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Missouri GOP disunity dominates chaotic ’24 legislative session

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On the surface, Sens. Mike Cierpiot and Denny Hoskins shouldn’t be bitter adversaries.The two Republicans represent parts of the Kansas City area and served in GOP House leadership together in the 2010s. According to Hoskins, they’ve even been roommates for nearly a decade.But the two absolutely do not get along.In fact, Cierpiot caused quite a stir last Thursday when he put forth an amendment to the Senate Journal disapproving of Attorney General Andrew Bailey defending Hoskins and two other senators against a defamation lawsuit related to tweets that falsely accused a Kansas man of the shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs parade.This barb, in response to a similar amendment from Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, telling the Senate’s sergeant-at-arms to watch out for a thundering herd of rhinoceroses, was one of the last things the General Assembly’s upper chamber did last week before quickly adjourning on Friday. (Eigel was referring to Republicans in name only, or RINOs, when mentioning a herd, a criticism often lobbed at GOP officials who are not sufficiently conservative.)“You just reach a point that you just want to respond in some way and other than being humorous or demeaning. I thought it was factual,” said Cierpiot, R-Lee’s Summit.

Brian Munoz

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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri State Sen. Mike Cierpiot, R-Kansas City, pauses while listening to colleagues speak at a press conference on Friday during the last day of the legislative session in Jefferson City.

After declining to comment on the substance of Cierpiot’s move, Hoskins added, “I will just say that he decided he was not going to stay in the apartment last night.”“So that was probably very appropriate,” said Hoskins, R-Warrensburg.The Hoskins-Cierpiot spat was perhaps a small example of the bitter and public factionalism among Missouri legislative Republicans, something that became so pervasive this session that it helped tank one of the party’s biggest priorities — a ballot item making it harder to amend the Missouri Constitution.And while disunity among Republicans is hardly a new phenomenon in the Missouri General Assembly, both Republicans and Democrats say this year could prompt changes in how lawmakers approach policymaking — especially if the perennially outnumbered Democrats make gains in both chambers.In fact, outgoing Democratic Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo said the fact that Senate Republicans decided against shutting off their record-setting filibuster over the constitutional amendment boost isn’t just a show of strength for his party. Rather, the Independence Democrat said, “I think it’s a beacon of hope for the country.”“Unfortunately, in today’s world, compromise is a terrible thing,” Rizzo said. “But when we work through the process together, we can get some stuff done, and we can really do some things. I wish we would have been able to do more things if we’d have done this a few years ago. But at the same time, I think they’ve charted a path where they can.”

Brian Munoz

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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri Senate Majority Floor Leader Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina, pauses while giving closing session remarks on Friday during the last day of the legislative session in Jefferson City. O’Laughlin gaveled the Missouri Senate out minutes after gaveling in and a week of dysfunction.

Factionalism feature or bug?The 2024 session will not only be remembered for the divides in the Senate, but also the lack of productivity.Missouri House Democrats noted that when appropriations bills are subtracted, this past year’s session was the least productive in recent memory in terms of legislation passed. In fact, the Senate didn’t end up passing a single bill during the final week.But House and Senate leaders disputed the idea that nothing happened during the session, pointing to passage of a wide-ranging education bill that expanded a tax credit program for public and private schools. On the last day of session, lawmakers made tweaks to a senior property tax freeze program and approved a crime bill that included a long-sought provision aimed at curtailing celebratory gunfire.“This legislative session started off with most dire predictions, doom and gloom. But it wasn’t that,” said House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres.“I think that we had a pretty good year,” added Senate Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina. “I like all of my colleagues. They are all very bright. Difficult to handle sometimes, but they all kind of want the same thing. It’s just that some people want to take a different path to get it.”It appeared that the GOP House, Senate and Freedom Caucus were on substantially different paths throughout the past few months.

Brian Munoz

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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri Senate Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina, listens to Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, on Thursday during the waning days of the legislative session at the state Capitol in Jefferson City.

