Brad Lager

This morning from Missourinet: "A fourth candidate and second state senator is joining the Republican race for Lieutenant Governor.  State Senator Lu Ann [Ridgeway of Smithville served ten years in the House before serving her two terms in the Senate."

From this week's Political EYE in the St. Louis American

The tipping factor already has started to tip. According to reliable, disgruntled Republican sources, a powerful Republican operative who favors state Sen. Brad Lager was the one who turned Tilley’s toxic source(s) against him to scare him out of the lieutenant governor’s race. The EYE was told this before Lager declared he had entered the LG race, which gives the report some credence. The same source said this same operative was suspected within the party of turning up trouble for current Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder in his still undeclared bid for governor. This suggests the Missouri Republican Party has started to come apart at its center, with a free-for-all fight for power starting to get underway.

Did you know there is a cap-and-trade carbon trading system in Missouri that has, until recently, completely escaped legislative and media scrutiny? 

Brad Lager did, and he's promising to shut it down!  From the Lieutenant Governor's office, no less, an office that totally has the power to do such things!  

In fact, Lager wrote yesterday that promises to "dismantl[e] Obamacare, cap-and-trade and other excessive regulatory initiatives currently being implemented in Missouri by the Nixon Administration" will be a "hallmark" of his new campaign. 

No word yet on why our sitting hyper-partisan Lieutenant Governor hasn't been all over this. 

The Case for Brad Lager:

1. It's not about winning; it's about stopping the bleeding.
2. Lager has run statewide before, but
3. If he loses another down ballot race, his career is effectively over.
4. He can go back to the Senate after the 2012 campaign. 
5. The Humphreys have been big Lager supporters. David Humphreys is currently Kinder's loudest GOP critic.
6. Peter Kinder is paying Jeff Roe a little now to discourage a primary challenger, but Roe would make a lot more with his main man as the candidate. 
7. Lager doesn't care about Steve Tilley's plans, and
8. If Lager runs a respectable campaign in 2012, he has an inside track on 2016.
9. There is no embarrassing video evidence in the public domain to disqualify the man.
10. Approximately zero Republicans want to run on a ticket with Peter Kinder.  

Rob Mayer and Steve Tilley in happier times.

July 20 - Steve Tilley: "We finally reached an agreement."

July 20 - KMOX: "The announcement featured Mo Senate Leader Robert Mayer, R-Dexter and Mo House Speaker Steve Tilley, R-Perryville — both saying they are ready to pass a wide ranging jobs package that goes beyond China Hub."

July 26 - Rob Mayer: Governor Jay Nixon "'was somewhat cautious or hesitant...'He had concerns about opposition in either chamber. He wanted to make certain that we had a degree of certainty' that the economic development bill would pass."

September 23- Steve Tilley on Rob Mayer: "The House has done every single thing that we said we were going to do...I assume that when Rob Mayer told me this is the deal that they could get this done -- It's not my job to micromanage the Senate.  I assumed he could get it done. It's clear that he couldn't. I'm not necessarily blaming him, because I think he's trying to get it done.  But obviously he wasn't successful..."

September 22 - Rob Mayer: "I’m not optimistic at all."

September 23 - Steve Tilley: "I think Brad Lager says one thing and does another."

September 23 - Steve Tilley: "Functionally, The Senate's Broke"

September 23 - Bob Priddy: "We agree that we’ve never seen a special legislative session that is such a mess as this one."

September 24 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "The man most responsible for delaying, and possibly killing, the bill you care about is named Steve Tilley, a Republican from Perryville who is speaker of the Missouri House."

Steve Tilley and Rob Mayer on the air

The Post-Dispatch's take on the struggling special session: "In America, but especially in Missouri, money talks. The man most responsible for delaying, and possibly killing, the bill you care about is named Steve Tilley, a Republican from Perryville who is speaker of the Missouri House. In recent years, Mr. Tilley has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the primary critics of your proposal: retired investor Rex Sinquefield, who also funds the think-tank Show-Me Institute, and developers who get rich from government programs intended to build low-income housing projects. Our suggestion is simple: Next time, put your money on the right horse."

The Star: "What went wrong? The simplest explanation is that Republican legislative leaders failed to do enough groundwork before asking Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon to call a special session. The barriers seen over the last three weeks involve GOP infighting in the Senate and disagreements between the Republican majorities in the Senate and House."

Missourinet's Bob Priddy: "Those of us who have been covering state government for a few decades have done something the legislature hasn’t been able to do.  We have reached a consensus. We agree that we’ve never seen a special legislative session that is such a mess as this one.  There already has been a bunch of finger pointing about who’s to blame.  There is no shortage of suspects."

Video of Speaker Steve Tilley speaking this afternoon after the House adjourned, via Jason Rosenbaum. 

State Senator Brad Lager, who is the rumored retread GOP candidate for State Treasurer, raised $0 in the second quarter of 2010.

Meanwhile, State Treasurer Clint Zweifel raised over $200,000 in quarter two and has over $530,000 in the bank.

Today in the Post-Dispatch:

The bill [SB188], sponsored by Sen. Brad Lager, R-Savannah, is this year’s version of the anti-whistleblower, anti-worker, pro-discrimination act pushed by Mr. Lager and various business interests last year. It is the top item on the Missouri Chamber of Commerce’s poorly named “Fix the Six” agenda.

This bill would fix nothing. It is intended to not protect whistleblowers and other workers, and it would make it easier to fire them...

[T]hose companies that have been on the other side — those that have fired employees because they’re black, or gay, or disabled, or because they blew the whistle on unethical or illegal conduct — would be shielded from justice if Mr. Nixon signs SB 188.

