Yesterday, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C121403 07/27/2012 RGA MISSOURI PAC Republican Governors Association 1747 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Ste. 250 Washington DC 20006 7/27/2012 $250,000.00

[emphasis added]

They’ll always have all the money they’ll ever need.

Yesterday, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

CONTRIBUTION OF MORE THAN $5,000.00 RECEIVED BY ANY COMMITTEE FROM ANY SINGLE DONOR – TO BE FILED WITHIN 48 HOURS OF RECEIVING THE CONTRIBUTION

C051254 [pdf] MCGHEE FOR SENATE 7/27/2012

Missouri Club for Growth PAC

P.O. Box 2068

St Louis, MO 63158 7/26/2012

$69,665.00

IN-KIND

[emphasis added]

It’s gotta be mail. A lot of mail.

CONTRIBUTION OF MORE THAN $5,000.00 RECEIVED BY ANY COMMITTEE FROM ANY SINGLE DONOR – TO BE FILED WITHIN 48 HOURS OF RECEIVING THE CONTRIBUTION

C010192 [pdf] PEARCE FOR SENATE 7/27/2012

Realtors Political Action Comm MO

P.O. BOX 30635

Columbia, MO 65203 7/27/2012

$11,186.76

IN-KIND

[emphasis added]

Yep, it’s gotta be mail.

When the special interests fight for control, the voters and Democracy get trampled.

One has to wonder what the old style republican corporatists are thinking now that the right wingnut crazies are the dominant force of nature in their world. It’ alive, it must be fed, and they helped create it.

Pass the popcorn.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: Missouri Club for Growth going all in for the right wingnut senate caucus (July 20, 2012)

Mail: If you’ve seen one republican candidate driving a tractor in the 21st Senate District… (July 18, 2012)

Campaign Finance: David Pearce (r) and Mike McGhee (r) – July quarterly reports (July 16, 2012)

Campaign Finance: a sign on every lawn (July 16, 2012)

Campaign Finance: Missouri Club for Growth really likes Mike McGhee (r)… (July 13, 2012)

Campaign Finance: dueling checks – the republican primary in the 21st Senate District (July 9, 2012)

Campaign Finance: Sen. David Pearce (r) in the 21st Senate District – gonna need more signs (July 5, 2012)

Campaign Finance: five more an it’d be a right wingnut dozen (July 2, 2012)

Campaign Finance: somebody doesn’t like Sen. David Pearce (r) (June 30, 2012)

Someone who really likes payday loans has kicked in almost two million dollars.

Yesterday, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C111153 07/26/2012 MISSOURIANS FOR EQUAL CREDIT OPPORTUNITY Missourians for Responsible Government P O Box 45571 Kansas City MO 64171 7/26/2012 $210,000.00

[emphasis added]

That’s $1,833.900.00 from the same entity since January 2012. Why not make it an even two million? Just asking.

They’ll have all the money they need.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: another payday loan jackpot (June 11, 2012)

Campaign Finance: payday loans – all in (April 25, 2012)

Campaign Finance: Orwell would be so proud – part 2 (April 23, 2012)

Campaign Finance: Orwell would be so proud (April 12, 2012)

Campaign Finance: pouring even more money into defending payday loans (March 22, 2012)

Campaign Finance: if your name was Payday Loans you’d be in the money (March 2, 2012)

Campaign Finance: the payday loan campaign contribution broken record continues… (January 6, 2012)

Campaign Finance: Payday loans get the big bucks, again – part 2 (November 10, 2011)

Campaign Finance: Payday loans get the big bucks, again (September 27, 2011)

Campaign Finance: Isn’t that interest(ing)? (August 24, 2011)

Campaign Finance: big bucks for a payday loan PAC (August 20, 2011)

Yesterday, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C121244 07/26/2012 FRED SAUER GOVERNOR Fred Sauer 454 Hammersmith Road St Louis MO 63141 Orion Investment Company 7/26/2012 $80,000.00

[emphasis added]

That’s $415,000.00 in self funding since April, $205,000.00 in July alone.

That’s not a particularly grassrootsie kind of way to raise campaign cash.

This is Missouri. It could happen. Sort of. Maybe.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: Governor- July quarterly reports (July 18, 2012)

Campaign Finance: it’s all in how much you self fund (July 18, 2012)

Campaign Finance: it’s all in how much you self fund, part 2 (July 120, 2012)

Talking Points Memo informed us a couple of days ago that most of the GOP House contingent is willing to bring on a government shutdown in order to stymie the implementation of Obamacare:

In a letter (PDF) dated July 18, some 127 House GOP lawmakers urged Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) not to permit “any legislation” to come to the floor that includes Affordable Care Act implementation funds. The implied message: shut down the government unless Democrats agree to defund President Obama’s signature law.

Missouri House members who signed the letter (pdf):  Todd Akin (R-2); Vicky Hartzler (R-4); Billy Long (R-7); Sam Graves (R-6) and Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-9). Conspicuous by her absence on this list is Jo Ann Emmerson (R-8). Either she’s got more sense than the other GOPers or she was absent the day the letter was shopped around.