At the start of the session, O’Laughlin remarked to reporters that she would vote to expel Eigel— something that prompted a bitter confrontation between the two. After Freedom Caucus members held up Senate business, Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden went as far to strip members of the Freedom Caucus of their committee chairmanships and their parking spots in retaliation.While the tensions ebbed and flowed throughout the session, they arguably reached a fever pitch near the end of session when the Freedom Caucus engaged in a lengthy filibuster of legislation reauthorizing a critical tax to fund the state’s Medicaid program. That eventually passed, but uncertainty over the passage of what’s known as the Federal Reimbursement Allowance led to an unprecedented budget process that didn’t feature a conference committee.The bid to make the Missouri Constitution harder to amend sputtered out after a record Democratic filibuster — and refusal from some Republicans, including Rowden, to use a rarely dispatched maneuver called the ‘previous question’ to cut off debate. The House refused to pass a version of the amendment threshold boost without other provisions, including a measure barring noncitizens from voting. (That’s already illegal in Missouri, but the provision was placed on another ballot item that Missourians will decide later this year to ban ranked choice voting.)“I think the idea of how this place is supposed to function should be kept intact for as long as it can,” said Rowden, noting how the GOP majority passed legislation to prohibit most abortions and curtail federal gun laws in prior years. “But every once in a while you lose. And that’s the way it is.”

Brian Munoz

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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, holds up a flyer touting GOP successes by the majority party on Friday during the last day of the legislative session in Jefferson City.

A more moderate course?House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, said the lack of productivity was something of a mixed bag for her Democratic colleagues. She said GOP infighting brought about the demise of bills that her party didn’t like, most notably the measure to boost the constitutional amendment threshold.But she added the dysfunction also meant that bipartisan priorities fell by the wayside, including efforts to provide tax credits for child care facilities and to raise the age a person can get married from 16 to 18.“The experiment of putting people who hate government in charge of government has predictably failed,” said Quade, a candidate for governor. “The time for change is now.”While there is little hope of Democrats taking over either chamber of the General Assembly, the last redistricting cycle created a House map that features a number of competitive districts — especially in suburban parts of the state. And it’s possible that Democrats could make more pronounced gains than usual if a ballot item legalizing abortion is on the November ballot.“We’ve seen Republicans run the state for 20 years,” said Rep. Richard Brown, D-Kansas City. “People complain about how the state has been managed and how the state’s been run. But again, as I tell them: Democrats are not in the leadership positions to make those changes that people want. So let’s go to the polls, elect some Democrats, and let’s see what the future brings for Missouri.”Democrats like Quade are bullish that they can win enough seats to break the GOP supermajority — something that, with some other good election results, could radically change how a Republican-led General Assembly operates.

Brian Munoz

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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri Senate Minority Floor Leader John Rizzo, D-Independence, speaks on Friday during the last day of the legislative session in Jefferson City.

Senate Democrats could also potentially break the GOP supermajority, though their ability to gain seats is more limited because many of the districts up for grabs are heavily Republican. But Rizzo said that with lots of people leaving the Senate this year, it’s possible that a new group of lawmakers could create a less hostile environment.“There has to be a follow-through next year,” Rizzo said. “Don’t regress, keep moving forward. Don’t let the bullies win. And I think they took the first step to do that. I’ve been waiting for it for four or five years. And I think they finally did.”It’s unclear how many members of the Missouri Freedom Caucus will return next year, especially with Brattin facing a competitive GOP primary, and it’s unknown who will prevail in races to represent Republican-dominated Senate districts.But Hoskins noted in his remarks to reporters that the concept of Republican factionalism that chafes against legislative leadership is not a new phenomenon. In fact, that’s been fairly constant since the mid-2000s — and especially during times when Republicans control the governorship.“It’s much bigger than us five right here,” Hoskins said. “It’s a movement to stick to the Missouri Republican Party platform in our conservative beliefs.”

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Poll: Support for Missouri abortion rights amendment growing

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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

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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

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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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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

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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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