The Missouri Employee and Human Rights Coalition released an online video today as part of their effort to fight HB205 and SB188, sponsored by Rep. Kevin Elmer (R-Nixa) and Sen. Brad Lager (R-Savannah), respectively. "Our laws against workplace discrimination at work are more than 50 years old, and they have worked for all Missourians," the group writes in an email blast to supporters. "But big businesses want bigger advantages over small businesses, and they want to make employees and families even more vulnerable." 

For more on the proposal to make discrimination more acceptable in Missouri, check out this great op-ed from Rep. Stephen Webber (D-Columbia) published in the Post-Dispatch a few weeks ago.  HB205 has made it through the House committee process, and SB188 is scheduled for a Senate committee hearing tomorrow.

The Post-Dispatch editorial page has an impressive snapshot this weekend of the things our legislators are focusing on that do little or nothing to improve the lives of working Missourians.  The Editorial Board calls them "mean" pieces of legislation -- "[A] truly mean bill creates hardship for classes of people without sound public purpose. A truly mean bill is based on prejudice, not fact. A truly mean bill is gratuitously nasty." 

BOTTOM LINE: The Mean Girls & Boys Club is after the working poor, immigrants (legal and illegal), non-English speakers, children, more children, the poor, the disabled, the elderly, non-Christians, workers rights, their own colleagues and maybe cancer patients.

And Missouri wonders why it has trouble attracting jobs.

Bills that made the cut include the push to gut the state's voter-approved minimum wage law, provide drivers' tests in English only, deregulate child labor, drug test TANF recipients in a poorly-conceived manner and disenfranchise tens of thousands of Missourians to help GOP electoral efforts.  

The best part of the editorial, though, may be the R.J. Matson cartoon embedded here.  Some of the likenesses are fantastic, and others are a little harder to figure out.  But based on the article and art, here is the cast in the cartoon above, from left to right: Kevin Elmer (R-Nixa), Brad Lager (R-Savannah), Bill Stouffer (R-Napton), Jane Cunnigham (R-Chesterfield), Jack Goodman (?) (R-Mt. Vernon), Jerry Nolte (R-Gladstone), Steve Cookson (R-Fairdealing), Doug Funderburk (R-St. Peters), Kevin Engler (R-Farmington), Stanley Cox (R-Sedalia), Maria Chappelle-Nadal (D-University City).  

The Post-Dispatch's Virginia Young reports today that Sen. Rob Mayer (R-Dexter) is officially challenging Sen. Kevin Engler (R-Farmington) in the upcoming battle to be Senate President Pro Tem, and the Star reports that Sen. Brad Lager (R-Maryville) is also running for the spot.

The general assumption on High Street is that Sen. Kevin Engler (R-Farminton) will be promoted by his Republican colleagues from Majority Floor Leader to President Pro Tem in the next legislative session.  However, as members prepare to return to Jefferson City for tomorrow's veto session, there is increased speculation that Engler's advancement is not a done deal. 

Depending on ambition and willingness to tolerate risk of Sens. Brad Lager, Jack Goodman, and Jim Lembke, a shake-up could be on the horizon.

As it stands now, Kurt Schaefer and David Pearce both appear to be on the hot seat.  Schaefer is currently the Vice-Chair of the Appropriations Committee, a spot openly coveted by Lembke.  Engler may be required to offer this spot to Lembke to prevent a Sleeper Cell coup.  Pearce is currently the Chair of the Education Committee, but contributes little to the Caucus -- could a grumpy Jane Cunningham be assuaged to support Engler's bid if she becomes the new Chair?

Politico's Dave Catanese posted a series of interesting tweets on Saturday about Tom Schweich's campaign for State Auditor.  In chronological order:

• 8:38 PM - Bad buzz about Schweich from even those who support him. He's steamed he has a primary when he cut a deal. Ala [Florida Governor Charlie] Crist, welcome to the NFL.
   
• 9:14 PM - GOPer says Schweich needs to learn from @RoyBlunt in approach. Roy takes his licks, but smiles, brushes off like Jay-Z. Schweich gets mad.
   
• 9:32 PM - Schweich should devote a speech to his $500 contrib. to @clairecmc. Say if the GOP wants to b party that excludes indys, it won't prevail.
   
• 9:41 PM - No, @allenicet [primary opponent Allen Icet] doesn't inspire. But Schweich is turning people off. RT @davesmith3: @davecatanese is @alanicet really crushing it THAT much?

I'm a little confused by Sen. Brad Lager's (R-Savannah) competing -- and seemingly contradictory -- criticisms of the Department of Natural Resources.

If the 2008 election cycle was characterized by one phenomenon for Missouri Republicans, party disunity would probably lead the list.  Driven by a contentious and damaging gubernatorial primary and the nomination of a GOP Presidential candidate whom almost no prominent Missourians supported in the primaries, Republicans spent as much time in 2008 battling one another as they did fighting the Democratic opponents.  

As we approach the new year, it appears likely that trend will continue.  Bruised egos and hurt feelings stemming from Lieutenant Gov. Peter Kinder's betrayal of ticketmates have reportedly not yet been salved, and may lead to some return disloyalty on the part of Republican legislators. 

Chief among the aggrieved is Sen. Brad Lager, who as Treasurer candidate lost the closest of the 2008 races for statewide office.  Lager was the candidate who likely suffered most from Kinder's decision to throw his pals on the Republican ticket under the bus with a sample ballot distributed across the St. Louis area which pushed Kinder and...the four other statewide Democratic candidates, including Lager's opponent.