MOScout Daily Update: Bean Eyes Statewide? - IPs to Protect IPs - Ohio Speaks - Readers Speak and more...
Rumorville: Bean for SOS?
Tipster says that although it has been long rumored that Sen. Jason Bean has his eyes on Senate leadership, he might instead jump into the 2024 fray.
· The agriculture community is looking to recruit one of their own to run for statewide office. Bean has been active in multiple federal and state agricultural organizations, and is seriously looking at a run for statewide office in 2024 in light of constant repositioning for down ballot races.
· Bean has been able to raise significant money from the agricultural community in the past. Bean’s supporters believe he can tap into his national agricultural contacts. In addition, they believe both the KC and STL business communities are deeply committed to agribusiness, agtech, and plant sciences and would be supportive of a candidate who is committed to growing Missouri's footprint in those areas.
And
· If Bean does decide to jump, it would likely create a second free-for-all Republican primary in southeast Missouri (Senate 27 is already brewing after Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder announced for LG).
· In 2020, Bean won a 4-way primary. If he opts out, there’ll be state reps and former reps who look at the race, as well perhaps some of those who ran four years ago: Steve Cookson, Eddy Justice and Jeff Shawan.
IPs Protecting IP
Alixandra Cossette filed four initiative petitions aimed at… protecting the initiative petition process. I’m guessing this is related to the Realtors’ recently formed campaign committee.
· The IPs would explicitly protect the ability of any U.S. citizen to collect signatures in Missouri. There have been legislative proposals to limit collection to Missouri citizens.
· Two of the variations would require 70% majorities from the legislature to place a constitutional question on the ballot.
And
There will likely be a lot of chatter today about the results from Ohio, where an effort to raise the threshold to amend that state’s constitution was defeated 57%-43%.
· One MOScouter: That dog didn’t hunt in Ohio, and it won’t hunt in Missouri.
Also
Dems and Team Quade will also probably look for turnout lessons as the NYTimes sees the Ohio vote as largely a referendum on the abortion issue. “The Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade has shifted the political intensity on the issue, reshaping a once mostly-silent coalition of liberal, swing and moderate Republican voters into a political force. It’s a force Democrats are working hard to harness in elections across the country next year, often with ballot measures, and it’s a power Republicans have yet to figure out how to match, or at least manage.”
Meet STL County Family Association
The St. Louis County Family Association has been sending postcards to St. Louis County voters…
The Association is a 501c4. See their website here. They have articles about test scores in various county districts, as well as article about “gender and political indoctrination,” and “sexualization of children.”
Education is a new hot-button issue in a lot of communities. But…
· Some of these articles sound almost like satire. There’s one where they take on an editorial in a high school newspaper.
· And one MOScouter fumes about their reporting on test scores: This is such BS. Yes test scores are down but there’s no mention in the change in the way they measure it – just trying to pin it to woke ideology.
eMailbag: In Defense of Munis
· Not saying the legislature shouldn’t look at muni utilities but PEOPLE GET TO VOTE IN LOCAL ELECTIONS. If you don’t like your utility rates vote against your mayor or city councilman. No one gets to vote for a PSC commissioner or their IOU. Only through their legislator.
· Your reader is using the failed lobbyist tactic of "don't look at us.... look at them!" Municipal Utilities are regulated at the local level and everything is open to the public.
eMailbag: MO Policies Drove Away Tyson
· Years ago Nucor steel mill were going to put their plant in Hayti Mo. with an investment of $1 billion. Since then, another Nucor plant has been built at $1 billion. Also, in the last two years Big River Steel has built another mill at a $2 billion cost. And just announced a company is building a steel rod mill at a cost of $700,000. This is all taking place between Blytheville and Osceola Arkansas. That could have been an investment of $4.7 billion dollars and 1000s of jobs in Pemiscot County. All because Missouri would not pass Right to work… I feel for Dexter and Noel because we went thru this when Noranda closed. Just a little history.
· Tyson Chicken plant in Dexter shutting down due to cost cutting measures. Let’s keep raising the minimum wage and see how many more move out of state.
eMailbag: Why Fitz is Safe
Scott is the ONLY statewide official involved in the ballot title process that has: consistently been endorsed by pro-life organizations, recorded votes on pro-life legislation, personally advanced pro-life legislation, and eliminated taxpayer funding for abortions. I suppose that makes it a lot easier for him to keep his integrity intact during the fiscal note process, while the other two (AG and SOS--both in contested primaries for 2024) violate their statutory duties and feign ignorance to the law solely to pander to MRL for an endorsement.
The perfect candidate to try to get to the right of Scott in the 2026 primary would be someone with a 100% pro-life voting record in the Missouri House, endorsed by MRL, a person with an accounting degree (who is also a lawyer), sent straight from central casting with a healthy campaign account and an ability to fundraise. Oh wait . . .
David Gregory Republican 206,868 (35.3%)
Scott Fitzpatrick Republican 378,915 (64.7%)
Lobbyists Registrations
Ryan Rowden, Rebecca Lohmann, Daniel Pfeifer, Greg Porter, and David Willis added CFM Insurance, Inc.
Ron Gladney terminated his registration.
$5K+ Contributions
American Dream PAC (pro-Kehoe) - $15,000 from Platform Investments, LLC.
Birthdays
Happy birthday to Lyndall Fraker.