Jetton Marries
On Facebook, former Speaker Rod Jetton shares news of his recent nuptials… “Yesterday, I married the beautiful and kind Shen Wang. She has brought so much happiness into my life the last three years and now we can enjoy life together as we walk through this world arm in arm!!”

UAW’s Region 5 To Disband
Post-Dispatch reports that the “United Auto Workers is abolishing its western regional office, headquartered here, in the wake of embezzlement allegations against top union officials.”

Polsinelli Beefs Up Hallway Team
Polsinelli is adding two more to their team of lobbyists ahead of the upcoming legislative session. Joan Gummels and Cara Alexander registered to represent Polsinelli’s roster of clients.

Four Rivers PAC was formed. This is an independent PAC supporting Rep. Aaron Griesheimer. Griesheimer is a freshman, so it’s not clear where his political path leads – House leadership? Senate race? County level race? But many of the politically savvy freshmen have been setting these PACs up now to be able to raise money regardless of what their future holds.

Here Come the CLEANERs
Three Republican senators have filed joint resolutions to reverse the redistricting potion of 2018’s CLEAN Missouri plan. They all follow the playbook used successfully by CLEAN: pair something very popular with an “inside baseball” redistricting change which would have substantial partisan impact.

Webber Returns to MO
Jake Hummel on Facebook announces… “The National AFL-CIO has started a new program to recruit and train union members to run for political office. It has been extremely successful so far. We are happy to expand this program to Missouri. To that end I’m excited to announce that we have hired Stephen Webber as our new Path to Power coordinator!

Driving the Day
Pre-filing of bills starts today…
And
Might as well mark your calendars if you haven’t already.
• First day of session is January 8.
• Spring Break is March 23-27.
• Final day of session is May 15.

The Sight’em Beforehand…
Tipster: Seen having lunch Tuesday at Madison’s before Gov. Parson filed paperwork at the Secretary of State’s office to put Trump on the Missouri ballot: Parson Campaign Manager Steele Shippy, Trump campaign Regional Director Dave Huguenel, and consultant Gregg Keller.

Seeking MO Fellows

An RFP issued last week seeks “a contractor to provide three fellows to assist State of Missouri departments with strategic data initiative projects to include: 1) data infrastructure, 2) standardizing benefit payment systems, and 3) using data to improve statewide program performance and strategy, as set forth herein.”   See the RFP here.

Otto for Commish
News Tribune reports that “Harry Otto announced his candidacy Friday for Cole County Western District commissioner. He will run as a Republican.”
Otto served as Tom Schweich’s deputy state auditor, and then served in various capacities around the capitol before his retirement.

MOScout/Remington Poll: Emerging Industries
This week I asked questions about Missourians perspective of emerging industries and how technology is changing the economy. The poll shows that Missourians are skeptical about the new economy…
Q2: When you think about tech giants like Facebook and Google, do you think that industry needs more government oversight and regulation OR needs less government oversight and regulation?
Needs more government oversight and regulation: 65%
Needs less government oversight and regulation: 25%
Fine the way it is: 10%

Page Kicks Off

The mighty Jason Rosenbaum reports on St. Louis County Executive Sam Page launching his re-election bid.  See it here.

Patterson to UDP

Matt Patterson is leaving Missouri, and heading to Utah where he will be the Executive Director of the Utah Democratic Party. Patterson has been Policy Advisor at Renew Missouri since 2017.

Docs Declare War on Vaping

The AMA will “urgently advocate for regulatory, legislative, and/or legal action at the federal and/or state levels to ban the sale and distribution of all e-cigarette and vaping products, with the exception of those approved by the FDA for tobacco cessation purposes and made available by prescription only.”

See the press release here.

Cunningham Hearts Eslinger

Incumbent Sen. Mike Cunningham endorsed Rep. Karla Eslinger in Senate 33.

·         It gives Eslinger’s nascent campaign a boost.

• But, as MOScout/Remington polling has shown across all Republican Senate primaries, the incumbents are nowhere near as popular with primary voters as President Donald Trump.

• Specifically, from a Senate 33 poll of Republican primary voters, Cunningham had a net favorability of +25% (with 51% having no opinion). Trump had a net favorability of +71%.

Schmitt RAGA

At the Republican Attorneys General Association’s winter meeting over the weekend, Attorney General Eric Schmitt was elected to the seven-person executive board which oversees the organization. He is the youngest member on the exec board.

Big Check Friday

Two big checks were recorded Friday.

First, Rex Sinquefield tossed $250K into the Pro-Mike Kehoe PAC, American Dream PAC.  Kehoe still doesn’t have a declared Democratic opponent. 

Second, Washington University added $250K to Missourians for Healthcare.  That’s the committee for the Medicaid Expansion campaign.

The Once and Future State Rep?

Word is that former Rep. Joe Adams is considering a run at his old seat, House 86.  He vacated it to run for state senate, losing to Sen. Brian Williams.

The current incumbent, Rep. Maria Chappelle-Nadal is term limited

Driving the Day: Scism Kicks Off

Kent Scism kicks off his campaign for Senate 3 today.

The press release: Scism grew up on a farm and raised livestock from an early age. His father built a Ford tractor dealership and later purchased a Ford Motor Company dealership when Kent was young. Kent started working for his father’s dealership at the age of 13, where he spent his evenings and weekends washing cars, sweeping floors, and doing every task imaginable.

Very Good News for Trump

With the impeachment hearing starting today, Republicans can cheer that the macroeconomic picture is brightening.  Axios Markets reports that recession fear have “vanished.”  This eliminates one of the greatest potential weakness that Republicans could have faced in the upcoming election year.

Investors have done a complete 180-degree turn in sentiment, moving from distrustful of the market's 2019 gains to full-fledged cheerleaders.