GM’s Big $$$

Last week General Motors announced its “decision to invest $1.5 billion and retain nearly 4,000 jobs at its Wentzville facility.”  See the Post-Dispatch article here.

What It Means

·         This plays into Governor Mike Parson’s strength.

·         A re-election campaign with the economy as its centerpiece.

Survey conducted December 10 through December 11, 2019. 1,266 likely 2020 General Election voters participated in the survey. Survey weighted to match expected turnout demographics for the 2020 General Election. Margin of Error is +/-2.75%.

Q1: Senate Bill 635 repeals the death penalty for first degree murder. Any person previously sentenced to death will instead be sentenced to life in jail without parole.

Favor: 30% 

Oppose: 53%  

Not sure: 17%  

Driving the Day: GM Announcement
Governor Mike Parson will join General Motors (GM) President Mark Reuss, government officials, and community leaders for a major announcement at the Wentzville Assembly and Stamping Plant.

Next Session Preview
We’re weeks away from the new legislative session. With few exceptions, it looks like the coming session will be dominated by many of the same issues as previous session. On most of these topics the battle lines remain the same and calculus has not changed significantly.

Eslinger Adds $150K to Campaign
Rep. Karla Eslinger added $150,000 to her Senate campaign committee. She’s running in Senate 33 in a three-way Republican primary to replace termed Sen. Mike Cunningham.
This infusion levels the early money race between the candidates.

Driving the Day
Oral arguments at the Missouri Supreme Court this morning have Department of Social Services appealing a circuit court ruling that an appropriations bill which targeted abortion facilities was unconstitutional.

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.