Politics

Out-of-state donors fuel pair of GOP candidates running for Missouri governor, AG

Published

2 years ago

October 2, 2023

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Becoming a registered Republican was the worst decision B.J. Adams says he ever made.Adams, a resident of Burlington, North Carolina, isn’t upset with GOP policies. And he loves former President Donald Trump.But when the 87-year-old conservative who grew up a Democrat finally switched his party registration, he said it unleashed a torrent of fundraising pleas that on one day this year included 66 emails asking for money.“Definitely my advice would be don’t do it,” Adams said in an interview with The Independent, “because all you’ll do is get a bunch of dumb-ass requests for donations.”Some solicitations Adams received – and responded to – were from Missouri, though that wasn’t always clear.His name is among 33,408 donations from individuals reported to the Missouri Ethics Commission this year by Believe in Life and Liberty, or BILL PAC, which is backing state Sen. Bill Eigel’s campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. He also shows up on the report for Eigel’s official campaign committee, which lists 6,914 individual donations this year.Adams is also listed as a donor to Will Scharf, a Republican candidate for Missouri attorney general who has reported 962 donations from individuals this year.In all there are 185 individuals who gave to both Eigel and Scharf, averaging nine contributions per donor.How nearly 200 individuals from around the country landed on reports for Eigel and Scharf has an easy explanation – both used Targeted Victory, a Virginia consulting firm, to contact donors nationwide.The firm has drawn criticism over its tactics, including a scathing letter from Trump’s campaign demanding it stop using the former president’s name, image and likeness in fundraising pitches that appear designed to obscure where the money is actually going.The number of individual donations for Eigel, BILL PAC and Scharf far surpass those of any other announced or potential candidate seeking one of the five statewide constitutional offices on next year’s ballot. Missouri residents, however, gave only a tiny fraction of those individual donations, an analysis by The Independent shows.More than 90% of the listed individual donations for Eigel and Scharf’s campaign are from people living outside Missouri.For BILL PAC, almost 99% of the donations were from outside the state.Eigel did not return text and telephone messages seeking comment for this story.In an interview, Scharf distanced himself from Targeted Victory’s controversial tactics, saying the wording of his solicitations was not deceptive and all of his fundraising appeals stated upfront who he was and the office he was seeking.“I’ve tried to reach out to conservatives here in Missouri and around the country through a lot of different means,” Scharf said, “including using social media, emails and text messages to get people involved and engaged with our campaign.”Adams said the solicitations were often emails or text messages making a statement about a national issue and asking for support in a petition or a survey.“I’d fill that survey and then you’d have to give them a donation or it wouldn’t go through,” Adams said. “I thought, okay. I’ll give them $1, sometimes $2 or something like that, to get them off my back.”That, Adams said, is when you find out who gets the money.“If you gave them a donation, then it would come back and say, it was given to somebody, you know, (House Majority Leader Steve) Scalise or somebody else,” Adams said. “And you don’t know where it went. And so I assume that that’s exactly what’s happened in these two cases.”Not any more, he said.“I’ve just washed my hands of them,” Adams said. “So you won’t get anything else like that from me because I’m not gonna give them any more.”

