Eric Greitens (r) filed the quarterly campaign finance report for his exploratory gubernatorial committee with the Missouri Ethics Commission on April 15, 2015.

Missouri Ethics Commission

GREITENS FOR MISSOURI [pdf]

4/15/2015

2. All Monetary Contributions Received This Period $479,689.00

14. Total Expenditures This Election $27,789.94

27. Money On Hand at the close of this reporting period $456,088.23

[emphasis added]

The contributions:

MISSOURI ETHICS COMMISSION

CONTRIBUTIONS AND LOANS RECEIVED

GREITENS FOR MISSOURI [pdf]

4/15/2015

11. TOTAL CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED AT FUND-RAISERS AS REPORTED INLINE 8 ON FORM CD1A $0.00

12. TOTAL ANONYMOUS CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM PERSON GIVING $25 OR LESS $0.00

13. TOTAL MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM PERSONS GIVING $100 OR LESS $0.00

14. TOTAL IN-KIND CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM PERSONS (NOT COMMITTEES) GIVING $100 OR LESS $0.00

Eric & Sheena Greitens 2/24/2015 $50,000.00

Jeff & Susan Stuerman 2/25/2015 $25,000.00

Mark & Paula Bobak 2/25/2015 $25,000.00

Ken Harbaugh 3/4/2015 $5,001.00

Frank Kavanaugh 3/4/2015 $50,000.00

Benjamin Durham 3/4/2015 $2,500.00

Sean McLaughlin 3/4/2015 $1,000.00

Scott Glabe 3/4/2015 $50.00

August Busch III 3/5/2015 $50,000.00

Greggory Favre 3/9/2015 $1,000.00

Ralph Coti 3/9/2015 $249.00

Monu Joseph 3/9/2015 $15,000.00

Gray Arch Income Property 3/9/2015 $10,000.00

Robert Lee Reffkin 3/10/2015 $500.00

Eric Karlovic 3/10/2015 $25,000.00

John C. Hauck 3/11/2015 $100,000.00

Tim and Janet Chestnut 3/11/2015 $5,000.00

Tim Noonan 3/13/2015 $25,000.00

Paul Eisenstein 3/13/2015 $150.00

Terry Scariot 3/16/2015 $10,000.00

Kathleen Harbaugh 3/19/2015 $5,500.00

George H. Walker III 3/23/2015 $1,000.00

Gregg Berdy 3/25/2015 $300.00

Karen Meara 3/25/2015 $25,000.00

George H. Walker III 3/25/2015 $10,000.00

William Coppel 3/25/2015 $5,000.00

Rodney and Silvette Bullard 3/26/2015 $5,001.00

Marsha Koski 3/27/2015 $25.00

A. Robert Greitens 3/27/2015 $25.00

Rebecca Greitens 3/27/2015 $25.00

Keith Pellegrini 3/31/2015 $1,000.00

Terry Franc 3/31/2015 $5,000.00

John Crowley 3/31/2015 $10,000.00

Tom Borda 3/31/2015 $100.00

Mason Fink 3/31/2015 $10,000.00

Sally Coleman 3/31/2015 $1,000.00

Nancy Martin 3/31/2015 $1,000.00

Paul Turkeltaub 3/31/2015 $100.00

Michael Martinich-Sauer 3/31/2015 $163.00

[emphasis added]

That’s thirty-nine contributions from thirty-eight individuals or couples.

Contributions to Eric Greitens’ (r) exploratory gubernatorial campaign up to March 31, 2015.

Fifteen of the thirty-nine contributions were for $10,000.00 or more. Twenty-one of the thirty-nine contributions were for $5,000.00 or more. Twenty-eight of the contributions were for $1,000.00 or more. Four contributions were under $100.00.

Contributions of $10,000.00 or more constituted 91.93% of the total raised.

603,260 557,406 people voted in the 2012 republican gubernatorial primary.  

