MOScout Daily Update: Final Day of Session - New PAC - White for Kunce and more...

Last day of session….

Senate Moves, Then Stalls

With all eyes on the Senate and whether it can “work,” things seemed to be functioning okay yesterday for a while at least.  The body chugged through a couple bills (SB 116, SB 127, SB 186) before getting snagged.

For a second day in a row, the Senate didn’t adjourn, but simply recessed.  That means we’ll once again skip the introductory orders of business when they reconvene at 10AM ST (Senate Time).  And it means there’s no Journal yet to document the floor activity.

Final Day Ahead

The stage is set for a dramatic, or dispirited, final day of session. We’ll see.

House and Senate leadership are seemingly pursuing a “global deal.” Pro Tem Caleb Rowden tweeted, “Let’s cut personal property taxes and legalize sports betting today!!” The idea being if Sen. Denny Hoskins would stand down on his sports betting opposition, the Hoskins and Sen. Bill Eigel priorities currently stuck on the House or Senate calendars could be released. 

Hoskins and Eigel have been publicly unmoved, and seem willing to let their bills die.

The current Hoskins position appears to be: if the House takes up and passes HB 268 and then everything goes back to normal.  But “everything back to normal” isn’t sports betting, it’s letting a myriad of lesser bills, which piled up, move through the Senate at a reasonable pace.

I doubt a big deal happens, but it certainly could.  One day left is still many hours.  And sometimes unseen winds within a person’s soul can shift amid the hours of negotiation, and compromises suddenly appears the way clouds move to reveal the sun.

Watching…

I expect both foreign ownership of farm land, and IP Reform to pass today.   But with only one day left, predictions are tenuous, and subject to the slightest derailment (someone opening a book on the Senate floor).

eMailbag: Good Old Days Weren’t So Good

Senatorial dignity has been dragged into the dust, and the reputation hitherto borne so proudly by this distinguished arm of state government has been tarnished, even blackened, not by outsiders, but by your hands.

Senators have forgotten, in their selfish zeal, that respectful attitude they should hold toward one another within this chamber; senators have violated the rules of decorum and debate; senators, representing a sovereign constituency of righteous, God-fearing Missourians, have not only been guilty of unseemly conduct and intemperate language, but have hurled epithets and insulting charges across the floor of this Senate, which would not be tolerated in a well-ordered barroom.

The motives of senators have been impugned, their integrity assailed, their characters attacked by innuendo, and more than one senator without being called to order has demeaned himself in a manner unworthy of the position he holds.

Such scenes as we have witnessed here, language as we have heard, are impossible, intolerable, and will be permitted no longer.  I am your servant, senators, but I am the servant of the people, responsible to a large extent for the conduct of the Senate, and the enforcement of its rules, and I say to you now, that patience with me has almost ceased to be a virtue.  We are here for deliberation and decision, not for vituperation and delay…

— Missouri Lieutenant Governor Crossley (1917)

New PAC

It looks like the fight to stop the landfill near Cass County has borne a new political action committee.  Kill the Fill was formed.  Its treasurer is Jennifer Phanton.  See the paperwork here.

Kunce Gets White Endorsement

Jackson County Executive Frank White Jr. will be endorsing Lucas Kunce for US Senate today… “Senators are supposed to care about our communities. They’re supposed to represent all of us. That’s why I’m proud to endorse Lucas Kunce. I know that he’ll be a partner for Jackson County and will always stand up for us. His career has been one of service, and I’m excited to work hard to elect a Senator that lives real Missouri values.”

$5K+ Contributions

A Better Missouri Political Action Committee - $37,000 from Anheuser-Busch Cos.

MO Cable PAC - $5,131 from Comcast Financial Agency.

KC United PAC - $5,950 from Superior Bowen Asphalt Company.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Leann Chilton and Peter Kinder.

Saturday: Maura Browning, Beth Low, and Corey Jackson.

MOScout Schedule

It’s a weekend off for MOScout.  No Weekly Summary.  See y’all Monday.