Missourinet

Your source for Missouri News and Sports

You are here: Home / Archives for Jason Taylor

Missouri Farm Bureau endorses Republican Josh Hawley in overwhelming vote

By

The Missouri Farm Bureau endorsed Attorney General Josh Hawley for the United States Senate Friday.

Josh Hawley – R – with reporters after speaking to the Missouri Farm Bureau 8-10-2018

In a statement, the organization said the Columbia Republican understands the threat that increased regulation poses for Missouri farmers.

Both Hawley and Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill addressed Farm Bureau members at a gathering in Jefferson City prior to the announcement.

Hawley won the endorsement of the state’s largest agricultural organization by an overwhelming 82-4 margin in a vote of its trustees.  Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst said Hawley had worked in the best interests of farmers against potent outside opposition.

“Josh Hawley has continuously proven his leadership and dedication to the people of Missouri by taking on ‘the big and the powerful,’ but even better, he has proven he is dedicated to protecting our farms and family businesses,” said Hurst. “He is a proven leader and will be a tremendous addition to the U.S. Senate.”

Hawley may have sealed his endorsement in the first few minutes of his speech.  In its statement, the Bureau praised him for bringing litigation against the Waters of the United States rule and a California law restricting egg sales.  Hawley mentioned both lawsuits as being among his accomplishments in Missouri state government.

Senator Claire McCaskill – D – with reporters after speaking to the Missouri Farm Bureau 8-10-2018

President Trump’s administration discontinued the Waters of the U.S. rule under former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt in January.

Hawley led a dozen states in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block the California law which requires any eggs sold there to come from hens that have space to stretch out in cages.  California voters approved a ballot measure in 2008 requiring the specific treatment of chickens, which gave farmers until 2015 to comply.  That lawsuit is ongoing.

The Farm Bureau’s overwhelming embrace of Hawley also may have to do with a strained association between Senator McCaskill and the organization.  Bureau President Hurst told Missourinet Friday that McCaskill never returns his calls and that he and the organization don’t have a good relationship with her.

Strains in their association may have been reflected in McCaskill’s opening remarks before the group where she stated she had been repeatedly asked why she was bothering to speak to them.  She also said she had been told by advisors to bypass the event.

The two-term Senator noted that six years ago she ran against a candidate that had never voted for a farm bill, yet he still got the endorsement of the Farm Bureau, referring to former Republican Congressman Todd Aikin.

Before taking questions from the audience, McCaskill told the farm bureau members that President Trump is hurting farmers through his tariffs and rejection of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.

“The damage that is being done to Missouri agriculture is inexcusable,” said McCaskill.  “This is not temporary pain.  This is permanent damage to markets.”

Hawley mentioned that President Trump had encouraged him to run for the Senate seat and often aligned himself with the administration’s priority of deregulation.  At one point, he promised to break apart federal agencies such as the EPA.

“We need to completely and fundamentally rewrite the administrative state’s ability to put rules on you and on our farmers all across the state,” Hawley said.  “Dismantling this unelected bureaucracy will be one of my top priorities if I’m elected.”

Hawley made several other bold pronouncements to the gathered group of farmers.  He said he would attempt to abolish the Senate practice of allowing filibusters while criticizing McCaskill and her Democratic colleagues for blocking President Trump’s nominees for government posts.

He also criticized McCaskill for failing to endorse a plan from the Trump administration to add a citizenship question on the 2020 census.  “If we don’t ask who is a citizen and who’s not, we’re going to lose electoral votes and political clout in this state to California, and to these other states,” said Hawley.  “I don’t know how a Senator from Missouri can support that position.”

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is currently suing the Trump administration, arguing that the question would make noncitizens reluctant to participate in the census.

Hawley also defended President Trumps tariffs as he has while campaigning across the state recently.  The Audience of Missouri farmers did not respond negatively to that support as have other farmers, including at some McCaskill campaign stops.

Farm Bureau members chose to quiz McCaskill about her opposition to the tariffs.  McCaskill defended the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in response to one member’s claim that nothing has worked to make China trade fairly with the U.S.

“TPP was close, because do you know what TPP was going to do?  It was going to cut China out and it was going to give us a dominant standing in Asia,” said McCaskill.  “And guess what China is doing now?  Trying to get into TPP because we got out.”

McCaskill defended herself when criticized over her vote against Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch and said she would ask the current nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, about dark money, health care protections and corporate consolidation.

