MOScout Daily Update: Webber on Bailey - Oliver Backs Scharf - KS Abortion Destination - No Minchew in Senate 19 and more...

Oliver Backs Scharf

Prominent Republican fundraiser Jack Oliver (see bio here) is on the invite for an end-of-the-quarter Will Scharf fundraiser Wednesday.

Bailey Gets Badge from KC Star

Nothing Republicans love more to boost their conservative credentials than getting whacked by the “liberal media elite.”

Andrew Bailey “gets targeted” in the Sunday KCStar as a hard-right conservative.  Read it here.  Pull quotes from Stephen Webber…

·       Webber… grew up across the street from Bailey in Columbia. Webber, who is three years younger, said Bailey was always vocal about his political views even as a teenager. He saw Bailey as an “absolute gun rights person.”

·       “He’s extremely conservative — one of the most conservative people we’ve seen in Missouri politics,” he said… he remembers playing basketball in his neighborhood cul-de-sac as a teenager when Bailey, also a teenager at the time, walked out of his house hoisting an assault rifle on the way to the rifle range. He said he watched as Bailey loaded the gun in his car.  It was shocking, he said. “I was like, wow, this guy is really into guns.”

KS Becomes Abortion Destination

KCStar reports that the “number of abortions in Kansas increased by several thousand last year, driven entirely by a surge of out-of-state residents as the state became a stronghold of abortion access in the Great Plains.”

·       Even though Missouri was the first state in the nation to enact a near-total ban last year after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, 575 fewer Missouri residents received abortions in Kansas in 2022 than in 2021. By contrast, the number of Texas residents traveling to Kansas for an abortion soared by 2,745. Representatives from Planned Parenthood have said clinics in Kansas — and also in Illinois — have been inundated with patients from other states that have squeezed the ability of Missouri residents to quickly obtain abortions in Kansas.

Meanwhile

Politico, with a Webster Groves, MO dateline, cites a Missouri lawsuit as a prototype to try to undo the Dobbs ruling.  Read it here.

·       As the nation nears the one year anniversary of the fall of Roe, the Missouri case is one of nearly a dozen challenges to abortion restrictions filed by clergy members and practitioners of everything from Judaism to Satanism that are now making their way through state and federal courts — a strategy that aims to restore access to the procedure and chip away at the assumption that all religious people oppose abortion.

·       [A] first-of-its-kind lawsuit arguing Missouri blurred the line between church and state, imposed a particular Christian idea of when life begins over the beliefs of other denominations, and threatened their ability to practice their religions.

Marijuana Mainstreamed

Wall Street Journal reports on how marijuana legalization – and the worker shortage – is changing workplace rules. Read it here.

·       [S]ome companies say being high at work isn’t necessarily a fireable offense.

·       “It used to be, you test positive: ‘See you later,’” says Eric Mack, a partner with employment-law firm Littler Mendelson, who says he has trained employees at more than a dozen companies to spot the signs of drug-related impairment in the past two years.

·       One in six American adults now says they smoke marijuana, a share that has eclipsed the number of cigarette smokers, according to recent Gallup data, and expanding legalization of the drug has led more companies to scrap employee drug-testing. Instead, many are leaning on managers to spot signs that workers are impaired on the job and determine what to do when they are.

Minchew Terminates Committee

About two months after Randy Minchew formed a committee to run for Senate 19 as a Republican, he terminated the committee.

Senate 19 – where Sen. Caleb Rowden is term limited – has become more Democratic in redistricting.  It’s unlikely that Republicans will find a candidate to credibly challenge Democrat Stephen Webber.  But right now, after Minchew’s termination, they don’t have anyone lined up.

Christofanelli Gets MLW

Press release: Make Liberty Win PAC (MLW) announced their endorsement of Phil Christofanelli for the Missouri State Senate. Phil Christofanelli is running for State Senate in

Missouri’s 23rd District, which covers the eastern half of St. Charles County. Looking over the

field of declared candidates in the race, the organization chose Christofanelli because of his strong conservative voting record and numerous legislative victories during his four term tenure

in the Missouri House of Representatives.

What It Means

This isn’t a surprise at all.  Christofanelli has been deeply involved in Make Liberty Win for a long time.  But it will provide a boost as I expect we’ll see them come in heavy with lots of door-knockers and grassroots support.

$5K+ Contributions

Committee to Elect Aaron McMullen - $10,000 from Aaron McMullen.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Mark Coulter, Kurt Bahr, Kirk Mathews, and Steve Cookson.