Will Scharf speaks at his campaign kickoff event on January 2023 in St. Louis

The connectionNeither Scharf nor Eigel’s campaign committee have reported payments to Targeted Victory. BILL PAC has reported spending just over $300,000 with the firm during 2023.Scharf said he was uncertain why the company isn’t on his second quarter report but said it is likely because the campaign had not received a bill yet.“As a first time candidate, we’ve used a lot of different tools to reach out to as many people as possible,” Scharf said. “We’ve got at this point tens of millions of impressions on Twitter, tens of thousands of impressions on Facebook and Instagram. We’re using every means at our disposal to get the word out about our campaign.”Targeted Victory is also one of 10 GOP consulting firms put on notice in March to be careful how they use Trump’s name and image in fundraising appeals.And Eigel specifically has been warned that his appeals could be crossing that line.The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that in August, Eigel’s campaign sent a solicitation that it needed 500,000 names to “Stand with Trump.” After a potential donor clicks through to join the petition, the final step to register a name is a required donation to benefit Eigel for Missouri, his campaign committee, identified in small type near the box stating the amount of the donation.The newspaper quoted a donor from Arizona who had no idea she had given $10 to Eigel’s PAC and didn’t know who Eigel was.The story drew a rebuke from Trump, who through a lawyer sent a “cease and desist this unauthorized use immediately” to BILL PAC and Targeted Victory the newspaper reported.Scharf said he doesn’t engage in that type of deceptive fundraising activity.In an April 19 solicitation on his campaign letterhead, Scharf asked for money by invoking the controversy generated by ProPublica’s investigation of luxury travel provided to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas by major GOP donor Harlan Crow.That solicitation stated that “the left and their allies are working overtime to smear his good name, all because he believes in the U.S. Constitution and defends it every day.”Scharf’s committee received 52 donations that day, generating $995.50.On June 21, Scharf received 98 contributions totaling $1,054, including $2 from Adams.On that day, he said, he appeared on the radio talk show hosted by Mark Levin and discussed Trump’s most recent federal indictment.The solicitation sent that day, he said, introduced him as a Levin-endorsed MAGA candidate for Missouri attorney general and told potential donors that he had just released an opinion piece on the “sham indictment.”When recipients clicked on the link, they were offered an opportunity to read it before contributing, Scharf said. No one had to give money to know who they were supporting or to get any information offered, Scharf said.“We tried to be very, very careful about that sort of thing,” Scharf said.

Tristen Rouse

St. Louis Public RadioMissouri State Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, announces his bid for governor on Sept. 8 at the St. Charles County Regional Airport in Portage Des Sioux. The Air Force veteran and two-term state senator joins the Republican primary alongside Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe. A member of the legislature’s conservative caucus, Eigel has been critical of Senate GOP leadership on various issues.

How it worksOnce a donor responds to a solicitation, it unleashes a flood of additional requests, said John Otis of Dickinson, Texas.Otis remembers giving to Eigel. His first donation, $1, was on May 10. He gave two more times in May, and twice again in June.When he agrees with the message – and the cash demand isn’t too much – Otis said he’s willing to help.“I’m not trying to donate to him per se,” Otis said. “I’d do that for any good cause, I’d give a dollar, you know, to sign a petition, and I have to include a donation to do that and Bill Eigel puts them out massively.”He does not remember donating to Scharf, but said he doesn’t doubt that he did so.“If he put out a petition and I didn’t know who it was and I read something that I really, really agree with, I’m going to be inclined to want to sign it,” Otis said.Otis did not realize, however, that the 44 donations he made to BILL PAC would also help Eigel’s effort to become governor. Otis’ first donation was on Jan. 19. On several days he gave more than once, including seven donations to BILL PAC on April 10.“That’s where he masked them,” Otis said when told the purpose of the Believe in Life and Liberty PAC. “I didn’t know it was him. I’m gonna stop, honestly. I’m not going to give any more to his petitions. I’ve done more than my part for the cause.”Like most of the donors who are on all three reports, Otis gave only once to Scharf.While on the telephone with The Independent, Otis received a text solicitation that he said is typical in its urgency.“Mount Rushmore demolished?” he read. “Thousands have signed a woke petition to destroy Mount Rushmore. Major GOP comeback needed now!”The text asks the recipient to click a response button to add their name to the petition. It turned out to be a solicitation for donations to U.S. Rep. Jake Ellzey, R-Texas.Otis said he likes Ellzey but that the fate of Mount Rushmore “is not going to make or break our country” and he would not donate for that request.Ellzey — like Eigel, BILL PAC and Scharf — is a client of Targeted Victory, spending almost $500,000 with the consulting firm in the first five months of the year, according to Federal Election Commission records.Told that Trump is upset over the use of his name and image by consulting firms like Targeted Victory, Otis said that many of the solicitations he gets invoke Trump’s name.“A lot of these people take advantage of Trump,” Otis said. “They use his name, like an endorsement, and they use it for themselves. And I agree that’s what’s going on in some cases.”The information he would like, Otis said, is to know whether his “signatures” on various petitions actually go anywhere. One reason he participates is a hope that the petitions will be used for more than knowing whether he is still willing to give.“No one else is asking me to give my voice,” he said. “I mean, this is an opportunity. And it would be nice if they are collecting those petitions and presenting them to Congress or wherever they could, or put it out in the media and to the public.”