Previously:

Campaign Finance: There is another? (February 25, 2015)

Campaign Finance: a little bit more (February 26, 2015)

Campaign Finance: A new bandwagon? (March 6, 2015)

Campaign Finance: but wait, there’s more (March 10, 2015)

Campaign Finance: that’ll help finance a whole lot of exploring (March 12, 2015)

Campaign Finance: it’s going to be a good quarter (March 16, 2015)

Campaign Finance: still exploring (March 17, 2015)

Campaign Finance: gone quiet (March 21, 2015)

Campaign Finance: not quiet at all (March 25, 2015)

Campaign Finance: eat mor chikin (March 26, 2015)

The stenographer: Ah, for the good old days… (March 28, 2015)

Campaign Finance: in under the wire (April 1, 2015)

Campaign Finance: all in today (April 9, 2015)

Campaign Finance: far afield (April 13, 2015)

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r), along with her congressional cohort, voted to repeal the estate tax.

Why are Republicans trying to repeal the estate tax? It’s their nature.

By Paul Waldman April 17 at 12:46 PM

Yesterday, the House voted to repeal the estate tax, apparently in the belief that the American public needed a reminder that the Republican Party is the party of the wealthy. I’ll get to why the arguments they make about this issue are either problematic or just factually wrong (depending on which argument you’re talking about), but as a political decision, holding this vote seems rather foolish….

….And what about those family farms Republicans are always talking about, the ones that are constantly being sold off to pay the estate taxes? They’re a myth. When The Post’s fact-checker Glenn Kessler was doing his estate tax fact check, he asked the office of John Thune, the sponsor of the Senate version of repeal, about the farms we keep hearing about. “Thune’s staff conceded that they could not identify a single farm that had been sold because of the estate tax, but they said some farms had to sell acreage in order to pay the tax.” Nobody else seems to be able to find one, either. You’ll notice that when Republicans talk about this, they always posit a hypothetical family farm being sold off and not “My constituents the Millers had to sell off their farm,” because the Millers are the equivalent of a unicorn. According to the Department of Agriculture, in 2013 only .6 percent – or 1 in 167 – of the estates of farmers who died owed any estate tax at all.

Because of that large exemption, currently at $5.43 million, the numbers for all estates are even smaller. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, “In 2013, the most recent year for which final numbers are available, there were 2.6 million deaths in the United States, and 4,700 estate tax returns reporting some tax liability were filed. Thus, taxable estate tax returns represented approximately one-fifth of one percent of deaths in 2013….”

Still, via Twitter, Representative Hartzler (r) was ever so proud of her intended vote:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

Today the House votes to repeal the #DeathTax It kills jobs & hurts economy. It’s time to repeal. #DeathTaxRepeal 6:30 AM – 16 Apr 2015

Much hilarity ensued in some of the social media responses:

Fake Vicky Hartzler ‏@VickiHartzler

.@RepHartzler The only job the “death tax” might kill is the number of dog-sitters that Paris Hilton can afford to hire. 7:24 AM – 16 Apr 2015

SoDakian ‏@SoDakda

@VickiHartzler Since you put it that way, I guess I do feel pretty sorry for the Hilton dogs. 7:32 AM – 16 Apr 2015

B Yates ‏@OldDrum

@VickiHartzler @RepHartzler And, how do plan to replace the taxes we lose when the Sinquefield heirs pay no taxes on his estate? 7:39 AM – 16 Apr 2015

B Yates ‏@OldDrum

@VickiHartzler @RepHartzler What “family” business has been broken up by taxing the extremely wealthy? Just name one. 7:40 AM – 16 Apr 2015

Fake Vicky Hartzler ‏@VickiHartzler

@OldDrum @RepHartzler Uhhh, uuhhhhh, um, well, uh…….. 7:46 AM – 16 Apr 2015

Dan Webster ‏@RevWeb

@RepHartzler @SpeakerBoehner And it will just make the rich, richer. Really? When did you lose the concept of the common good? 8:07 AM – 16 Apr 2015

Ron Powell ‏@diogeron

@RepHartzler @SpeakerBoehner “Death tax” out of Orwell. <.05% pay estate tax. Only affects couples w >$10 million. Help the middle class 8:08 AM – 16 Apr 2015

Richard Badalamente ‏@Nimasema

@RepHartzler @SpeakerBoehner Only 0.2 percent of #VERYrich Americans will owe the tax in 2015. Stop widening #wealthgap. 8:16 AM – 16 Apr 2015

