MOScout Weekender: Stop the Ban Lands $4.5M - Hallway on Next Senate - Who Won the Week and more…

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Stop the Ban Lands $4.5M

Stop the Ban, the campaign committee to defeat the latest constitutional amendment dealing with abortion, recorded two large contributions yesterday.

·       $3,000,000 from The Fairness Project, a dark money group for progressive causes in Washington, DC.

·       $1,500,000 from Lynn Schusterman, a billionaire philanthropist who was born in Kansas City.

This comes just weeks after Mike Bloomberg gave $1,250,000 to the campaign.

Meanwhile, the pro-A3 campaign’s July report showed $797,801 cash on-hand.  Its large contributions have been five figures, not seven.

MOScout’s Hallway Index: The Next Senate

I asked lobbyists, “Assuming Brattin wins, there will be 13 senators not returning in January. Will the 2027 Senate be more or less functional than the current Senate?” 19 replies…

RESULTS

1. More functional… 5.2%

2. Less functional… 47.4%

3. Depends on leadership races… 47.4%

Sample of Comments

·       It appears to me that Ben Brown jumping into the Pro Tem race is in retaliation to the recent challengers to Nick Schroer for Floor Leader. Hopefully Bean is able to navigate this and keep a functioning Senate.

·       Back to a three party system, but this time the minority leader wants to help burn it all down.

·       Leadership races already have a big impact. Now there's a lot of new faces in the chamber. The other dynamic that SHOULD have an impact on the Senate's functionality... the campaigns being run this summer and fall are attacking incumbents for not listening to constituents. If the members' take stock of this dynamic, it should be much more deliberative.

·       The beginning will be less functional for several reasons, some of which relate to large turnover and new leadership (new chairs, committee rosters etc). If a Pro Tem race is not easily settled, then a further delay could occur. With that said, by spring break they will move back to focusing on their own legislation. There are 25 things that can go wrong with my prediction - I’ll check with Kalshi on my odds.

·       I’m usually an optimist, but it’s Going to be a rough year.

·       It is pretty hard to have a good feel but there are a lot of talented Senators in this class that want to get things done.

Who Won the Week?

Denny Hoskins – The secretary of state lassos two big wins from Judge Daniel Green.  Will they hold at SCOMO? We’ll see…

Quinton Lucas – The Kansas City mayor got an 11-2 council vote advancing the Royals’ downtown stadium package, one of the biggest items on his civic agenda.

Jesus Osete – The former Missouri deputy solicitor general and current DOJ official landed President Trump’s nomination for a lifetime judgeship on the Western District of Missouri federal bench.

Kitty Ratcliffe – The former Explore St. Louis chief made quite a comeback by being appointed to the regional tourism board that had previously pushed her out, replacing a board member who had advocated for her ouster.

The 32 citizens of Gilliam – Residents of the tiny Saline County town needed 31 signatures to force a state audit and collected 32, bringing state auditors in for the city’s first performance audit since 1997.

Find a downloadable version here.

Gubby Appts

Mike Kehoe made a couple appointments…

·       Michael Gott, of Springfield, was appointed to the Air Conservation Commission.

·       James Sterling, of Rolla, was appointed to the Missouri Technology Corporation.

·       Dr. Jamie Renfro, of Bolivar, was appointed to the Missouri State Board of Nursing.

eMailbag on Rural Solar Study

One thing I would note for your readers is that the report does not factor in revenue rural communities receive from tax revenue or Chapter 100 agreements. In Missouri alone, that can amount to an average of $700K a year in each county where these projects are located.

Plus, and I know this is hard to measure since they are private agreements, but landowners are sometimes making six figures off of leasing this land. There's simply no other form of land use that can provide family farms this kind of income.

$5K+ Contributions

Stop the Ban - $3,000,000 from The Fairness Project (Washington, DC).

Stop the Ban - $1,500,000 from Lynn Schusterman (Tulsa, OK).

Forward PAC (pro-Fogle) - $25,000 from Heavy Construction Laborers Local Union #663 PAC.

GPG PAC - $25,000 from J&J Ventures Gaming of Missouri (Effingham, IL).

The Rowdy PAC - $25,000 from J & J Ventures Gaming of Missouri (Effingham, IL).

Project 50 PAC MO - $25,000 from Project 50 PAC (Chicago, IL).

Access MO - $5,230 from Wendy Jo Roemer (Seattle, WA).

MO Independent Bankers Assoc PAC - $6,509 from Bank of Old Monroe.

International Brotherhood of Teamsters Missouri PAC - Federal Committee - $34,695 from International Brotherhood of Teamsters Missouri PAC- Federal Committee (Washington, DC).

MoCannTrade PAC - $15,000 from BD Health Ventures, LLC.

MO DOGE PAC - $7,000 from Beverly PAC.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Kara Corches, Ted House, and Annie Rice.

Sunday: Gordon Kinne.