Schmitt Hires Stevens

The press release: “[I]ncoming Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced Cristian Stevens will serve as Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Litigation.  Stevens also previously served as an assistant United States Attorney for 15 years.  As an assistant U.S. attorney, Stevens prosecuted violent crimes, including homicides, as well as narcotics, white-collar and civil rights violations, from the earliest stages of investigation through appeal.  Currently, Stevens is a partner at Armstrong Teasdale…

In 2014, Stevens spearheaded the federal investigation of the high-profile officer-involved shooting in Ferguson, Missouri.  The investigation’s report has become the definitive account of the shooting.  For his work, Stevens received the U.S. Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service in 2015…. As Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Litigation, Stevens will oversee the criminal litigation divisions of the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, including Medicaid Fraud, Criminal Appeals, and Public Safety.”

What It Means

This is the second big hire from Schmitt, nabbing a lot of experience from the US Attorneys’ Office.   It bodes well for the professionalism that he’s attracting to the office.

Venue Tops Tort Reform Wish List

Among the legislative items that didn’t get passed in the Republicans’ landmark session last year was “venue reform.”  It’s considered to be a top prize for this session among those with tort reform on their agenda.  MOChamber’s Dan Mehan hits the issue in the latest publication of their magazine.  See it here.

Smith Gets Budget

Short-circuiting any prolonged speculation over who would replace Scott Fitzpatrick as House Budget Chair, Speaker Elijah Haahr named Rep. Cody Smith to the post on Friday. 

What It Means

Smith may have a six-year reign in the powerful position. It would provide the House with great stability and increasing expertise and experience, potentially improving their negotiating outcomes with the Senate on budget matter.  But of course, it’s not set in stone.  Some already imagine Smith serving four years as Budget Chair and then hopping over to become speaker…

The Next Budget Problem

Some market watchers believe that the flattening yield curve is signaling vulnerabilities to continued economic growth.  Regardless, the next recession is not a matter of “if,” but “when.”  And the state’s tepid tax revenue collection during these times of solid GDP growth have stirred fears that the next downturn will be particularly difficult on the state budget.

It’s worth revisiting Auditor Nicole Galloway’s “Stress Test” audit from a year ago, January 2018.  See it here.

The Next Domino – House Budget Chair

Talk immediately shifted to the prospects for filling the Budget Chair position.  Rep. Cody Smith was named vice-chair earlier this year, setting him up to take over AFTER Fitz was termed in 2020.  The consensus among Budget Committee watchers I spoke to is that Smith is still the favorite for the job. But other names mentioned are: David Wood, Robert Ross and Kathy Swan.   

Here’s one insider: “Smith probably gets the nod to replace Fitzpatrick [but Wood’s] experience will make Elijah Haahr’s decision tougher than most realize.”

Bax to AFL

Greta Bax, former chief of staff to Jake Hummel, starts today with the Missouri AFL-CIO.  She’ll be taking over the dislocated worker program and the manufacturing apprenticeship programs.  It’s a nice hire as Bax was one of the best staffers in the building.

Schmitt Taps Albus for Top Spot

Word is that Eric Schmitt will be installing Tom Albus as his First Assistant Attorney General.  As First Assistant, Albus will be Schmitt’s top lieutenant.

Albus has served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for 16 years after starting his career with a brief three-year stint at Bryan Cave.

The choice of a non-political career attorney with a wide breadth of prosecutorial experience will likely be cheered by good government folks.

Pro-Parson PAC

Over the past week over $425K has come into Uniting Missouri, the pro-Mike Parson PAC. That brings the total large contributions into the PAC since its inception in July to nearly $1 million.

What It Means

The hallmark of statewide campaigns in the post-Sauer Amendment world is third-party PACs that allow for unlimited campaign contributions.  The candidates can raise money for these PACs, but can’t control them or coordinate with how they spend their money.

Parson raising big money early will lessen the likelihood of a primary challenge.

Catalyst Adds Lobbyist to DC Team

The press release: Danny Pfeifer and Greg Porter today announced Ashley Montenegro is joining Catalyst as a government affairs specialist in the firm's growing multistate and attorneys general practice in Washington, D.C.  She most recently was finance director for the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) and the Rule of Law Defense Fund, RAGA's C4.

“We are excited that Ashley is joining our growing government relations presence in Washington, D.C.,” said Danny Pfeifer, Catalyst founder... 

Montenegro served as the finance director for the Republican Attorneys General Association where she helped quadruple their fundraising totals over the past six years.She is well versed in government relations and political campaigns having managed relationships with more than 400 corporate and individual clients during her career.

Happening Now: CLEAN Changing Behavior

Since CLEAN took effect last week, I’ve bumped into a number of legislators who have implemented systems to segregate their work communications from their personal communications; it’s a sign they’re taking the records retention laws seriously.

This account is no longer active.

Please send personal emails to xxxx@xxxxxxxx.com

Please send all legislative correspondence to xxxxxxxx@senate.mo.gov . Thank you for keeping in touch.

I have updated my cellphone. For all messages concerning state business, please send to XXX-XXX-XXXX. Please update your records. All such communications will be maintained consistent with the retention and transparency requirements provided by law.