Linda ‏@SudokuG

@RepHartzler @SpeakerBoehner You do know that hardly anyone believes this, except for those who benefit by association with the rich? 8:17 AM – 16 Apr 2015

Fake Vicky Hartzler ‏@VickiHartzler

Won’t somebody think of the trust fund babies!!! If we don’t repeal the death tax, Paris Hilton will only have 6 homes! @RepHartzler 8:19 AM – 16 Apr 2015

Katherine Hull ‏@katspeek

@RepHartzler @SpeakerBoehner That’sWhatCreates TrustFundBabies & Future”New Money”Brats w/o ANY Aristocratic”Noblesse Oblige”Moral Guides 8:20 AM – 16 Apr 2015

David Bluefeather ‏@Plumazul

@RepHartzler so how many people paid an #estatetax last year? Why are you lying to the American People? @SpeakerBoehner #NeoFeudalism 8:21 AM – 16 Apr 2015

Fake Vicky Hartzler ‏@VickiHartzler

If we don’t repeal the death tax, @MittRomney’s sons may have to actually get jobs (firing people). @RepHartzler 8:34 AM – 16 Apr 2015

Interestingly, neither Paris Hilton nor Rex Sinquefield live in the district.

So how do we know that Obamacare is a success? There’s all the standard measures: enrollment numbers, decreases in uninsured, stable or dropping medical costs, deficit savings, etc. – which are all looking great, by the way. And then there’s Kit Bond’s recent Op-Ed in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

An editorial note at the end of the post, notes that Bond’s lobbying firm has taken on the thankless task of promoting the Obamacare Medicare expansion – an expansion that the obdurate, anti-Obama, ideologically-blindered State Legislature just won’t countenance (if you listen carefully you just might hear the sound of tiny stamping feet and spluttering screams of “no, no, we won’t, you can’t make us” echoing off in the distance). The Op-Ed reveals Bond’s strategy for dealing with the ferocious anti-Obama-on-funny-but-misguided-principle crowd in and out of the legislature: pretend that Medicaid expansion has nothing to do with the loathsome program.

The first thing you will note about the Op-Ed is it’s evasiveness. It only mentions the Medicaid expansion once, near the end of the piece, and only equates it with the Obamacare legislation obliquely. Instead, Bond, cleverly cries a few tears over the problem of hospital closings in Missouri, problems he attributes mostly to “Obamacare-mandated cuts in funds hospitals receive for uncompensated care – the care hospitals are required by law to provide regardless of folks’ ability to pay.”

Since Bond knows his audience very well, he fails to point out that these hospital closings could far more honestly be attributed to the failure of the legislature to accept the Medicaid expansion funds offered through Obamacare, funds for care which was intended to take the place of the emergency room as the main mechanism for care of the uninsured and so offset the loss of federal emergency care dollars – and emergency room care is, incidentally, a far more costly and inefficient way of dealing with the uninsured than granting insurance through Medicaid. Aren’t Republicans supposed to be the financially responsible ones?

Instead Bond argues that the answer to the loss of these funds is to enable hospital mergers as a way to keep the hospitals pinched by the loss of emergency room funds functioning in underserved communities. And then he decries the fact that the Federal Trade Commisison (FTC) review process, which has the power to okay or deep-six a proposed merger, is, guess what, thorough. Or, the short version, the FTC does what it’s supposed to do and Bond knows that that gets his intended audience hot under the collar because, you know, big government:

Despite helping to create the problem for hospitals with expensive new mandates and cuts to reimbursements, the federal government is now making it difficult for these hospitals to deploy this private-sector solution. Currently, the Federal Trade Commission is moving painfully slow to evaluate any proposed merger or system expansion. Reviewing applications through the narrow lens of a century-old anti-trust law, the FTC is taking months or even years of bureaucratic analysis to approve these hospital partnerships – often too late for a community on the brink of losing its only hospital and largest employer.

