiative petition process is an issue I could see the Senate PQing in the final week.  Before we get to that point the leadership would likely want to be clear that they exhausted all efforts at negotiations.  That means we’ll likely see another run at it.  Maybe this week, maybe next week?

1 Big Thing: The Case for Childcare

Advocates (including the governor’s office) keep making the case for bigger investments in childcare…

·       Children’s Trust Fund Director Emily Van Schenkhof testified before the House Workforce Development Committee last week.  She said that “Missouri is facing a child care crisis… 1,500 workers have left the industry… 30% of child care businesses closed during the pandemic.”  See her slide deck here.

·       Childcare Aware of Missouri has mapped where it sees childcare “deserts” in Missouri.  That is, places where there’s a scarcity of providers.  They’re all across Missouri, but it’s notable that they mostly plague rural Missouri.  See the map here.

What’s Going On In Camden?

KCUR reports that “six top elected officials in Camden County, Missouri, are refusing to cooperate with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, claiming the agency itself is unconstitutional.”

·       The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says it just wants zoning information to complete the applications of four people who want to open gun stores. Camden County says it won't cooperate.  ATF agents say they need zoning information so the agency can complete the applications for four people who want to open gun stores in Camden County, about 250 miles southeast of Kansas City.

·       In a letter to the ATF office in Kansas City, Camden County presiding commissioner Ike Skelton cited a local ordinance banning county employees from working with the ATF… The letter was signed by Skelton's two commission colleagues plus County Attorney Jeff Green, Sheriff Tony Helms and County Treasurer Kendra Hicks.

·       In the case of Camden County, ATF spokesman Jon Ham says the agency is trying to help people open guns stores, not take them away… Ham said he has never seen a county in the four states the Kansas City Field Office covers refuse to provide this kind of information…

Camden County is represented by Sen. Mike Bernskoetter, and Rep. Lisa Thomas.

Gardner Gets A Challenger

RFT reports that St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has received her first declared challenger, David Mueller.  Read it here.

·       Mueller, a 37-year-old St. Louis native and political newcomer, tells the RFT he feels called to run for the city's top prosecutor job because, after decades of population decline, he thinks the city is at an inflection point.

·       Mueller grew up in the suburb of Normandy and got his law degree from the George Washington University School of Law in Washington, D.C., before moving back to St. Louis in 2013. He took a job as a public defender, working in the St. Louis County trial office. After growing up in north county and then starting as a public defender shortly before the 2014 Ferguson protests, he says he’s witnessed over-policing by tiny municipal police departments and the other systemic issues that plague the region’s policing and courts.

·       Now a resident of Tower Grove South, Mueller says he voted for Gardner but that she hasn't lived up to the promises of the racial justice platform she ran on.

Read his bio here.

Remember… it’s not just policy that matters in this race.  As Axios noted in its analysis of Chicago’s last mayoral election…

·       The biggest reason for progressive Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson's come-from-behind victory over moderate Paul Vallas: Black voters living in high-crime parts of the city overwhelmingly rejected Vallas, who ran on a tough-on-crime message.

·       Crime was by far the top issue in the race, according to pre-election polling. Vallas, who is white, called for hiring more police officers to stem the crime wave, while Johnson campaigned on alternatives to policing.

·       Having a shared identity is a powerful pull in politics, sometimes more than policy preferences…    Johnson was able to combine strong Black support with a political base in the mostly white, affluent communities along Chicago's lakefront.

Hruza Announces for House 89

George Hruza, who ran unsuccessfully for Senate 24 last cycle, announced he’ll run in House 89 where Speaker Dean Plocher is termed.

“I am living the American Dream,” stated Hruza. “My mother survived the evils of the Holocaust and our family escaped totalitarian socialist Czechoslovakia to give my sister and me the individual liberty and opportunity only the United States can offer and that we enjoy today…”

·       Hruza will be the favorite.  It’s quite frequent that when folks lose their first race, they try for higher office in their second race.  Hruza is making the more prudent move here.

·       Trump won the district by 3.5% over Biden in 2020.  But other (less polarizing Republicans) won the district much more handily.  It should be a relatively easy GOP hold in 2024.

Team Plocher

Five weeks left, only two state representatives have voted with Speaker Dean Plocher 100% of the time… Reps. Kent Haden and Dan Houx.

·       Republican least likely to vote with Plocher: Rep. Michael Davis (75%).

·       Democrat most likely to vote with Plocher: Rep. Robert Sauls (86.7%).

·       Democrat least like to vote with Plocher: Ashley Bland Manlove (54.2%).

eMailbag

Budget Language Reality Check: Hello, you can't legislate in the budget. Culture wars are not budgetary line items

Lobbyists Registrations

John Bardgett and Mark Habbas added City of Wentzville.

Richard McIntosh and John Gaskin added IC Solutions LLC.

David Sweeney added Altumint.

Courtney Curtis added MOKAN.

Doug Stone added Summit Homes, and Cooper Communities, Inc.           

$5K+ Contributions

Committee for Liberty (pro-Ashcroft) - $25,000 from Patricia Chandler.

Association of MO Electric Cooperatives (AMEC PAC) - $23,750 from Fiber Path Technologies.

Missouri Democratic State Committee - $8,131 from Mark Heising.

HealthPAC - $12,500 from Committee For Quality Healthcare.

Birthdays

Happy birthday to Heidi Kolkmeyer, Cara Alexander Stark, Meghan McCann, Matt Sain, Dave Leipholtz, and Steve Roberts Sr.