Of course last time that these clowns played the economic brinksmanship game they cost the country $1.3 billion dollars and damaged its credit rating – all to avoid raising tax rates a few paltry percentage points for our wealthiest citizens. Now they’re willing to do the same thing in order to indulge their spite against the Affordable Care Act.

But wait – these guys aren’t quite as stupid as they seem. Today, we learn that while they don’t plan on backing down in the long run, they are willing to delay their temper tantrum until after the election when they’ll no longer have to answer to the constituents their ideological rigidity would have quite correctly angered:

House conservatives urged Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) to back a stopgap spending bill that would extend into 2013 and take the issue of government funding off the table during the election and the jammed lame-duck session this fall.

Odds are that Boehner will go along with this demand because, as TPM puts it, he “must either subdue his right-wing members long enough to get through the election, or place his party’s November hopes in serious jeopardy.”

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C091081 07/25/2012 MISSOURIANS AGAINST HIGHER UTILITY RATES Missourians for Low Energy Costs PO Box 1521 Jefferson City MO 65102 7/23/2012 $275,000.00

Against higher utility rates or for low energy costs? Decisions, decisions.

And they were doing so well before this latest infusion of cash:

C091081: Missourians Against Higher Utility Rates

Information Reported On: 2012 – July Quarterly Report

Beginning Money on Hand $434.21

Monetary Receipts + $0.00

Monetary Expenditures – $5.00

Contributions Made – $0.00

Other Disbursements – $0.00

Subtotal     ($5.00)

Ending Money On Hand   $429.21

[emphasis added]

That’s no typo.

So much for transparency.

Missourians for Low Energy Costs? Where have we seen that name?:

Missourians for Low Energy Costs Legal

Non-Profit Corporation – Domestic – Information

Charter Number: N01243043

Status: Good Standing

Entity Creation Date: 7/19/2012

State of Business.: MO

Expiration Date: Perpetual

Last Registration Report Filed Date:

Last Registration Report Filed: 0

Registered Agent

Agent Name: BCRA CO.

Office Address: 221 Bolivar Street, Suite 101

Jefferson City MO 65101

Yep, they’re a brand spanking new 501 (c)(4).

And, according to the paperwork at the Missouri Secretary of State’s office their incorporator is a Connie B. Walsh of St. Louis, Missouri.

Teresa Hensley, Cass County Prosecutor and the Democratic party candidate in the 4th Congressional District, has her first television ad out today:

[Ron Eads, father of Ruth Eads]

Ronald Eads: My daughter was with her boyfriend. He decided that he wanted to party a little bit and he, uh, wrecked the car, killed her.

[Ruth Eads (1988-2007)]

When it’s time to be firm Teresa wasn’t afraid of that high falutin’ lawyer. She’s always about getting things done.

[Teresa Hensley, Prosecutor, Cass County, MO]

Teresa Hensley: As Prosecutor you don’t get to choose your battles. I know how to take on a tough fight and win. I do it every day.

We need that in Washington, taking on tough fights and getting results for Missouri families.

I’m Teresa Hensley and I approve this message.

There is a big difference.

Up for one more interactive chart? This newest one is an interactive data wheel, prepared by the Annie E. Casey Foundation as part of its 2012 Kids Count Data Book. It compares the well-being of children by state.

Want to know how the welfare of Missouri’s children ranks compared to the other fifty states? Look no further:

–General well being:  26th

–Economic well being: 21st

–Education: 24th

–Health: 33rd

–Family and Community: 27th

Middling to low on all measures, which does not bode well for the future of the state. Particularly note that while our GOP legislators are throwing tantrums about Obamacare, refusing to implement health care exchanges, and otherwise making asses out of themselves, the provisions that we now have in place for our children’s health are ranked 17th from the bottom. There’s lots that could be said here about how our de facto GOP leadership (our governor, Jay Nixon, is a Democrat but has little appetite for losing battles) has short-changed average Missourians while fighting tooth-and-nail to keep tax rates low for businesses and wealthy Missourians.

It’s true, of course that states like Alabama and Mississippi are ranked much lower than Missouri, but since the the philosophy of government embodied by the leadership of most of the eleven states with the lowest overall rankings* is similar to that of our home state GOP (the case with nine out of eleven of the lowest ranked states), we should maybe start worrying that it’s only a matter of time. Note, especially, that Texas, usually alluded to by Republicans in terms of the “Texas Miracle” because its supposed prosperity is the result of a GOP-defined, “business friendly” climate, is ranked 44th in terms of the general welfare of its children.

If you want to see how the criteria determining the rankings were evaluated, check the complete Data Book report.

* The eleven lowest ranked States:  Oklahoma (40); California (41); Arkansas (42); South Carolina (43); Texas (44); Alabama (45); Arizona (46); Louisiana (47); Nevada (48); New Mexico (49); Mississippi (50).