She said $50-$70 million of dark money would be spent on the Senate race, acknowledging that a portion of it would be directed to help her campaign.

Hawley stressed the importance of building the border wall President Trump has demanded.  He fielded one critical question about the need for migrant farm workers, which he said could be addressed through the country’s visa program.

Both Hawley and McCaskill were given a half hour to speak to and interact with Missouri Farm Bureau members.  Trustees who were selected by their county farm bureau associations then voted resoundingly to endorse Hawley.

Missourinet 7 a.m News 8-10-2018

By

Top Stories:  The Country Club Plaza shopping center in Kansas City is now a “no ride zone” for Bird Scooters.  KMBC reports the ban was issued at the request of Plaza management over the electric sidewalk scooters for rent that are showing up in cities around the country.  And a man was arrested last night in connection to a murder that occurred on Sunday In Springfield.  KOLR reports that sheriff’s deputies assisted police and the U.S. Marshall in the arrest of the suspected in the killing of 32-year-old Marcus Gilbert.

Efforts to raise Missouri’s minimum wage on ballot in November general election

By

One of the six ballot measures that Missouri will decide in November’s election would raise the state’s minimum wage.

Backers of the proposal collected more 120,000 signatures to ensure it would be placed before voters.  The effort was led by Missouri Business for Fair Minimum Wage and Raise Up Missouri.

The ballot measure known as Proposition B would increase the minimum wage, starting next year, to $8.60 from the current $7.85, and gradually increase it by 85 cents a year until it reaches $12 an hour by 2023.

The state’s current minimum wage of $7.85 translates to $314 a week and slightly more than $16,000 a year for a full-time worker.

Missouri Business for Fair Minimum Wage is part of a national group that advocates for hikes in minimum pay across the country.  Two of its member business owners recently spoke with Missourinet.

Stacy Jurado-Miller heads the Vecino Group in Springfield, which is a real estate development firm that specializes in low-income housing.  She says taxpayers end up footing the bill for workers with low paying jobs.

“We deal in affordable housing, so every day we see what happens when hard-working Missourians can’t pay for their basic needs,” said Jurado-Miller.  “The result is as a state we’re paying one way or another when people can’t afford their rent.”

Howard Hanna owns two restaurants in Kansas City, the Rieger and Ca Va.  He claims all his kitchen and waitstaff make more than $12 per hour already and says raising the minimum wage will level the playing field for businesses.

“We’re having to compete against people who are paying the least they possibly can,” said Hanna.  “That makes it difficult for us to compete in the marketplace when our prices look high compared to others.  And it’s because we’re actually trying to do the right thing by our staff.”

Both St. Louis and Kansas City either enacted or had plans to implement minimum wage hikes before being overridden by the state legislature.

In August of 2015, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen passed an ordinance to raise minimum pay to $11.00 by this year.  In August of 2017, Kansas City voters approved a measure by a 75%-to-25% margin to increase the city’s minimum wage over five years to $15.00 by 2022.

Those efforts were crushed by the state legislature in 2017 when it passed a bill barring municipalities from establishing minimum pay requirements that exceed the statewide minimum wage.  Then Governor Eric Greitens let the bill become law without his signature.

St. Louis actually hiked its local wage for four months in 2017.  A court battle between the state legislature and the city had started after the city ordinance was approved in 2015.  The city prevailed when the state Supreme Court reversed a circuit court ruling that the St. Louis ordinance was out of step with state law.  The city’s minimum wage was briefly raised to $10 in May of 2017 before the new state law prohibiting the increase became effective on August 28th of last year.

Backers of this year’s ballot measure rely on several studies to support their claim that boosting the minimum wage helps the economy.

An analysis conducted by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute concluded that Proposition B would result in a new investment of more than $1 billion in consumer buying power in Missouri, affecting over 670,000 workers.

A 2011 study, “The Spending and Debt Responses to Minimum Wage Increases” by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago stated that “every dollar increase in the minimum wage results in $2,800 in new consumer spending per household over the following year.”

Business groups that generally fight against minimum wage increases have been relatively silent since Proposition B was certified for the November ballot.

The Missouri Chamber of Commerce opposed the wage hikes in Kansas City and St. Louis that the state legislature ultimately blocked.  The Chamber’s Matt Panik said his organization hasn’t taken a position on the ballot measure but would be evaluating it with Chamber board members.

“Generally, we try to wait until it’s certified and we know that it’s going to be on the ballot before we really weigh in on something,” said Panik.  “That’s all I’d say at this point.”

