Protect Missouri Freedom Gets $500K

On Thursday the Carpenters Union PAC, CHIPP, gave $400,000 to Protect Missouri Freedom.And Missouri WIN sent $100K on the same day.

DougPAC Gets $100K

In the large contributions, DougPAC received a little over $100,000 from the Sheet Metal Workers Union.

DougPAC is supporting Democrat Doug Beck in Senate 1 where Sen. Scott Sifton is termed.

Haahr Strikes Back

In a power move, the House adjourned from special session yesterday without even debating several of the pending pieces of legislation from the governor’s anti-crime package.

What To Watch Today

The House and Senate will convene at Noon for Veto Session, and then reconvene again a few hours later to finish of the special session.

Parson Campaign Releases First TV Ad

Governor Mike Parson’s candidate committee released its first TV ad.

It’s entitled “Quarterback,” and features the wife of Rep. Jeff Shawan extolling Parson’s response to the COVID crisis.

Parson is all masked up in the commercial.

COVID Is No Longer a “City Thing”

COVID has spread out across Missouri. In the early phase it spread quickly in the densely populated urban areas. Rural Missouri was able to largely ignore the virus without consequence. That’s changed. Despite the natural advantage of a more spread out populace, COVID now is just as prevalent across Missouri rural communities as it is in the cities.

1. Chiefs!

2. HUGE gulf between Trump and Biden voters on “identity” issues.

3. Art of the deal breaker?

4. COVID moves beyond the cities.

5. COVID drinking.

6. Tougher to get ahead.

7. Red Panda defense.

Driving the Night: Truman Dinner

MO Dems’ big gala, the Truman Dinner is tonight. It’s virtual. Here’s the line-up of speeches:

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver

Rep. Vicki Englund

Mr. Rich Finneran

Mr. Yinka Faleti

Councilwoman Alissia Canady

Ms. Cori Bush

Sen. Jill Schupp

Auditor Nicole Galloway

Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey

Tilley Hires Brown

Steven Tilley announced that his firm, Strategic Capitol Consulting, was hiring Travis Brown and Tracy King.

Travis will help grow SCC’s footprint nationally and in Washington. He has over 20 years of experience and government affairs experience in almost half of the 50 states. Prior to joining SCC, Travis founded government affairs and lobbying firm First Rule…

Tracy will focus on tax issues, economic development, local government, and education. She brings extensive experience in issue advocacy and legislative initiatives on topics such as tax, budget policy, economic development, education, transportation, energy and tort reform.

Lou Brock, Stan Musial, and Two Mickey Mantles

Press release: Missouri State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick returned approximately $30,000 worth of baseball and other sports cards to a St. Charles resident this morning. The cards, including a Lou Brock rookie card, a signed Stan Musial card, and two Mickey Mantle cards, were found in a safe deposit box that was turned over to the unclaimed property division… The collection returned today contained approximately 100 baseball and basketball cards.

Sinquefield Reaction

The Missouri political world reacted to news that Rex Sinquefield had dropped his longtime lobbyist Travis Brown.

Most people I spoke to viewed it like a California earthquake: for years, they’d been 100% sure it would happen, but they were totally surprised the day it actually occurred.

WWTHD? (What Will The House Do?)

The expectation is that we’ll get some clarity from House leadership about how they plan to proceed (or not proceed) with the jurisdiction bill which the Senate passed last week.

Look for some indication by the end of the week

St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has her general election in November. An independent PAC has been formed to support her Republican opponent, Daniel Zdrodowski. The PAC is Reasonable People For Justice. Its treasurer is Nick Calcaterra.

Senate PQs Jurisdiction

After hours of a Democratic filibuster, the Senate’s Republican majority used the PQ to push through the controversial provision giving Attorney General Eric Schmitt some jurisdiction in St. Louis City murder cases.

Uniting MO Unveils Three New Ads

Uniting Missouri unveiled three new ads, hitting their same themes.

· One is the relative of a victim of violent crime who is “tired of soft on crime politicians” so isn’t supporting Nicole Galloway. See it here.

· One is a businessman who appreciates Parson’s efforts on workforce training. See it here.

· And the third shows a disintegrating society and says Galloway is “standing with those who want to completely abolish our local police departments.” See it here.

Court Rewrite CLEANER Again

The Western District Court of Appeals rewrote the CLEANER ballot language yet again. The latest reworking is more favorable to the proponents of the proposal, but still not as advantageous as the original language put forth by the legislature.

The state’s COVID numbers continue to go in the wrong directions.

· Hospitalizations are now touching the 1,000 mark. It had been in the 500-600 range back in May and June.

· The positivity rate is over 12%.

· And the cases are spreading out across Missouri and hitting rural counties now.

1. Americans self-identified party affiliation

2. Trump approval / disapproval

3. Generic ballot

4. Electoral map based on history

5. The crisis didn’t unify

6. Consumer spending starting to cool

7. How to gerrymander

8. Map of racial inequality

9. Hard to keep the band together

Watson Passes

John Watson, who served as Governor Jay Nixon’s chief of staff, died. In 2015, he was appointed State Auditor to fill out the term of Tom Schweich. And then later he headed up the Missouri State Employees Retirement System.

JeffCo Gets Mask Mandate

The virus remains an electoral wildcard. It’s just not knowable what things will look like in two months when people line up at polling places.