Despite Bond’s anti-Obamacare, anti-FTC song-and-dance, Obamacare has actually been fueling hospital consolidation. But, Bond’s encomium to the merged entity that became  BJC HealthCare in the St. Louis area offers only one view of the possible outcomes of such mergers. Ill-considered consolidations have the potential to raise consumer prices, create physical access problems, as well as barriers to access to reproductive health services. As an article in Becker’s Hospital Review points out, there are a number of factors that determine whether a merger will be benign or harmful. Hence the FTC review process. It’s there to protects us, the consumers of health services – something Republicans don’t seem to understand or care about.

But of course, this whole, lengthy argument is not the real point of Bond’s Op-Ed, and is stealthily followed by this little tidbit:

Inaction by legislators in Jefferson City is also putting our health care safety net in Missouri at risk. State Sen. Ryan Silvey, R-Kansas City, has proposed a solution to reform our state’s Medicaid program that would increase access to care for hardworking Missourians, protect our health care safety net in rural and urban communities, and safeguard the state’s budget.

Unfortunately, anger over Obamacare has confused the issue, and right now, legislators are refusing to consider this common-sense solution … .

Senator Silvey’s proposal? Simply a way to try to make Obamacare Medicaid expansion somewhat palatable to the GOP heads-up-their-backsides contingent of the state lege. Such expansion, all by itself, could take care of the squeeze that the loss of federal emergency room dollars creates for hospitals. But – and here’s the magic of Bond’s rhetoric – in this article, it’s been aligned with “common-sense,” GOP-acceptable solutions to healthcare problems that Bond alleges to have been caused by that big winger bogey, big government, including – wait for it – Obamacare itself. One could read this article and leave persuaded that Silvey’s proposals have nothing to do with Obamacare and are only exciting opposition because the tentacles of evil Obamacare have confused the thinking of the poor souls in the Missouri capital.

Wow! Talk about tangled logic. Kit Bond, I salute you.

What this tells us is that conservatives who are capable of distinguishing their front from their backsides, know that Obamacare is a success and that now is the time to get Missouri in on it and let Missourians share that success. The deviousness of this piece of casuistry also reaffirms that reasonable conservatives also understand the real reason that Missourians don’t have this benefit – unbalanced, hysterical hatred of Barack Obama on the part of GOPers who can’t accept the failure of the dream of the conservative Reich that took root during the Bush years, and on the part of constituents who either fear and hate the black man in the white house, mostly because of that black-white dichotomy, or who credulously swallow all the nonsense their Foxified leaders have been spewing in their war against the godless, socialist Kenyan and his Nazi hordes.

And the funny thing? Politicians like Bond were more than willing to fan this hysterical fervor; they thought it was their ticket back into power. Now they have to serve it – or, as Bond is trying to do in his Op-Ed, trick the true believers and give GOPers in the lege a way to save face. Because Obamacare is a success and now we know they know it too – they just can’t say it out loud.

Jason Kander’s (d) campaign released a video on the Trans-Pacific Partnership:

The transcript:

Jason Kander (D): Since I started my campaign for the Senate a lot of Missourians have asked me what I think about the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership. This is a bad deal for Missouri, which is why I oppose it. The Obama Administration is negotiating this deal in secret and asking Congress to fast track it before the final details are really known. It’s something so big it could be the biggest trade agreement since NAFTA and yet, the American public really hasn’t had an opportunity to examine it. So I don’t think that Congress should just rubber stamp a trade agenda when so much is at stake. The few details that we actually do know about the proposed TPP demonstrate that it’s likely that more American jobs could be shipped overseas than are actually created here at home. Why would we do that? Let me give you an example as to how it could hurt. Here in Missouri we’ve actually done a pretty tremendous job of revitalizing our auto industry thanks to GM, Ford, our outstanding auto workers, and the Missouri Manufacturing Jobs Act that I cosponsored as a member of the state House. By the end of this year it’s likely that we will have added nearly twenty thousand auto manufacturing or related jobs just in the last five years. So, there’s no reason at all for us to enter into a deal that could stop that progress right in its tracks. The American Automotive Policy Council says that between the years two thousand and twenty-twelve a hundred and eighty thousand vehicles were exported by our country to Japan while Japan sent to us sixteen point three million. Why would we do anything that can make that ratio worse? We should be doing everything that we can to help the American worker, not hurt them. and that’s one of many reasons why I oppose the Trans Pacific-Partnership.