Even if Proposition B is approved by voters, the Republican-dominated, and business-friendly state legislature could still have the final say on what the final outcome is.  Missouri is one of 11 states with no restrictions on lawmakers’ ability to repeal citizen initiatives.

Both McCaskill and Hawley have challenges to overcome in Missouri U.S. Senate race

By

Both Democrat Claire McCaskill and Republican Josh Hawley face handicaps that could hamper them heading into November’s U.S. Senate election.

Senator Claire McCaskill, D, speaks at her Columbia campaign headquarters August 7th, 2018

They both face challenges that could be seen as shortcomings.  Hawley is an inexperienced politician, having been elected to his first public office as state Attorney General in 2016.  McCaskill, who calls herself the underdog, is a vulnerable Democrat in a heavily Republican state.

Further complicating the battle is a trade war that’s impacting Missouri’s farmers and manufacturers.  The price of soybeans has dropped 20% since President Trump imposed tariffs on China.  His administration announced $12 billion in aid to farmers last month to help offset their losses, but no funds have been disbursed yet and it’s not known if the money would be sufficient.

Some Missouri manufacturers have also expressed vocal displeasure with the 25% tariff on steel imports and 10% on aluminum.  Mid Continent Nail Corporation in Poplar Bluff has laid off 78 temporary employees and faces complete closure in September due to the trade war.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates the state could lose $880 million because of the tariffs.

McCaskill opposes the tariffs and is routinely visiting publicly with farmers and manufacturers who have been complaining about the tariffs.

Attorney General and Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Josh Hawley

Hawley has been vigorously supporting the tariffs and says the President should continue to press forward to force China into a better trade deal with the U.S.

Missouri’s Republican Senator Roy Blunt who sides with President Trump’s position 96% of the time, joined 87 other Senators including McCaskill last month in voting to condemn the tariffs.

Hawley has been endorsed by President Trump, who stumped for him at a Veterans of Foreign Wars event in Kansas City last month.  He could be in the difficult position of balancing the interests of Missouri farmers and manufacturers while not wavering on support for President Trump’s policies.

After being conspicuously missing at speech President Trump gave in Springfield in August of last year, Hawley wrote opinion piece published by Fox News supporting Trump’s tax-cut initiative that Congress eventually passed.  Hawley has since refused to criticize any move or comment made by Trump.

McCaskill’s biggest problem in the upcoming election is the fact that she’s a Democrat.  Trump carried the state by 19 points in the same 2016 election in which all five statewide offices in play were swept by Republicans.

McCaskill often points out that she breaks with the Democratic Party on a number of issues and stresses that she works across the aisle.  While speaking at a campaign gathering in Columbia Tuesday, she said compromise is an important part of the U.S. democracy.  “We’ve got to hold the middle, find things we can agree on that will make your lives better,” said McCaskill.

McCaskill is considered by a number of national political experts to be one of the most, if not the most vulnerable Democratic Senator running for reelection this year in a state carried by Trump.

Her prospects in 2012 were also thought to be dim.  That year, McCaskill spent $1.7 million on a “dog whistle” ad using reverse psychology, telling voters not to vote for the ultra-conservative Todd Aiken, in an effort to aid him in securing the Republican nomination.  The effort was successful, and Aiken imploded in the general election after indicating in a statement that women can’t get pregnant from being raped.

This year, McCaskill is faced with the obstacle of having to choose whether to support the President’s Supreme Court nominee, Bret Kavanaugh, with a Senate confirmation vote likely to take place just before November’s election.

She voted against Trump’s previous high bench choice, Neil Gorsuch, who was confirmed last year.  Hawley has been pressing McCaskill to announce whether she’ll back Kavanaugh.  The former Missouri State Auditor has said she’s meeting with Kavanaugh on August 21st and said she’ll decide after that point.

As far as finances go heading toward the election, Hawley has had a much tougher time raising money.

For the Senate race, his campaign had received roughly $5.3 million and had almost $3 million cash on hand at the end of the last reporting period in mid-July.  During the same time period, McCaskill raised almost $21 million, spent nearly $15 million and had about $6.65 million on hand.

Hawley has said more than 80% of McCaskill’s financing comes from out of state while McCaskill claims outside dark money sources are spending $10 for every $1 Hawley spends on his election.

