Politics

Missouri Freedom Caucus’ big success is publicity

Published

1 year ago

April 3, 2024

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When a Republican colleague threatened to read aloud from a 2-foot stack of books — including a biblical guide to leadership and a tome by anti-tax activist Grover Norquist — to protest inaction on his bills last week, Missouri state Sen. Rick Brattin quickly took up the cause.Seizing on a chance to hijack the planned schedule, Brattin spoke for about 45 minutes, accusing the leaders of his own Republican Party of ignoring some bills and making things “really frustrating” for ultra-conservative members. He often waved his arms for emphasis, as other senators sat flipping through papers, waiting for the session to begin.“It leads to things coming to a halt in this chamber,” he said. “I wish we would do things people actually want.”Brattin is chair of Missouri’s Freedom Caucus, a group of Republican legislators who aim to push their party further to the right on issues such as immigration, voting access and transgender restrictions.But some other Republicans say members of the Freedom Caucus gum up the legislative works and are more interested in publicity and grandstanding than conservative policymaking. Frustrated by such tactics, Missouri Senate leaders stripped four Freedom Caucus senators, including Brattin, of their chairmanships and parking spots earlier this year.“It’s hard to do stuff even when everybody’s acting in good faith,” said Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, a Columbia Republican. Rowden once derided the Freedom Caucus members as “swamp creatures who all too often remind me more of my children than my colleagues.”He added that last week’s delay was a mix-up and that the bills at issue would come to the floor.“They did that repeatedly, day after day for two weeks, basically,” Rowden said in an interview last week at his spacious desk in his high-ceilinged office across the hall from the Senate. “It became necessary for us to do something that would indicate that we’re not going to let four guys run the place. It’s just not how this works.”
The Missouri Freedom Caucus claims at least six senators and is approaching a dozen House members. There are similar chapters in 10 other states so far that are officially part of the State Freedom Caucus Network, an outgrowth of the congressional group that has held up deals and helped oust speakers in the U.S. House of Representatives.The state chapters are proposing conservative legislation and slowing measures they don’t like, even bills that were once considered routine and noncontroversial. And its members in many states, including Missouri, are running for higher office. But regardless of whether they succeed on legislation, they excel at getting publicity and drawing attention to themselves.That is by design, Andrew Roth, president of the Washington, D.C.-based network, told Stateline.“What we try to do is push conservative policy,” he said. “If we win, we win. If we lose, we’re exposing the fake Republicans for who they are. They will then have to answer to their constituents. We feel like we win either way.”The national organization provides the state caucuses with support and funding. That includes the salary of each state director, none of whom is a legislator, according to Roth.The state directors pay attention to what’s going on in state government even when the legislatures are not in session and the mostly part-time lawmakers are home tending to other business. They can alert the more than 160 members to issues and either get them to call a news conference or draft legislation to be considered in the next session to highlight their priorities.Tim Jones, a former Missouri House speaker who is now director of the state’s Freedom Caucus, said in an interview that since the parking spaces kerfuffle, the caucus has picked up five new members in the House.“It’s not meant to be a publicity stunt for anybody,” he insisted. “It’s supposed to be the conservative North Star of the General Assembly.”State Sen. Bill Eigel, a Missouri caucus member from Weldon Spring who is running for governor, said taking his parking spot “is kind of the height of pettiness,” but that he won’t be deterred.“They are trying to silence us, just like they are trying to silence Donald Trump,” Eigel said in an interview. “Unfortunately for them, it’s not going to work. We’re going to continue to be bold.”Eigel said he parks “down by the river” now, a few blocks away from the underground Capitol garage. His wife is happy that the extra walk means he’s getting in a few more steps each day, he quipped.

Tristen Rouse

St. Louis Public RadioMissouri State Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, announces his bid for governor last September at the St. Charles County Regional Airport in Portage Des Sioux.

