MOScout Daily Update: Diehl Fined - Patterson Vulnerable? - More Grades Feedback - AG Departures and more...

Diehl Fined

8 years after resigning as speaker, John Diehl was fined for campaign finance violations. 

The consent order from the Missouri Ethics Commission (see it here) found, among other violations, that Diehl had used committee funds to make a credit card payment for non-political purchases.

The fine totaled $47,392.

FWIW

Diehl served as his own campaign treasurer.  It’s a practice that Rep. Steve Butz has sought to prohibit as a guardrail against wrong-doing should temptation arise. His HB 449 passed out of House Elections Committee but didn’t receive floor time this year.

Patterson Vulnerable?

Last weekend’s “Hallway Index” survey found that approximately three-quarters of lobbyists expect that House Floor Leader Jon Patterson will ascend to the speakership.  No lobbyists thought that Rep. Bill Falkner, who has thrown his hat into the ring for the job, will prevail.  Rep. Doug Richey, who previously campaigned for the speakership, has dropped out; he’s now setting his sights on a state senate seat.

This is rather routine.  The House has had a pretty consistent record in recent years of elevating its floor leaders into the speaker’s role.

But one intriguing outcome from the Hallway survey was that a quarter of the respondents picked “someone else” as their prediction of the next speaker.  That jives with talk that there is an appetite among some House members for an alternative to Patterson.

The roots of the grumbling…

·       Sloppy floor management, the number of times they had to reconsider bills.

·       Not being tough enough with the Dems and letting them talk too much.  Even though Republicans win 99% of the votes, they like to “win” the debates as well.

·       To a lesser extent, his vote on the transgender issue in which he was one of three Republican dissenters. (I also had someone tell me this was a credit to him: it proved he will advance caucus priorities even when he doesn’t agree with them.)

But…

·       A viable alternative hasn’t been found yet.

·       Patterson has wide support, backers from both the House “moderates” as well as the conservatives. 

·       And the because the House votes for a “speaker-designate” a year in advance, there’s little time for an organized opposition to coalesce.

The smart money is still on Patterson.

AG Departures

Post-Dispatch’s Jack Suntrup has an article today on AG Andrew Bailey’s staff departures.  Read it here.

·       [M]any of the people who worked behind the scenes to advance Schmitt’s agenda have bolted in the first five months of new Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s tenure, raising questions about Bailey’s approach as he seeks a full term in 2024. Bailey, like his predecessor, has pushed himself into the news…

·       Since Bailey took over in January, the attorney general’s office has seen several high-profile departures, including Solicitor General John Sauer, Deputy Solicitor General Michael Talent, and Deputy Solicitor General Charles Capps…

eMailbag on Hamm

If the Dems ever wanna win, it should be Kunce for Hamm.

Feedback on Grades…

·       Dean [Plocher]and his fans have to figure out just passing House bills doesn’t help you or your caucus.

·       It appears some are already trying to rewrite history on this legislative session. The Senate let four individuals dictate the final chapters of the Senate’s final two legislative weeks. Eigel, Hoskins, Moon and Brattin led Senate leadership around like they owned the Capitol. Nothing was done! Just the status quo…with the common refrain “it’s the Senate”. In the real-world and the business world, heads would roll. New leadership would take over and the four employees would be terminated. In contrast, the House, in good faith, made do with what it could and worked.

·       I think it would be safe to give [Cindy]O’Laughlin a grade that is anything above Rowden, Plocher and Patterson. Here’s why: She’s the first to negotiate anything with the former conservative caucus which has not happened in the last four years. She helped Sen. Hough navigate the budget without falling off the “DEI” cliff. Eigel is running for governor, so it is on him that the senate came to a grinding halt the last week of session. But without O’Laughlin, the senate would have been as bad or worse as we have seen in recent years.

·       [O’Laughlin’s] score should be higher considering she ended up getting help to keep the Senate on track from the Regulars who probably didn't vote for her. The people who voted to put her in leadership were her biggest problem.

$5K+ Contributions

Merck & Co., Inc. Employees Missouri PAC Federal Committee - $7,250 from Merck & Co., Inc. Employees Missouri PAC Federal Committee (Washington DC).

Lobbyists Registrations

Sharon Geuea Jones added St. Luke's Hospital of Kansas City, Inc.

Salvatore Panettiere deleted VMware Inc, and Carahsoft Technology Corp.

David Winton and Jessica Petrie deleted Common Sense Leadership Fund, Inc.

David Winton deleted Kinship Health, and Aviagen, Inc.  

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Sam Page, Jake Hummel, Heather Navarro, and Byron DeLear.