MOScout Daily Update: Games of Chicken on IP Reform, Education and Sports Betting - Senate Debates Crime - Police PAC - Bosley Arrested and more...

1 Big Thing: Games of Chicken

Eight days left in session, we’re in the chicken stage on a lot of issues.  Both sides are drawing their lines and declaring their willingness to let stuff die if they don’t get their way.  Sometimes it’s a just a bargaining tactic, but often times – even when it’s just that – it depletes the time remaining for legislative work and has the effect of killing legislation.

IP Reform – The House line is for a simple 54% to amend the constitution. 

·       They think this modest change can win at the ballot box as it wouldn’t provoke the Realtors into opposition.  House GOP thinking: why put a loser on the ballot? 

·       The Senate, meanwhile, has a bloc that wants concurrent majorities.  Sen. Bill Eigel articulated their position when the conference motion was made.  It’s basically: give us concurrent majorities or give IP Reform death.

·       IP conferees: Reps. Henderson, Francis, Falkner, Sauls and Butz; Sens. Crawford, Koenig, Cierpiot, Beck, and Arthur.

Education – Open enrollment has stalled.  But now there’s evidence that it’s having a ripple effect.

·       Sen. Andrew Koenig cancelled his Senate Education Committee yesterday.  It was interpreted by one lobbyist as sign that Koenig won’t be moving any more bills out of his committee until he gets Dems to agree to a compromise on open enrollment.

Sports betting – Against the consensus that the issue is dead, the House could make one last roll of the dice on the issue. Sen. Denny Hoskins, who holds the cards on the Senate side, has other legislation.  The House is betting that action on those issues could sweeten the pot when it comes to sports betting. 

·       SB 92, Hoskins’ Rural Development Tax Credit bill, is now sitting in the House’ Fiscal Review Committee – chaired by Rep. Dan Houx, the handler of the House sports betting bill.  Maybe Houx will hold it there in limbo?  Or maybe the House brings it to the floor, adds sports betting to it, and sends it back to the Senate as a take-it-or-leave-it deal.

Meanwhile

Kurt Erickson reports… Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III told the Post-Dispatch that the Senate’s ongoing inaction on sports betting with less than two weeks before the Legislature adjourns has prompted conversations about trying to put a referendum on the ballot next year.  “We’re going to take a serious look at that,” DeWitt said.

·       Drebes reaction: [yawn] A seemingly transparent attempt to pressure the legislature into action.  But if the Cards wanted to make a credible threat at an IP, they’d have filed something months ago, and already have an active campaign collecting signatures outside Busch Stadium (and Hammonds Stadium and Kauffman Stadium). 

Driving the Day: Budget Conference

After cancelling yesterday’s budget conference committee, House and Senate conferees are set to meet this morning (8AM).  When they sit down, they’ll have 58 hours until the constitutional deadline.

·       There have been years when the legislature does their duty and takes off on Thursday. Everyone I talk to expects to be here Friday (and maybe Saturday LOL)…

Senate Debates STL Crime

The Senate debated the House’s public safety bill – aimed at reducing crime in the City of St. Louis – for hours and hours yesterday seemingly making no progress.

Sen. Karla May rallied Dems to stand and filibuster the bill, though there was an odd subplot with Sens. Angela Mosley and Brian Williams sparring over an amendment which would prohibit public officials who were convicted of theft from gaining public employment.  It appeared aimed at former Rep. Courtney Curtis (see the background here).

Also

I wrote yesterday that it “looked like a second pro-Andrew Bailey PAC has been established, Missouri Law Enforcement for Good Government.”  That’s because the same husband and wife (Mike and Carolyn Rayner) who seeded the PAC with $300K, also gave Bailey’s Liberty and Justice PAC $300K last month. But I am reliably informed that it’s not another Bailey PAC.  Rather it’s a PAC to push for pro-law enforcement candidates who will push for the state takeover of the St. Louis police force.

What It Means

The police are hunkering down for a protracted battle on this issue.  This is not a one-year issue; this will be back next year.  And they’ll have PAC money to help folks or target folks in the 2024 cycle.

Bosley Arrested

Post-Dispatch’s Joe Holleman reports that “after being stopped by police for speeding Monday night in Jefferson City, state Rep. LaKeySha Bosley, D-St. Louis, was taken into custody because there was an outstanding warrant for her arrest… Bosley has been wanted in several Missouri counties for failure to appear in court on traffic violations. At the time of the story, Bosley said she was clearing up the outstanding warrants situation. But on Monday, a Jefferson City officer stopped Bosley for speeding at about 10:15 p.m. She received only a warning for the speeding, but a standard background check discovered that there still was an active warrant against her…”

·       Interestingly, a provision in HB 1108 which is now over in the Senate would have prevented Bosley’s arrest.  From the Summary Sheet:  Prohibits a court from issuing an arrest warrant for a person’s failure to respond, pay a fine, or appear in court for a motor vehicle equipment violation citation classified as an infraction. Instead, the driver will get a second notice to respond, pay, or appear. If the driver fails to complete the requirement, the driver will have to pay all outstanding fines upon renewal of the driver’s driver license.

AP on SOS and Election Denial

AP reports on the line that Republican secretaries of state are threading the needle between arguing their elections are valid, yet not offending conspiracy-minded Trump voters.  Read it here.

·       The Republican secretaries of state in Ohio, West Virginia and Missouri have promoted their states’ elections as fair and secure. Yet each also is navigating a fine line on how to address election fraud conspiracies as they gear up campaigns for U.S. Senate or governor in 2024.

·       The split-screen messaging of Ohio’s Frank LaRose, West Virginia’s Mac Warner and Missouri’s Jay Ashcroft shows just how deeply election lies have burrowed into the Republican Party, where more than half of voters believe Democrat Joe Biden was not legitimately elected president.

·       Ashcroft has said Missouri has secure elections and praised Gov. Mike Parson for signing a package of election law changes last year that included a new photo ID requirement… Then in January, Ashcroft hosted a meeting at his office with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a conspiracy theorist who travels the country fueling distrust in elections. The meeting alarmed some voting rights advocates in the state.

Lobbyists Registrations

Kit Crancer added RAYUS Radiology.

Chris Liese, James Foley, Andrew Foley, and Tony Dugger added CDPQ U.S. Inc.                                                                        

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Rep. Sarah Unsicker, Susan Henderson Moore, Sarah Steelman, Roy Temple, Alvin Brooks, Joe Carmichael, Steve Danner, and Michael Frame.