Pushing to the rightLike most other Republicans, Freedom Caucus members across states have championed school vouchers, pushed to send state troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to pursue migrants crossing into the country illegally, and opposed large state budgets and transgender medical care for minors.But the Freedom Caucuses formed because some Republicans saw the rest of their party as not conservative enough. That has led to intraparty conflict in many GOP-dominated state capitols.In Missouri, for example, the Senate passed a bill that would make it harder to amend the state constitution, if voters approve the measure, after leaders it stripped a provision backed by the Freedom Caucus to ban non-citizens from voting.The Missouri Constitution already restricts voting only to citizens, but Freedom Caucus members argued the ban could be made even more explicit. Democrats disagreed and staged a filibuster that tied up the Senate; Republican leaders eventually agreed to take the provisions out, drawing the Freedom Caucus’s ire.Eigel would like the House to put the tougher provisions back in. Still, he claims credit for the Senate victory.“If the Freedom Caucus doesn’t stand up and cause a ruckus, the [ballot] initiative petition doesn’t move,” he said.In Idaho, Republican leaders removed some Freedom Caucus members from committee leadership late last year. And in South Carolina, some Freedom Caucusers who refused to sign a loyalty oath pledging not to campaign against other Republican members, which is against party rules, were dumped from the House Republican caucus.Matthew Green, a politics professor at the Catholic University of America who has studied the state Freedom Caucuses extensively, said in an interview that the state caucuses are “arguably more important than the U.S. House Freedom Caucus for policymaking.”In a forthcoming paper, Green found that state legislative conservative caucuses — precursors of the current Freedom Caucuses — began to form as early as 2017, driven by lawmakers who found the GOP in their states insufficiently conservative.But since 2021, the caucuses have formed at the behest of the national State Freedom Caucus Network, “illustrating how national interest groups and elected officials can contribute to state-level polarization,” he said. His study also found that lawmakers who lack power and influence are more likely to join the caucuses.These caucuses, Green said, have been able to “move [the] party’s agenda further rightward, especially if the caucus constitutes a sizable proportion of the party.”Delaying tactics can force Republican leaders to act on some issues, he said. “Seems like if the Freedom Caucus is disruptive and confrontational, they can win battles.”Peverill Squire, a political science professor at the University of Missouri, said the Freedom Caucus members in Missouri take advantage of unlimited debate to slow the legislature down “to a snail’s pace. Given the rules … it is relatively easy for them to gum up the process when they are unhappy with the way things are going,” he wrote in an email.That means even bills with broad GOP support have not made it all the way through the process, he wrote.

Eric Lee

St. Louis Public RadioMissouri Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, walks the floor during session on Jan. 25 in Jefferson City. Senate Republican leadership has clashed with members of the Missouri Freedom Caucus holding up business.

The animosity is not restricted to Missouri. In South Carolina, Green said, there’s “basically a civil war” going on in the supermajority Republican Party.Members of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus refused to pledge not to fund challengers to GOP incumbents; that flouted a 2006 law that prohibited “special interest” caucuses from raising money and becoming otherwise involved in political campaigns. Only major caucuses organized by political party, race, ethnicity or gender — the Democratic, Republican, Black and Women’s caucuses — were allowed political operations. The ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus argued that was unfair in a suit against the legislature’s Ethics Committee. Last year, a federal judge agreed.Rep. RJ May, one of the leaders of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus, said that the law was a way to “sign away our First Amendment rights. The establishment attempted to weaponize the rules,” he told Stateline.May said that one of the reasons the Freedom Caucus formed in South Carolina is that the majority Republicans don’t “follow the party platform” and are too willing to compromise. The push gained steam, he said, when GOP legislative leaders began to only allow floor amendments from leadership, not rank-and-file lawmakers.“People in South Carolina are sick and tired of leaders saying one thing at home and doing something different in Columbia. They say they are for reducing the size of government, but they vote for budget after budget that increases the number of agencies.”May said his caucus has had some victories, such as championing a bill that passed the House to ban gender-affirming care for minors. (The bill is awaiting action in the Senate.) Caucus members also claim credit for reducing the state’s spending bill, though many of its members’ amendments were rejected, such as a move to give grants to churches and nonprofits to bolster the foster care system.May echoed leaders in Missouri and elsewhere by saying that passing a bill is not necessarily the goal. “We have the effect of moving the body to the right,” he said.House Speaker Murrell Smith’s staff did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did he comment for local media stories about the caucus.

