MOScout Weekender: Axiom Layoffs - Late Spencer $$$ - Hallway on Capitol Culture - Who Won the Week and more…

Axiom Layoffs

Bloomberg reports on Axiom layoffs.  Read it here.

Axiom Strategies’ founder Jeff Roe said his GOP consulting firm slashed 10% of its employees Friday… The reductions, the biggest in the company’s 20 years, aim to position the firm for the industry’s volatile future, with disruptions from artificial intelligence, voters’ shifting party loyalties, and changing media consumption habits, Roe said…

·       Roe said Axiom, after the layoffs Friday, still had a bigger headcount than it had on Election Day 2024, but he declined to give the number. He said the firm’s business is sound, despite the cuts and the rift with the Trump team.

·       “We’re going to have some folks that are tremendous people that signed up for a journey with us where there’s not a place for them because of this restructuring,” Roe said. “That’s difficult.”

·       Roe said he started Axiom in 2005 in Liberty, Mo., with a team of six working above a bail bondsman’s office. Roe moved to Houston for Cruz’s 2016 presidential race and still resides there. The firm’s headquarters are in Kansas City.

Unions Add Late $$$ to Spencer PAC

In the large contributions (below), a couple of organized labor check hit the PAC of St. Louis City mayoral candidate Cara Spencer.

The election is on Tuesday.  Spencer has outraised Mayor Tishuara Jones, and had a double digit lead in last week’s MOScout poll.

·       Team Jones hopes that a stronger turnout on Tuesday will power a comeback for the incumbent.

MOScout’s Hallway Index: Capitol Culture

I asked lobbyists, “It's been ten years since John Diehl resigned as speaker after inappropriate texting with an intern. Is the capitol a safer place now?”   23 replies…

RESULTS

1. Safer now… 47.8%

2. About the same… 42.5%

3. Less safe now… 8.7%

Sample of Comments

·       Maybe safer now due to heightened awareness; but maybe pretty close to the same if the misconduct is less obvious but still insidious.

·       I think any tendencies of inappropriate behavior have proven too risky for ridicule and punishment. As it should be.

·       It has not gotten better. Leaders in both chambers just ignore the problem.

·       I think it’s safer now but I’m a man so I may not be seeing the same things that our female colleagues are seeing.

·       This has been going on forever. The players change but the play is the same.

·       It’s different and more low key but men behaving badly around women never really stops

Who Won the Week?

Leann Chilton – Honored by the Women’s Policy Network of Missouri for her decades in the government relations.

Zora Mulligan – Named chancellor of Missouri State University-West Plains.

Warren Erdman – A titan of Kansas City’s civic scene, Erdmann is retiring from Canadian Pacific Kansas City. 

Cindy O’Laughlin and Tony Luetkemeyer – Held the Republican caucus through a long night with ongoing quorum calls to overcome Mike Moon’s filibuster.

Find a downloadable version here.

Gubby Appts

Governor Mike Kehoe announced the judicial appointment to Jeffery McPherson, of Webster Groves, as Circuit Judge in the 21st Judicial Circuit.

$5K+ Contributions

A Brighter Future for St Louis PAC (pro-Spencer) - $15,000 from Laborers' International Union of N.A. Local No 42.

A Brighter Future for St Louis PAC - $10,000 from L.I.U.N.A. Local 110.

AGC of MO PAC - $10,025 from Ideker.

AGC of MO PAC - $9,750 from Interstate Testing Services.

AGC of MO PAC - $5,350 from Branco Enterprises.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays (Sunday) to Rep. Lane Roberts, Mark Jones, Elizabeth Lauber, John McCaherty, Cathy Brown, and Daniel Bogle.