Monthly Archives: October 2016

Can Ann Wagner carry a wounded Roy Blunt to victory?

27 Thursday Oct 2016

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

GOP Senator Roy Bunt and Rep. Ann Wagner are pairing up. In a series of glossy mailers the two jointly take on various policy issues like health care and energy policy about which they spoon out predictable GOP talking points that have mostly been repudiated ad nauseum.

But why together? A money saving twofer? Eh … maybe. But they’ve both got big campaign war chests, bigger than the other guy in both cases, and Blunt is now getting all that dark money support from out-of-state billionaires and their pet PACS.

Maybe the beleaguered Blunt hopes that some of Wagner’s surburban cachet will rub off by association. Wagner’s odds of being re-elected are pretty good. Blunt? Not so much. Today on the Diane Rehm show a prognosticator actually said that Blunt would probably go down. Democrat Jason Kander may very well take his place in Washington.

Wagner only has to please the more moderate, but still relatively conservative, surburban constituents in the second district. She’s good at playing it safe and dishing out treacle that goes down smoothly in that environment. She may do Big Banking’s bidding, for example, but she always couches her efforts to help the big guys as somehow beneficial to the little guy . Her syrupy newsletters rarely even bother to mention her hardcore legislative activities except every once in a while and in the mildest of terms.

Blunt on the other hand, engaged in a state-wide race, has to satisfy both sides of a splintering GOP. On one side he’s got the Trump brigade – which hasn’t been too happy with his corporatist, big-money first approach since their earlier Tea Party days. On the other side are GOP centrists who aren’t too pleased by his detente with the Trumpist barbarians at the GOP gate.

Of course outcomes are often unexpected. Could Blunt possibly put an unwelcome spotlight on Wagner and her retrograde policy positions?

In a just world, maybe.

Campaign Finance: make it an even $11,500,000.00

26 Wednesday Oct 2016

Posted by in campaign finance

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Apparently opacity is considered a virtue on some planets.

Erics Greitens (r) [2016 file photo].

Erics Greitens (r) [2016 file photo].

Today at the Missouri Ethics Commission for Eric Greitens’ (r) 2016 gubernatorial campaign:

C151053 10/26/2016 GREITENS FOR MISSOURI Republican Governors Association – Missouri 1747 Penn. Ave. NW Suite 250 Washington DC 20006 10/25/2016 $2,000,000.00

[emphasis added]

What are they gonna do at this point, run more television ads?

Gee, that’s $11,500,000.00 total contributed to this one campaign from one entity. $6,500.000.00 in October alone. So far. And we don’t have any idea who wrote the check(s) to get to this $2,000,000.00 or that $11,500,000.00. So far.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: Gee, don’t hold back, show us how you really feel… (October 17, 2016)

Campaign Finance: committee values

26 Wednesday Oct 2016

Posted by in campaign finance

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

Today at the Missouri Ethics Commission for the republican PAC funded by the family associated with Tamko:

C151174 10/26/2016 COMMITTEE FOR ACCOUNTABLE GOVERNMENT IN MISSOURI David Humphreys P O Box 4050 Joplin MO 64803 TAMKO Building Products Executive 10/24/2016 $500,000.00

[emphasis added]

Gee, maybe there’ll be a lot more dark and foreboding television ads right before the election. You think?

Previously:

Campaign Finance: Account…ability (February 23, 2016)

Campaign Finance: Account…ability – part 2 (February 25, 2016)

Campaign Finance: Account…ability – part 3 (March 25, 2016)

Campaign Finance: Tamko! (June 3, 2016)

Campaign Finance: the right to spend as much as you want to influence elections in Missouri (August 25, 2016)

Campaign Finance: just keep writing those $1,000,000.00 checks (September 27, 2016)

Campaign Finance: Same street address, different suite number…

25 Tuesday Oct 2016

Posted by in campaign finance

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , ,

…same lack of transparency.

Today at the Missouri Ethics Commission for republican PACs from republican PACs:

C161307 10/25/2016 MISSOURI FREEDOM PAC Republican Attorneys General Association 1747 Pennsylvania Avenue Suite 800 Washington DC 20006 10/25/2016 $200,000.00

[emphasis added]

That’s $3,288.000.00 from a Washington, D.C. PAC since August pushing for a republican Attorney General for Missouri.

C161011 10/25/2016 REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS ASSOCIATION – MISSOURI REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS ASSOCIATION 1747 PENNSYLVANIA AVE. NW STE. 250 WASHINGTON DC 20006 10/24/2016 $1,000,000.00

[emphasis added]

That’s $11,600,000.00 for the latter PAC so far this year. That’s a lot of republican interest from Washington, D.C. about who should become Missouri’s next governor.

Still, we have no idea who wrote the check(s) to fund these PACs. Waiting for any pass through…

Previously:

Josh Hawley (r) – October 2015 Quarterly Campaign Finance Report (October 18, 2015)

Campaign Finance: actual experience doesn’t matter if you have enough money – part 2 (August 24, 2016)

Campaign Finance: the $2,000,000.00 (and counting) candidate (September 4, 2016)

Campaign Finance: nothing exceeds like excess (September 26, 2016)

Campaign Finance: just passing through, again (September 29, 2016)

Campaign Finance: it is going to end up somewhere (September 30, 2016)

Campaign Finance: and it did (October 2, 2016)

Josh Hawley (r) – Attorney General – October 2016 Quarterly Campaign Finance Report (October 17, 2016)

Campaign Finance: New Jersey? (October 19, 2016)

Campaign Finance: we can guess (October 22, 2016)

Campaign Finance: deep pockets (October 24, 2016)

Campaign Finance: deep pockets

24 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by in campaign finance

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

Josh Hawley (r) [2016 file photo].

Josh Hawley (r) [2016 file photo].

Today at the Missouri Ethics Commission for Josh Hawley’s (r) 2016 campaign for Attorney General:

C151132 10/24/2016 HAWLEY FOR MISSOURI Herzog Contracting Corp PO Box 1089 St Joseph MO 64502 10/22/2016 $75,000.00

[emphasis added]

As if there’s time to effectively spend that kind of money with two weeks remaining to the election?

They’re obviously fans:

C151132 09/28/2015 HAWLEY FOR MISSOURI Herzog Contracting Corp PO Box 1089 St Joseph MO 64502 9/28/2015 $25,000.00

C151132 03/25/2016 HAWLEY FOR MISSOURI Herzog Contracting Corp. PO Box 1089 Saint Joseph MO 64502 3/25/2016 $25,000.00

C151132 07/23/2016 HAWLEY FOR MISSOURI Herzog Contracting Corp PO Box 1089 St Joseph MO 64502 7/22/2016 $100,000.00

[emphasis added]

Can we guess it’s because they’re not big fans of organized labor?

Previously:

Josh Hawley (r) – October 2015 Quarterly Campaign Finance Report (October 18, 2015)

Campaign Finance: actual experience doesn’t matter if you have enough money – part 2 (August 24, 2016)

Campaign Finance: the $2,000,000.00 (and counting) candidate (September 4, 2016)

Campaign Finance: nothing exceeds like excess (September 26, 2016)

Campaign Finance: just passing through, again (September 29, 2016)

Josh Hawley (r) – Attorney General – October 2016 Quarterly Campaign Finance Report (October 17, 2016)

Campaign Finance: New Jersey? (October 19, 2016)