Eric Lee

St. Louis Public RadioThe Missouri State Capitol is shrouded in fog on Jan. 25 in Jefferson City.

‘The farm team’Most of the Freedom Caucuses formed in states with Republican supermajorities. An exception is Pennsylvania, where the governor is a Democrat and Democrats control the House, while Republicans control the Senate.The Freedom Caucus there has filed a lawsuit accusing Democrats, including President Joe Biden and Gov. Josh Shapiro, of unconstitutionally wresting power from the legislature over expanding access to elections in the state. Just last week, a federal judge dismissed the suit.Pennsylvania Rep. Dawn Keefer, the Republican Freedom Caucus chair, who is running for the state Senate, had no immediate comment on the ruling to local media. Nor would she comment for this story.In Arizona, Freedom Caucus members, led by chair Sen. Jake Hoffman, spearheaded a drive that resulted in the state Board of Education delaying until next year a proposed new handbook governing how parents use state-funded educational savings accounts to send their kids to private schools. The new handbook was designed to tighten the rules for using the accounts.Hoffman said parents had not been given sufficient input. The new rules would have restricted the use of the funds for summer programs and required more updates for use of the money for students with disabilities. He called for a “robust stakeholder working group” to give input into the rule changes. The Board of Education maintained it had consulted parents and other interested parties. Nonetheless, it caved after concerns from families and Freedom Caucus members.Holding news conferences and filing lawsuits — it’s all part of the State Freedom Caucus Network playbook, according to its director, Roth.“Our members consider themselves the farm team of the House Freedom Caucus,” he said. “We also provide them communications support, legal support and get them connected with legal groups to help them file lawsuits.”Back in Missouri, roiling the entrenched GOP leadership is exactly what Freedom Caucus members are doing, Eigel said.“We’re shaking the status quo just by going through a lot of bills that are brought to the floor and asking a lot of questions that can frustrate folks that are expecting a much easier route to get their special interest priorities to the legislative chamber,” he said just before last week’s Senate session that featured Britton’s delay tactics. “I suspect that if you are watching today, you’re going to see a lot of questions.”And there were.This story was originally published by Stateline, part of the States Newsroom.

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Poll: Support for Missouri abortion rights amendment growing

Published

1 year ago

August 29, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A proposed constitutional amendment legalizing abortion in Missouri received support from more than half of respondents in a new poll from St. Louis University and YouGov.That’s a boost from a poll earlier this year, which could mean what’s known as Amendment 3 is in a solid position to pass in November.SLU/YouGov’s poll of 900 likely Missouri voters from Aug. 8-16 found that 52% of respondents would vote for Amendment 3, which would place constitutional protections for abortion up to fetal viability. Thirty-four percent would vote against the measure, while 14% aren’t sure.By comparison, the SLU/YouGov poll from February found that 44% of voters would back the abortion legalization amendment.St. Louis University political science professor Steven Rogers said 32% of Republicans and 53% of independents would vote for the amendment. That’s in addition to nearly 80% of Democratic respondents who would approve the measure. In the previous poll, 24% of Republicans supported the amendment.Rogers noted that neither Amendment 3 nor a separate ballot item raising the state’s minimum wage is helping Democratic candidates. GOP contenders for U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer and secretary of state all hold comfortable leads.“We are seeing this kind of crossover voting, a little bit, where there are voters who are basically saying, ‘I am going to the polls and I’m going to support a Republican candidate, but I’m also going to go to the polls and then I’m also going to try to expand abortion access and then raise the minimum wage,’” Rogers said.Republican gubernatorial nominee Mike Kehoe has a 51%-41% lead over Democrat Crystal Quade. And U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley is leading Democrat Lucas Kunce by 53% to 42%. Some GOP candidates for attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer have even larger leads over their Democratic rivals.