[Jason Kander

U.S. Senate

Paid for by Missourians for Kander]        

Previously:

Jason Kander (D): for the U.S. Senate in 2016 (February 19, 2015)

Why we end up with politicians like Roy Blunt instead of Jason Kander (February 20, 2015)

Blunt is ready to torch DHS; Kander is readying the fire brigades (February 27, 2015)

Jason Kander (D) – Johnson County Kirkpatrick Dinner – March 28, 2015 (March 29, 2015)

Campaign Finance: It’s what you call “a really, really good start…” (April 6, 2015)

Spotted today on a vehicle in west central Missouri:

If this had been about dubya’s presidency it would have shown the currency as body bags.

Yesterday at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C151077 04/15/2015 MISSOURIANS FOR JOHN BRUNNER Brent Witte 21 Woods Fort Drive Troy MO 63379 Witte Bros. Exchange Inc. President 4/14/2015 $5,001.00

C151077 04/15/2015 MISSOURIANS FOR JOHN BRUNNER Mark Stephens 815 Highway T Foristell MO 63348 T&N Incorporated VP/CEO 4/14/2015 $5,001.00

C151077 04/15/2015 MISSOURIANS FOR JOHN BRUNNER Lewis & Clark Northern Missouri Forum 575 Witte Industrial Ct Troy MO 63379 4/14/2015 $75,000.00

C151077 04/15/2015 MISSOURIANS FOR JOHN BRUNNER SRC Holdings Corporation 531 Union Ave Springfield MO 65802 4/14/2015 $10,000.00

The day before that:

C141010 04/14/2015 LEWIS & CLARK – NORTHERN MISSOURI FORUM Chester Bross Construction Co. PO Box 430 Hannibal MO 63401 4/14/2015 $10,000.00

C141010 04/14/2015 LEWIS & CLARK – NORTHERN MISSOURI FORUM T and N, Inc. 815 Highway T PO Box 240 Foristell MO 63348 4/14/2015 $10,000.00

C141010 04/14/2015 LEWIS & CLARK – NORTHERN MISSOURI FORUM Warrenton Oil Co. 2299 South Spoede Truesdale MO 63383 4/14/2015 $10,000.00

C141010 04/14/2015 LEWIS & CLARK – NORTHERN MISSOURI FORUM Potterfield Trucking PO Box 296 Monroe City MO 63456 4/14/2015 $10,000.00

C141010 04/14/2015 LEWIS & CLARK – NORTHERN MISSOURI FORUM Witte Bros. Exchange, Inc. 575 Witte Industrial Ct. Troy MO 63379 4/14/2015 $10,000.00

C141010 04/14/2015 LEWIS & CLARK – NORTHERN MISSOURI FORUM The Larson Group, Inc. #1 North Central Dr. Ofallon MO 63366 4/14/2015 $10,000.00

[emphasis added]

Interesting.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: all in today (April 9, 2015)

Campaign Finance: passing the torch… (April 10, 2015)

Campaign Finance: The republican establishment has another gubernatorial favorite? (April 11, 2015)

Kansas City Mayor Sly James spoke at yesterday’s “Fight for $15” rally and march.

Video by Jerry Schmidt.

Previously:

Fight for $15 – Kansas City – April 15, 2015 (April 16, 2015)

Yesterday evening approximately one thousand people gathered in Theiss Park in Kansas City for a rally and march in support of increasing the hourly minimum wage. The organizers and crowd included a mix of food service and service industry workers, organized labor, university students and adjunct faculty, faith leaders, and Kansas City office holders.

“Justice for janitors.”

The event was organized by Stand Up KC, as part of a national movement:

We are fast food and retail workers from across KC coming together to demand good wages and a voice for low-wage workers.

Today, 48,000 Kansas Citians are employed in some of the world’s largest and most profitable fast food and retail corporations. But they work in our city’s worst paying jobs.

The average fast food worker is now 28 years old and the average retail worker is 38. Both make about $7.35/hour, have no healthcare, no paid sick days or vacation pay, and face daily discrimination. Top brands like McDonald’s make $5.4 billion in profit, pay their CEO $14 million, and have over 500 locations city-wide. It would take the average retail worker 823 years to earn what Walgreens CEO Greg Wasson earns in a year.

