MOScout Daily Update: Anti-Lonsdale Ad - DeWitt Charm Offensive - No Hough 2024 - Blitz and Sinquefield to Mizzou Board - Moon Mocked - April Quarters and more...
Exclusive: School Choice Group Punches Lonsdale
American Federation for Children, a school choice group, is hitting Rep. Chris Lonsdale for flip-flopping on their issue.
They’re running ads over streaming devices in his district calling out his votes on open enrollment. See it here.
“Can we trust him? On the campaign trail Lonsdale said he’d support parents rights’ in Missouri… Why does Lonsdale campaign for one thing and vote for another?”
Scouplette: Sports Betting Push Continues
Tipster says that St. Louis Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III will be at the Capitol again today, meeting with lawmakers and expressing support for passage of sports betting legislation.
Foreign Ownership Ban Passes Senate
A version of Rep. Mike Haffner’s HB 903 passed the Senate yesterday. That puts it in a good position to win final approval by the end of session.
There was an interesting exchange between Sen. Lincoln Hough and the Senate handler, Sen. Rick Brattin.
Hough, a cattle farmer, expressed frustration that folks talk about being pro-Ag, but then are blasé about passing laws taking away farmers’ freedom, in this case restricting to whom they can sell their business. Hough noted that other firms (he used the example of an owner of a logistics firm selling warehouses to a foreign company) aren’t subject to this new law.
The Senate passed the bill 31-3. Sens. Justin Brown and Sandy Crawford joined Hough in dissent.
What It Means
· Hough is sometimes mentioned as a possible statewide candidate, but this vote is a killer. It polls very strongly. His willingness to go on the record against it, is the strongest indication yet, that Hough isn’t running in 2024.
· Additionally, while there are large cash balance in his committees, his quarterly report showed no real fundraising activity. (Campaign account COH: $264K; Lincoln PAC COH: $129K).
Moon Mocked
Yesterday as the Senate was perfecting Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer’s wide-ranging criminal justice bill, Sen. Mike Moon tried to add an amendment regulating drag shows. Sen. Greg Razer offered an amendment to Moon’s amendment, poking him for his support of pre-teen marriages: “any person who is at least twelve years of age and married may attend a performance of male or female impersonators who provide entertainment, regardless of whether performed for consideration.”
Moon withdrew his amendment, but it’s the latest sling Moon’s taken lately.
· A parody website of Sen. Mike Moon is on the web. It offers his wedding planning services. “Use code 12yrs for 20% off.” See it here.
· One lobbyist texted me after Moon made a video explaining his position: When it takes you a 3-minute and 34-second video to explain why you said you support 12-year olds being married to adult men, you’re losing.
First Glance at April Quarter
Governor’s race: Sen. Bill Eigel’s small donor internet outreach showed amazing results. His BILL PAC was 2206 pages long! Many donations were micropayments in increments of $1, or $2. The PAC raised 262,534. It’s largest expenditure ($72K) was to Targeted Victory which is presumably running the program.
Meanwhile Jay Ashcroft expenses have started revving up as he starts his gubernatorial campaign, but there was still little fundraising. Now that’s he’s announced I assume we’ll see more dollars flowing.
The numbers…
Jay Ashcroft raised $1,125; spent $122,559, and has $458,060 cash on-hand.
Liberty Committee PAC: $1,308,626 COH.
Bill Eigel raised $54,031; spent $61,058; and has $164,604 cash on-hand.
BILL PAC: $417,505 COH.
Mike Kehoe raised $293,791; spent $112,731; and has $819,906 cash on-hand.
American Dream PAC: $2,526,775 COH.
Attorney General’s race: Andrew Bailey made a strong showing for his first quarter, proving to any doubters that he’ll have the resources the needs for next year’s primary fight. Team Bailey dings Will Scharf on his out-of-state money, and crows that a lot of Missouri’s heavy donors are in their corner (Cargill, Steward, Busch and Katie Sinquefield all contributed in Q1).
The two elephants not on their reports: Bailey making news every week brings a lot of free media. And Scharf has some very powerful national organization in his corner.
The numbers…
Andrew Bailey raised $305,375; spent $11,725; and has $293,567 cash on-hand.
Liberty and Justice PAC: $710,983
Will Scharf raised $107,620; spent $21,020; and has $874,971 cash on-hand.
Defend Missouri PAC: $575,000 COH.
Top 20 PACs, by COH
American Dream PAC (pro-Kehoe) - $2,526,776
RightPath PAC (pro-Wash U)- $1,536,671
Committee for Liberty (pro-Ashcroft) - $1,308,627
Missouri and Kansas Laborers' PAC - $1,251,139
Luetkemeyer For Missouri - $955,467
Enterprise Holdings, Inc. PAC - $915,242
Citizens for Scharf - $874,972
Mid-America Carpenters Regional - $860,125
Missouri Realtors PAC - $855,001
Citizens To Elect Mike Kehoe - $819,907
Missouri United (pro-Plocher) - $765,307
IUOE Local 101 PAC - $711,419
Liberty and Justice PAC (pro-Bailey) - $710,984
Lucas For KC - $709,187
American Promise PAC (pro-Malek) - $699,981
MO National Education Assoc-PAC - $612,617
Defend Missouri (pro-Scharf) - $575,000
Truth in Campaigns (pro-Rizzo) - $556,386
Plocher For Missouri - $475,851
Malek for Missouri - $468,286
STL BOA Inauguration
The newly constituted St. Louis City Board of Aldermen will be inaugurated this morning. According to Board President Megan Green’s newsletter “the Board will have 6 Black members, 6 white members, 1 Asian member, and one Latina member. Eight of the Board’s 14 members will be women. Two members will be openly LGBTQIA. The average and median ages of members will be about 45 years old…”
Gubby Appt: Donors Land Nice Spots
Robert Blitz, Robert Fry, and Jeanne Sinquefield were appointed to the University of Missouri Board of Curators.
· Blitz and Sinquefield (along with her husband) are both big Republican donors who have given to Governor Mike Parson and his PAC, Uniting Missouri, over the years.
Other appointments announced yesterday
· Kevin James, of Salem, was appointed to the Missouri Mining Commission.
· Gary Larson, of Salem, was appointed Dent County Presiding Commissioner.
· Bradley Cooper, from Willard, was appointed as the Student Representative for the Missouri State University Board of Governors.
· Clayton Eftink, from Cape Girardeau, was appointed as the Student Representative for the Southeast Missouri State University Board of Governors.
· Elizabeth Motazedi, from Joplin, was appointed as the Student Representative for the Northwest Missouri State University Board of Regents.
Lobbyists Registrations
John Bardgett and Erika Leonard added Super Start Preschool & Infant Care.
Dan Barry added Financial Services Institute, Inc.
Strategic Capitol Consulting added Modern Day Venture LLC.
Ryan Rowden added My Missouri.
Ginger Steinmetz added TEG (Trinity Education Group).
$5K+ Contributions
American Dream PAC (pro-Kehoe) - $11,300 from Mark Schell.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Charlie Hinderliter, Elizabeth Weber-Haynes, Mike Colona, Nate Walker, Amanda Good, and Aaron Hedlund.