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioHundreds of demonstrators pack into a parking lot at Planned Parenthood of St. Louis and Southwest Missouri on June 24, 2022, during a demonstration following the Supreme Court’s reversal of a case that guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion.

One of the biggest challenges for foes of Amendment 3 could be financial.Typically, Missouri ballot initiatives with well-funded and well-organized campaigns have a better chance of passing — especially if the opposition is underfunded and disorganized. Since the end of July, the campaign committee formed to pass Amendment 3 received more than $3 million in donations of $5,000 or more.That money could be used for television advertisements to improve the proposal’s standing further, Rogers said, as well as point out that Missouri’s current abortion ban doesn’t allow the procedure in the case of rape or incest.“Meanwhile, the anti side won’t have those resources to kind of try to make that counter argument as strongly, and they don’t have public opinion as strongly on their side,” Rogers said.There is precedent of a well-funded initiative almost failing due to opposition from socially conservative voters.In 2006, a measure providing constitutional protections for embryonic stem cell research nearly failed — even though a campaign committee aimed at passing it had a commanding financial advantage.Former state Sen. Bob Onder was part of the opposition campaign to that measure. He said earlier this month it is possible to create a similar dynamic in 2024 against Amendment 3, if social conservatives who oppose abortion rights can band together.“This is not about reproductive rights or care for miscarriages or IVF or anything else,” said Onder, the GOP nominee for Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District seat. “Missourians will learn that out-of-state special interests and dark money from out of state is lying to them and they will reject this amendment.”Quade said earlier this month that Missourians of all political ideologies are ready to roll back the state’s abortion ban.“Regardless of political party, we hear from folks who are tired of politicians being in their doctor’s offices,” Quade said. “They want politicians to mind their own business. So this is going to excite folks all across the political spectrum.”

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Democrat Mark Osmack makes his case for Missouri treasurer

Published

1 year ago

August 29, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Mark Osmack has been out of the electoral fray for awhile, but he never completely abandoned his passion for Missouri politics.Osmack, a Valley Park native and U.S. Army veteran, previously ran for Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District seat and for state Senate. Now he’s the Democratic nominee for state treasurer after receiving a phone call from Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Russ Carnahan asking him to run.“There’s a lot of decision making and processing and evaluation that goes into it, which is something I am very passionate and interested in,” Osmack said this week on an episode of Politically Speaking.Osmack is squaring off against state Treasurer Vivek Malek, who was able to easily win a crowded GOP primary against several veteran lawmakers including House Budget Chairman Cody Smith and state Sen. Andrew Koenig.While Malek was able to attract big donations to his political action committee and pour his own money into the campaign, Osmack isn’t worried that he won’t be able to compete in November. Since Malek was appointed to his post, Osmack contends he hasn’t proven that he’s a formidable opponent in a general election.“His actions and his decision making so far in his roughly two year tenure in that office have been questionable,” Osmack said.Among other things, Osmack was critical of Malek for placing unclaimed property notices on video gaming machines which are usually found in gas stations or convenience stores. The legality of the machines has been questioned for some time.As Malek explained on his own episode of Politically Speaking, he wanted to make sure the unclaimed property program was as widely advertised as possible. But he acknowledged it was a mistake to put the decals close to the machines and ultimately decided to remove them.Osmack said: “This doesn’t even pass the common sense sniff test of, ‘Hey, should I put state stickers claiming you might have a billion dollars on a gambling machine that is not registered with the state of Missouri?’ If we’re gonna give kudos for him acknowledging the wrong thing, it never should have been done in the first place.”Osmack’s platform includes supporting programs providing school meals using Missouri agriculture products and making child care more accessible for the working class.He said the fact that Missouri has such a large surplus shows that it’s possible to create programs to make child care within reach for parents.“It is quite audacious for [Republicans] to brag about $8 billion, with a B, dollars in state surplus, while we offer next to no social services to include pre-K, daycare, or child care,” Osmack said.Here’s are some other topics Osmack discussed on the show:How he would handle managing the state’s pension systems and approving low-income housing tax credits. The state treasurer’s office is on boards overseeing both of those programs.Malek’s decision to cut off investments from Chinese companies. Osmack said that Missouri needs to be cautious about abandoning China as a business partner, especially since they’re a major consumer of the state’s agriculture products. “There’s a way to make this work where we are not supporting communist nations to the detriment of the United States or our allies, while also maintaining strong economic ties that benefit Missouri farmers,” he said.What it was like to witness the skirmish at the Missouri State Fair between U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and Democratic challenger Lucas Kunce.Whether Kunce can get the support of influential groups like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which often channels money and staff to states with competitive Senate elections.