But fast food and retail workers won’t accept these facts any longer. Right now fast food and retail workers are sticking together to fight for higher pay so they can afford basic needs, like groceries, housing and transportation.

Stand with us as we stand up for our city and our futures!

Kansas City Mayor Sly James spoke at the rally:

Kansas City Mayor Sly James.

Kansas City Mayor Sly James: ….The one thing that we always must remember is, is that nothing is going to happen unless we act together. If we do not act together we will be picked off one by one, separated, culled from the herd, and nothing will happen.

The only things that have changed the course of history in this country have been when people who believed in something fervently, people who are willing to give up their lives for it, people who are willing to devote their treasure to it, combined with others to do the same thing and stuck together until it happened.

[….]

It is immoral, it is unjust, it is unreasonable, it is unforgivable, it is unexplainable that we all live in the richest, most powerful, best country in the world and people work forty hours a week and cannot feed their families. People work forty hours a week and cannot put food on the table, cannot buy the clothes that they need, cannot take care of their children’s needs, cannot access health care, cannot do things that other people do and take for granted. It is time for us to recognize that and it is time for it to stop.

[….]

“Good jobs and $15 for all.”

“…it is a crime for people to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages.”

After a relatively brief rally with speeches the crowd marched from the park through the neighborhood and up to the University of Missouri – Kansas City campus.

The start of the march.

“One world, one fight.”

From our good friends at Progress Missouri:

We’re Suing the Missouri Senate

Submitted by Sean on Wed, 04/15/2015 – 09:01

Today, Progress Missouri filed suit against the Missouri Senate for its continued refusal to adhere to Missouri’s Sunshine Law. Missouri state senators have repeatedly denied access to public hearings of Senate committees, in violation of state law, and we are escalating our fight for open government.

Our democracy works best when there is transparency and accountability, and the Sunshine Law is a necessary tool to maintain both. Some state senators, including Mike Parson, Mike Kehoe, and David Sater think that the Sunshine Law doesn’t apply to them. They’re wrong.

A copy of the petition filed in Cole County may be found below.

Senators Parson, Kehoe, and Sater have repeatedly denied Progress Missouri access to film public hearings of committees that they chair. Unfortunately, this is not a new practice. Progress Missouri has been denied access to film hearings by Ron Richard, Scott Rupp, Will Kraus, and Brian Nieves in previous years. Earlier this year, PoliticMO reported that KRCG reporter Kermit Miller was denied the ability to film a public meeting. In 2014, former Sen. Nieves ordered all video and TV cameras out of a public hearing. All of these denials violate Missouri’s Sunshine Law.  

The Missouri Sunshine Law states that public bodies, including legislative bodies, “shall allow for the recording by audiotape, videotape, or other electronic means of any open meeting.”

Progress Missouri films and live streams committee hearings in the Capitol in an effort to document the actions and statements of elected officials, and has attempted to work with Senators to gain access to public meetings in accordance with the law. However, Senators Parson, Kehoe, and Sater have steadfastly refused to acknowledge that the Sunshine Law applies to them.

The Missouri Senate helped write the Sunshine Law. It’s time for Missouri’s state Senators to start abiding by it.

“….The Missouri Senate helped write the Sunshine Law. It’s time for Missouri’s state Senators to start abiding by it.”

Uh, yep.

We agree. Not everyone does:

Matt Wills @Last_Wills

Suing an elected body for not letting you record their proceeding is a lot like whining about being blocked on Twitter. #moleg 1:48 PM – 15 Apr 2015

Because keeping people from information about public business is just like a privately operated social media platform?

Maybe it all depends on which Amendments to the U.S. Constitution you think are really important.

Today at the Missouri Ethics Commission

C141055 04/14/2015 HANAWAY FOR GOVERNOR, INC D John Sauer 331 Bryn Wyck Pl St Louis MO 63141 Clark & Sauer LLC Attorney 4/14/2015 $10,000.00

Just not the way it used to.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: Oh, there is a difference… (February 20, 2015)

Campaign Finance: gone quiet (March 21, 2015)

Campaign Finance: back in business (April 5, 2015)

Campaign Finance: all in today (April 9, 2015)