Missourinet 7 a.m. News 8-9-2018

By

Top Stories: Mark Mantovani, who narrowly lost the Democratic primary for St. Louis County Executive to incumbent Steve Stenger, says he won’t challenge the outcome.  But in a letter, he said his campaign believes there are enough outstanding and uncounted provisional ballots that could change the results.  And 85% of the topsoil in Missouri is currently rated short to very short of moisture, which is among the top three in the nation.  KMIZ reports the condition is a growing concern as the state continues to deal with one of the driest summers since 2012.

Lawsuit seeks to remove motor fuel tax from public vote

By

A lawsuit claims a ballot measure set to go before Missouri voters in November is unconstitutional and improperly uses taxpayer money.

Conservative activist Ron Calzone and Republican state Representative Mike Moon of Ash Grove are trying to block the vote to raise the state’s motor fuel tax.

Arguments in the case were heard by Judge Robert Schollmeyer in Cole County Circuit Court in Jefferson City Tuesday.

Lawmakers this year attached the motor fuel tax vote to a completely different bill that creates an income tax deduction on awards Olympic athletes win.

Calzone and Moon contend the proposal is unconstitutional because it fails to conform to a state requirement that limits each bill to a single subject.  They claim the motor fuel tax amendment changes the original bill’s purpose.

Calzone says the state Supreme Court has interpreted the Constitution to protect citizens from having to make choices such as those required in the bill.

“This gives the people multiple subjects, some of which some of the people might like, and some of the subjects they might not like,” said Calzone.  “And so, the people are forced to make a decision whether to accept something that they don’t like in order to get something that they do like.”

The bill as passed and certified by the secretary of state will ask voters to cast a ballot on three separate provisions, all at once on the same ballot measure.

They’ll be asked if they want to increase the motor fuel tax, exempt Olympic (as well as Special Olympic, Paralympic) prizes from state taxes, and establish the Emergency State Freight Bottleneck Fund?

The Bottleneck Fund would create a dedicated fund for certain road projects in order to reduce traffic bottlenecks that affect freight.

A single yes vote would be a vote in favor of all three provisions in the bill.  Together they are known as Proposition D.

Lawmakers folded the motor fuel tax and the Bottleneck Fund into the Olympic award tax break proposal on the final day of the state legislative session May 18th.

The lawsuit references a 1994 Missouri Supreme Court decision officially titled Hammerschmidt v. Boone County, which found a violation of the constitutional rule against introduction or passage of bills containing more than a single subject.

The defendant in the lawsuit is Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft who is represented by Assistant Attorney General Jason K. Lewis.  Intervening in the case on the same side is a group called SaferMO, which was created to promote Proposition D.  SaferMO represents stakeholder such as contractors who would work on road project the motor fuel tax would finance.

Jefferson City Attorney Chuck Hatfield, who is representing SaferMO, contends the ballot measure will pass legal muster.  He thinks the courts will back up the legislature’s intent.

“The constitution gives them a great deal of latitude to decide how they’re going to pass legislation,” said Hatfield.  “It might not be the way you and I would do it.  It’s a messy process.  But I don’t think that this particular bill ran afoul of any of the guideposts that the constitution sets.”

SaferMo and the attorney general’s office further contend that the requirement for each legislative bill to conform to a single subject doesn’t apply to referendums such as Proposition D that go before voters.

Hatfield says there’s no precedent for such a requirement although he does admit there is a possible reading of the constitution that could limit a referendum to one subject.  Still, he thinks the courts will let the legislature’s work move forward.

Another argument being made in the lawsuit is that the plaintiffs, Calzone and Representative Moon, have no standing to bring the case because they haven’t been impacted by the ballot measure.  SaferMO and the attorney general’s office say they could only file the complaint after the ballot measure was passed and they’d been subject to the higher motor fuel tax.

Calzone says this argument is not accurate because the state estimates it’ll cost $400,000 in taxpayer money to place the measure of the ballot.

“They’ve got to publish the full measure in every county a number of times, in the newspapers of every county a number of times,” said Calzone.  “And that’s expensive to do.”

Hatfield with SaferMO argues that the expense required for a ballot measure is an operational cost that is already assigned once the proposal passes.

“There’s already an appropriation to have a vote,” Hatfield said.  “We’re going to have an election in November no matter what, and there’s going to be money spent to publish the various provisions.  That was our position.  It’s not really going to change that much.”

If voters passed the ballot measure, its main provision would increase the motor fuel tax by two and one-half cents for four straight years beginning July 1, 2019.  The gas tax, which hasn’t been touched since the 1990’s would rise from 17 cent’s per gallon to 27 cents.