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As Illinois receives praise for its cannabis equity efforts, stakeholders work on system’s flaws

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1 year ago

August 29, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Medical marijuana patients can now purchase cannabis grown by small businesses as part of their allotment, Illinois’ top cannabis regulator said, but smaller, newly licensed cannabis growers are still seeking greater access to the state’s medical marijuana customers.Illinois legalized medicinal marijuana beginning in 2014, then legalized it for recreational use in 2020. While the 2020 law legalized cannabis use for any adult age 21 or older, it did not expand licensing for medical dispensaries.Patients can purchase marijuana as part of the medical cannabis program at dual-purpose dispensaries, which are licensed to serve both medical and recreational customers. But dual-purpose dispensaries are greatly outnumbered by dispensaries only licensed to sell recreationally, and there are no medical-only dispensaries in the state.As another part of the adult-use legalization law, lawmakers created a “craft grow” license category that was designed to give more opportunities to Illinoisans hoping to legally grow and sell marijuana. The smaller-scale grow operations were part of the 2020 law’s efforts to diversify the cannabis industry in Illinois.Prior to that, all cultivation centers in Illinois were large-scale operations dominated by large multi-state operators. The existing cultivators, mostly in operation since 2014, were allowed to grow recreational cannabis beginning in 2019.Until recently, dual-purpose dispensaries have been unsure as to whether craft-grown products, made by social equity licensees — those who have lived in a disproportionately impacted area or have been historically impacted by the war on drugs — can be sold medicinally as part of a patient’s medical allotment.Erin Johnson, the state’s cannabis regulation oversight officer, told Capitol News Illinois last month that her office has “been telling dispensaries, as they have been asking us” they can now sell craft-grown products to medical patients.“There was just a track and trace issue on our end, but never anything statutorily,” she said.

Dilpreet Raju

Capitol News IllinoisThe graphic shows how cannabis grown in Illinois gets from cultivation centers to customers.