Jeremy LaFaver thrashes the Kansas City School District for opposing Mayor Sly James’ proposed sales tax for pre-K.  See his twitter rant here.  “This is terribly disappointing. KCPS is opposing early childhood education because KCPS doesn’t get to EXCLUSIVELY control the entire system. That’s bad for kids. And bad for KC. And selfish.”

Greitens Legal Funds

I did a quick circling back to see if there was an activity in the legal funds that were set up during the height of Eric Greitens’ scandals earlier this year.

The Missouri Legal Defense Fund, which was created to help staffers, showed an expenditure of $183,678 to Graves Garrett LLC on October 25.

The source of the funds came a week earlier from Trusted Leadership PAC.   Trusted Leadership gave $186,569 to the Defense Fund on October 16.

Justus for KC

KC mayoral hopeful Jolie Justus had a fundy last night at Trezo Mare in the Northland.  Tipster says, “Big event… Very well attended, and broad support across party lines.” 

The prospect of Justus becoming mayor of Kansas City cheers KC-ers because she has instant relationships with the governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general having previously served with them in the state senate.  Justus, though liberal, is particularly gifted at connecting with folks regardless of ideology, and forging a compromise they can accept.

·         The Missouri Ethics Commission released its guideline tutorial on CLEAN’s impact.  See it here.  One of the provisions which has received less attention is the slight reduction in campaign contribution limits.  State-wide office holders are not addressed by CLEAN, but the limits for legislators has been lowered from the previous $2,600 level.  The limit for state senators is now $2,500; and it’s $2,000 from state representatives.  These levels will be adjusted for inflation every two years. And there’s a more rigorous framework in CLEAN for prohibiting attempts to circumvent the limits through committees.

Labor Quickly Responds to New RTW Threat

I wrote yesterday (see it here) about KSDK’s report (see that here) that the governor’s staff had researched the feasibility of attempting to pass right to work on a county-by county basis assuming that the statewide effort would fail.

It sent shockwaves through the political world because the 2-1 margin of defeat for RTW had created the assumption that the issue was dead – for a while at least.

Now there’s the prospect of a Plan B floating out there.

Apparently in response, labor leader Mike Louis quickly filed four initiative petitions.  They are variations on the same idea: prohibiting local jurisdictions from implementing right to work.  See one of them here.

What It Means

It raises the specter of another huge labor mobilization in 2020.  That’s not appealing to Republicans regardless of how bravely they talk about the limited damage that they suffered in last month’s election.

Parson Staff Researched County Level RTW

KSDK dropped a humdinger of a report that sent shockwaves through political circles yesterday: “Before the August election even took place, high-level officials within Governor Mike Parson’s office began looking at how to get around the anticipated loss of Prop A.”

Why It Matters

The issue is a livewire because it raises again the tension between right to work and the governor’s agenda.  Right to work is seen by much of the Missouri Republican faithful as a critical economic policy.  But it’s an abomination to organized labor.  And organized labor could be an active and important partner in the governor’s stated economic agenda of workforce development and infrastructure investment.

The notion that the governor is slyly plotting to re-engage on right to work could threaten to alienate a significant ally for his legislative agenda.

Sabato Starts MO Gubby Race At Likely GOP

The widely-followed Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball has started the Missouri 2020 gubernatorial race as a “likely Republican” hold.  Of course, it’s early and things can change, but for Parson it’s a nice initial endorsement of his prospects.

[I]n Missouri, now-former Gov. Eric Greitens (R) resigned under duress earlier this year amidst the fallout of various scandals, putting now-Gov. Mike Parson (R), the separately-elected lieutenant governor, in charge. Ultimately, all three of these governors start as significant favorites, although Parson may have the most to prove given that he was not elected to his current job in his own right.

Follow-Up on Legislature Following Record Retention Law

MATA’s Sharon Jones has written a very sensible and helpful memo about legislators becoming compliant with the sunshine and records retention laws. Spoiler: you shouldn’t be willy-nilly deleting emails. See it here.

There are two key things to recognize about this language. First, each individual Senator and Representative is responsible for making an office policy, maintaining their own active records, and responding to Sunshine Requests made to their office. Second, the amendment applies existing law to legislative records rather than creating a new open records law specifically for that type of record. Applying current law means that many of the questions and concerns that a legislator may ask have already been addressed by another State entity that maintains records under the same law. Being the custodian of their own records means that an individual Senator or Representative has significant control over the policy that will be followed by their office.

Changing the IP Process

I’ve written before that there’s been talk among Republicans about tightening up the initiative petition process.  This past year saw right to work reversed by referendum, as well as the minimum wage increase, medical marijuana, and the CLEAN Missouri reforms pass by IP.

·         David Sater’s SB5 makes changes to the process. But so does his SJR1 which would increase the number of signatures as well as the vote margin required for a constitutional amendment to pass.

·         Mike Cierpiot’s SJR7 requires signatures collected in every Congressional district

·         Eric Burlison’s SJR 11 does too, as well as the higher margin for passage.           

Bruns Takes New Job

In the lobbyists registration changes Mark Bruns is shedding many clients.  One tipster says the reason is because Bruns is taking a new position created by the various police organizations (STLPOA, State FOP, KCFOP).  He will be their Legislative Director.

Bruns is a former state representative.