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioSecretary of State Jay Ashcroft speaks in favor of bills that would, in part, ban the teaching of “critical race theory” in schools on Jan. 18 during an Education and Workforce Development Committee hearing at the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City.

The reactionEigel is running against Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft in the GOP primary. Scharf is challenging Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey.In a news release after delivering second quarter fundraising reports, Eigel used the large number of individual donations to claim broad support for his campaign.“The purpose of the exploratory phase of this campaign was to see if sufficient support existed for our message of a stronger Missouri,” Eigel said in the release. “The answer is a resounding yes – there is overwhelming support around Missouri for a proven conservative outsider.”Thousands of small donations from outside the state don’t say anything about how Missourians view the candidates, Eigel’s rivals said.Consultants have offered to help his gubernatorial campaign engage in a nationwide hunt for money, Ashcroft said in an interview with The Independent.“I have been approached about doing this and we declined,” he said. “We felt like when we were going to be soliciting money, we needed to be upfront with the people about how we were soliciting, and what we’re going to be using their money for.”The methods seem deceptive and manipulative, he said. Using a national issue that has a Missouri angle is an acceptable practice, he said, but not in a way that doesn’t reveal until the end, “in really fine print,” who is actually being supported.“I’m not willing to compromise my character for an election victory,” Ashcroft said.Mike Hafner, a political consultant advising both Kehoe and Bailey, likened many of the solicitations to bait-and-switch retail advertising.“These fundraising schemes should be illegal and should be investigated,” Hafner said.The solicitations abuse the trust of donors, Hafner said, and target people who often can’t afford to give.“Anyone who has scammed elderly individuals disabled individuals, or fixed income individuals for contributions for themselves by dishonesty using conservative causes, or President Trump’s name is shameful and they should refund every one of these donors immediately,” Hafner said.Of the BILL PAC contributions this year, 27,219 were reported with “retired” listed as the donor’s occupation and another 123, including 30 disabled veterans, were listed as not working due to their disability. For Eigel’s campaign committee, 5,680 donations had “retired” in the occupation line and 16 were from people not working due to a disability.Scharf’s list of individual donations for this year includes 715 contributions with “retired” in the occupation line. None are from individuals who are not working due to a disability.Fundraising practices that make donors work to be sure where their money is going aren’t new, said James Harris, a Republican political consultant who does not have a client in the governor or attorney general’s race.The $63 million raised by the College Republican National Committee in 2004 is a notorious example, Harris said.“In the mail they would do all this prospecting of older people, we are going to fight for X, or fight for Y,” Harris said. “They would leave off the word ‘College’ and people thought it was for the Republican National Committee.”The survey solicitation seems to be the hot new thing in political fundraising from small-dollar donors.“I think people ran to it because it is the shiny new object, thinking it will be easy,” Harris said.During President Barack Obama’s initial campaign in 2008, Democrats proved they were far more adept at organizing supporters through technology. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign also excelled at raising money in small amounts from dedicated supporters.Republicans caught up, and then surpassed the competition, thanks to the fervor of Trump’s supporters, Harris said. And the consulting firms handling the solicitations built lists they could then sell to other candidates.The only truly successful small-donor politicians are those who are instantly recognizable, Harris said.“If you are running for the General Assembly, absolutely not,” Harris said. “If you are a bomb-throwing conservative and will say potentially anything, maybe. But really for it to be effective you should have your own brand or name ID.”Jason Roe, a Michigan-based consultant working for Ashcroft’s campaign, said the tactic inflates donor numbers but can cost more than it brings in.“Creating an artificial fundraising bump that consumes a lot of our bandwidth and probably is misleading in its messaging is not really worth the price of admission,” Roe said.One problem is making a message standout and get a lot of responses, he said.“When you do digital fundraising, it tends to get a little hysterical and the message doesn’t always match the messenger,” Roe said. “You know, in Eigel’s case, he’s about performance conservatism, so everything about him is theatrics, not effectiveness. So you know, I’m sure the history of hysteria in his messaging matches his behavior.”This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent, part of the States Newsroom.

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Poll: Support for Missouri abortion rights amendment growing

Published

9 months 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

9 months 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

Published

9 months 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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