No notice has been posted, but Johnson’s verbal guidance comes almost two years after the first craft grow business went online in Illinois.It allows roughly 150,000 medical patients, who dispensary owners say are the most consistent purchasers of marijuana, to buy products made by social equity businesses without paying recreational taxes. However — even as more dispensaries open — the number available to medical patients has not increased since 2018, something the Cannabis Regulation Oversight Office “desperately” wants to see changed. Johnson said Illinois is a limited license state, meaning “there are caps on everything” to help control the relatively new market.Berwyn Thompkins, who operates two cannabis businesses, said the rules limited options for patients and small businesses.“It’s about access,” Thompkins said. “Why wouldn’t we want all the patients — which the (adult-use) program was initially built around — why wouldn’t we want them to have access? They should have access to any dispensary.”Customers with a medical marijuana card pay a 1% tax on all marijuana products, whereas recreational customers pay retail taxes between roughly 20 and 40% on a given cannabis product, when accounting for local taxes.While Illinois has received praise for its equity-focused cannabis law, including through an independent study that showed more people of color own cannabis licenses than in any other state, some industry operators say they’ve experienced many unnecessary hurdles getting their businesses up and running.The state, in fact, announced last month that it had opened its 100th social equity dispensary.But Steve Olson, purchasing manager at a pair of dispensaries (including one dual-purpose dispensary) near Rockford, said small specialty license holders have been left in the lurch since the first craft grower opened in October 2022.“You would think that this would be something they’re (the government) trying to help out these social equity companies with, but they’re putting handcuffs on them in so many different spots,” he said. “One of them being this medical thing.”Olson said he contacted state agencies, including the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, months ago about whether craft products can be sold to medical patients at their retail tax rate, but only heard one response: “They all say it was an oversight.”This potentially hurt social equity companies because they sell wholesale to dispensaries and may have been missing out on a consistent customer base through those medical dispensaries.Olson said the state’s attempts to provide licensees with a path to a successful business over the years, such as with corrective lotteries that granted more social equity licenses, have come up short.“It’s like they almost set up the social equity thing to fail so the big guys could come in and swoop up all these licenses,” Olson said. “I hate to feel like that but, if you look at it, it’s pretty black and white.”Olson said craft companies benefit from any type of retail sale.“If we sell it to medical patients or not, it’s a matter of, ‘Are we collecting the proper taxes?’ That’s all it is,” he said.State revenue from cannabis taxes, licensing costs and other fees goes into the Cannabis Regulation Fund, which is used to fund a host of programs, including cannabis offense expungement, the general revenue fund, and the R3 campaign aiming to uplift disinvested communities.For fiscal year 2024, nearly $256 million was paid out from Cannabis Regulation Fund for related initiatives, which includes almost $89 million transferred to the state’s general revenue fund and more than $20 million distributed to local governments, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue.Medical access still limitedThe state’s 55 medical dispensaries that predate the 2020 legalization law, mostly owned by publicly traded multistate operators that had been operating in Illinois since 2014 under the state’s medical marijuana program, were automatically granted a right to licenses to sell recreationally in January 2020. That gave them a dual-purpose license that no new entrants into the market can receive under current law.Since expanding their clientele in 2020, Illinois dispensaries have sold more than $6 billion worth of cannabis products through recreational transactions alone.Nearly two-thirds of dispensaries licensed to sell to medical patients are in the northeast counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will. Dual-purpose dispensaries only represent about 20 percent of the state’s dispensaries.While the state began offering recreational dispensary licenses since the adult-use legalization law passed, it has not granted a new medical dispensary license since 2018. That has allowed the established players to continue to corner the market on the state’s nearly 150,000 medical marijuana patients.But social equity licensees and advocates say there are more ways to level the playing field, including expanding access to medical sales.Johnson, who became the state’s top cannabis regulator in late 2022, expressed hope for movement during the fall veto session on House Bill 2911, which would expand medical access to all Illinois dispensaries.“We would like every single dispensary in Illinois to be able to serve medical patients,” Johnson said. “It’s something that medical patients have been asking for, for years.”Johnson said the bill would benefit patients and small businesses.“It’s something we desperately want to happen as a state system, because we want to make sure that medical patients are able to easily access what they need,” she said. “We also think it’s good for our social equity dispensaries, as they’re opening, to be able to serve medical patients.”Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, who was the first statewide project coordinator for Illinois’ medical cannabis program prior to joining the legislature, wrote in an email to Capitol News Illinois that the state needs to be doing more for its patients.“Illinois is failing the state’s 150,000 medical cannabis patients with debilitating conditions. Too many are still denied the patient protections they deserve, including access to their medicine,” Morgan wrote, adding he would continue to work with stakeholders on further legislation.Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.

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