The total amount of money generated by the motor fuel tax hike is estimated to be $293 million per year once the increase is fully implemented in 2022.

The lion’s share of the money would be used to improve and build new roads.

Missourinet 7 a.m. News 8-8-2018

By

Top Stories:  Springfield voters have come out in support of pit bull owners.  During Tuesday’s primary election, they easily voted in favor of overturning the City Council’s gradual ban on pit bulls and pit bull mixes.  And Saundra McDowell has taken the Republican nomination for the Missouri State Auditor’s race.  She faces Missouri Democratic State Auditor Nicole Galloway, along with the Libertarian, Green Party and Constitution Party candidates in November.

McCaskill, Hawley exchange barbs while securing U.S. Senate nominations

By

Missouri’s Incumbent Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill was victorious in her primary for re-election Tuesday night.

Although she was not thought to be in jeopardy of losing the party nomination, she’s been continually referred to in the national press as one of the most, if not the most, vulnerable Democrats trying to hold onto a Senate seat in this year’s election.

Front-running Republican challenger Josh Hawley handily won the GOP nomination Tuesday as well.  He’s been quick to pounce on McCaskill’s perceived weaknesses as a Democrat in a heavily Republican state.

Hawley challenged McCaskill to a debate several times in recent weeks and has criticized her for not responding.  Tuesday night, he doubled down on his demand, proclaiming that the debates be held on the back of a flatbed truck.

“I’m going to drag that flatbed truck all over this state to courthouses everywhere,” said Hawley.  “We’ll get out.  We’ll get on the back of a truck and we’ll debate, just me, just her, no holds barred.  That’s my challenge.”

McCaskill took time to issue her own challenge to Hawley, asking for all debates to be hosted by local Missouri media outlets and journalists, and for all of them to be aired on broadcast television, radio or streamed online to reach as many voters as possible statewide.  She also sent out a press release listing her campaign manager’s contact information for arrangements to be made for a debate.

At a primary night stop at her Columbia campaign office late Tuesday afternoon, McCaskill noted Hawley had avoided debates with his primary opponents.

“We just weren’t going to talk about debating until the Republicans had nominated a candidate,” said McCaskill.  “I thought that was just really inappropriate.  He was being asked to debate his opponents and didn’t want to.  So, I think he was trying to pivot and focus on trying to talk about a debate in the general (election).  But I’ve always debated my opponents.”

Hawley held his election watching party in Springfield where he spoke in general terms but took sharp aim at McCaskill as out of step with Republican-heavy Missouri.  “She takes her orders from the liberal elites in Hollywood and Washington,” said Hawley.  “For too long, she has been representing them and not us.  Well, I’ll tell you what, not anymore.”

The former University of Missouri Constitutional Law Professor also attacked McCaskill for not supporting President Trump’s stance on immigration and Supreme Court judges.

“In 2016 Missouri voted for conservative judges, but Claire McCaskill ignored us,” Hawley said.  “In 2016 Missouri voted to build a wall and secure our border, but Claire McCaskill turned a deaf ear.”

For her part, McCaskill is making health care a major part of her platform.

As the Republican state Attorney General, Hawley joined 19 other GOP led states in a lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act.  The suit claims the law is now entirely invalid because Congress did away with the individual requirement to have health insurance when it passed the 2017 tax cut package.

The case argues that because the law is no longer valid, the protections it offers, such as those for preexisting conditions, are no longer enforceable.  McCaskill sees defending health care as a major advantage for her in the Senate race against Hawley.

“On the one hand, you’ve got somebody who is looking after you on your side against the insurance companies,” said McCaskill.  “And you’ve got somebody else who is willing to use the courts to wipe out every protection you have.  If we can take that message to every Missourian, you know what’s going to happen?  On election night, the first Tuesday of November at about 11:30 or so, they’re going to say, ‘You know what, Claire McCaskill’s done it again. She’s won Missouri.”

Hawley has said that he favors continuing consumer protections including preexisting conditions but still says the health care law needs to be replaced.

McCaskill also mentioned it would be a Democratic priority with a win in November to push for volume discount negotiations to bring down the cost of drugs in the Medicare program.

But her biggest talking point besides health care was her claim that she is being attacked by dark money.  Dark money is a phrase used to describe contributions made through 501 (c) (4) non-profit groups that don’t identify their donors.

McCaskill didn’t call out organizations Tuesday, such as the Koch Network who she has named in the past, as spending large sums of money against her with attack ads.  She did claim that dark money groups are vastly outspending Hawley on his own campaign.

“He has spent, I’m guessing maybe a dollar for every 10 dollars that the dark money groups have spent on his behalf,” McCaskill said.  “Millions and millions of dollars have been spent in dark money.”

The two-term Senator also addressed criticism over her failure to endorse Brett Kavanaugh, President Trumps second Supreme Court nominee, after she voted against Neil Gorsuch, who was confirmed last year.

McCaskill mentioned she would be meeting with Kavanaugh on August 21st and stated that the interview would be centered on health care and campaign finance among other things.  “I want to ask him about dark money in politics,” McCaskill said.  “I want to ask him about fighting for the little guy instead of the big corporations.  I want to ask him about protecting health care for people who have preexisting conditions.”

McCaskill and Hawley are now officially opponents in the general election.  Hawley won the 11 candidate Republican nomination with 58.5% of the vote while McCaskill rang up 82% in the seven-person Democratic race.

 

Missourinet 7 a.m. News 8-7-2018

By

Top Stories:  Police continue to search for a gunman who broke into a home in Ferguson near St. Louis over the weekend and fatally shot a man and a woman. The victims have been identified as 25-year-old Jeannie Nicole Miller and 28-year-old Eric Johnson.  And water is now being pumped to customers in Northern Missouri who have gone nearly a week without running water.  Roughly 2,000 people in Dekalb and Daviess counties have been affected.  Compounding the problem is the fact that the area is facing severe drought conditions.

Missouri midterm primary election offers intrigue on several levels

By

Tuesday’s midterm election in Missouri features one big statewide issue, Congressional primaries, and some intriguing local votes.

The most high-profile vote is the Proposition A ballot measure to decide if Missouri becomes a right to work state.  It’s a referendum on a 2017 law passed by the legislature that would prohibit mandatory union membership or the collection of union dues as a workplace requirement.

The vote is being watched nationally as a bellwether on how other states might respond to right to work efforts.  It’s thought that interest in Proposition A could trigger a bigger than usual turnout.  Pro-union groups opposing right to work have outraised business organizations who are backing the measure several times over and seem to have more intensity heading into the election.

The U.S. Senate primary features 11 Republican candidates and seven Democrats, although both incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill and GOP challenger Josh Hawley are expected to easily win their contests.  One of Hawley’s opponents, Austin Petersen has tried to create interest by raffling off a Ghost Gunner 2, a machine that allows users to build an untraceable AR-15 semi-automatic weapon.  Petersen, who gave away an actual AR-15 gun in October, announced he was raffling off a second Ghost Gunner 2 Monday night.

Five of Missouri’s eight U.S. House members have primary challengers with St. Louis Democrat William Lacy Clay notably being opposed by democratic socialist Cori Bush.  She’s friends with fellow democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who shocked the political world by beating 10-term Rep. Joseph Crowley in the New York Democratic primary. That momentum has fueled Bush’s optimism heading into Tuesday Missouri election.  Her odds could still be long as Lacy Clay has held the 1st District Congressional seat since 2001, succeeding his father, Bill Clay, who held the position for 32 years before retiring.

On the local level, the race for Greene County Presiding Commissioner features a contentious primary between retiring Republican state Senator Bob Dixon and GOP incumbent Bob Cirtin, who’s been accused of misusing tax dollars.

Under Cirtin’s direction, the county spent more than $260,000 on attorney’s fees to the Kansas City law firm Graves Garrett in response to a Missouri Ethics Commission investigation and a requested audit from the Missouri State Auditor following whistleblower complaints.

The Ethics Commission investigated Greene County following a complaint it had misused taxpayer money in promoting a half-cent sales tax to voters before a November 2017 election.  The Ethics Commission found the county commission did not misuse taxpayer money to advocate for the tax but says it committed a smaller violation.  The county paid a $100 fee to the commission which Cirtin touted as proof that no wrongdoing had occurred.

Also, the city of Springfield will decide whether it wants to ban pit bull dogs.  The City Council narrowly voted to prohibit the breed in November 2017 after two toddlers were attacked by a neighbor’s pit bulls while they were playing in their family’s backyard.  Opponents of the ban easily collected the needed signatures to force a public vote.

Missouri polls are open from 6 a.m.-7 p.m.