Luann Ridgeway

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."

Missouri Jobs with Justice held their two "Scrooge of the Year" Elections in St. Louis and Kansas City recently.

In St. Louis, Hall-of-Famed Chessmaster Billionaire Lobbyist Rex Sinquefield got the most votes and was elected Scrooge of the year. This seems fitting that the guy who regularly buys politicians and laws wins an election where 1$ = 1 vote.

Yes. 

These politicians hope that by being obstinate, they can derail the health care reform law they so despise. But they are denying their states the opportunity to design affordable, consumer-friendly insurance marketplaces.

Opponents of reform need to tell the public what they intend to do about the problem of uninsured Americans. “Let them die” isn’t an acceptable fallback position.

Luann Ridgeway, pictured here imagining a story for next week's "Capitol Report"

Hey look, Sen. Luann Ridgeway is making stuff up for her weekly newsletter:

How many times have you been in line at the grocery store counting pennies to pay for imitation hamburger and off-brand pasta, only to see the person in front of you unload a cart full of steaks and then whip out a welfare EBT card to pay for it? It happens to me and I bet it happens to you as well. The program that provides for your hard earned money to be spent in this fashion by people as able-bodied as are you and I is called TANF, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families...

There was a time when being on public assistance came with a stigma. Now the government goes out of its way to sign up more people. Where public welfare used to be a measure of last resort, it is now considered normal since that is what their parents did and what so many of their friends continue to do. Young unmarried women have actually been heard saying they want to have their baby before marriage as then the birth and maternal after-care will be "free."

A few quick questions while I clean the coffee off my keyboard:

1. What is "imitation hamburger"?
2. Where did Luann Ridgeway hear "young unmarried women" saying they want to have a baby before they get married so that "the birth and maternal after-care will be 'free?'"
3. What ethnicity do you think the fantasy steak buyer was when Luann Ridgeway imagined this story? 

The Pitch's Nadia Pflaum has a much better dissection of Ridgeway's offensive "Capitol Report" than I can muster, so you should just go read what she wrote.   In summary, "Welfare queens don't exist. Most informed adults have come to accept -- along with the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny -- that the welfare queen (a term coined by Ronald Reagan in a 1976 presidential campaign speech) is a big ol' myth. "

Ridgeway's entire entirely offensive rant can be read below the fold.

The Columbia Daily Tribune's story on yesterday's committee vote to replace the state's income tax with a much higher and more expansive sales tax has more bad news for Rex Sinquefield's ballot initiatives.  While the committee voted along party lines to pass legislation (HJR8) sponsored by Rep. Andrew Koenig's(R-Winchester) -- despite open concerns about how it will wreak havoc on the state budget -- committee chairman Doug Funderburk (R-St. Peters) said that Sinquefield's ballot initiatives would be the wrong way to overhaul Missouri's tax code. 

Funderburk...said he wants the General Assembly, rather than an initiative campaign, to ask voters to implement the tax overhaul.

“I want to do my job,” he said. If Rex Sinquefield “thinks he needs to do my job, it makes me feel like I didn’t do it.”

Sen. Luann Ridgeway (R-Smithville) likes the idea of increasing the tax burden for Missouri's working families with a higher sales tax, but she doesn't support Rex Sinquefield's initiative petitions that would wreak havoc on the state budget.  As reported by the Tribune's Rudi Keller:

A legislative supporter of the concept, Sen. Luann Ridgeway, R-Smithville, said the total revision of state taxes required in one step by the initiative proposals is a bad idea. Ridgeway said she is working on rewriting her proposal, which is awaiting a Senate hearing.

The Missouri Constitution should provide a framework for change but not dictate the details, she said.

"It is such a massive debate with all the teeny-tiny moving parts, and proponents are trying to swallow this apple whole," Ridgeway said."“We in this current General Assembly are trying to write rules that over the years need to be implemented. We need to break this apple down into slices."

Ridgeway's proposal to replace Missouri's income tax with a much higher sales tax is SJR1.

Sen. Jane Cunningham's (R-Chesterfield) General Laws Committee will take up Sen. Luann Ridgeway's (R-Smithville) 'right to work for less' proposal on Tuesday at 3pm, despite bipartisan opposition and the lack of interest from the state's corporate lobby.

A partial list:

• Senator Jason Crowell
• Senator Luann Ridgeway
• Majority Floor Leader Steve Tilley
• Senator Rob Mayer
• Majority Whip Brian Nieves
• Rep. Sue Allen
• Rep. Tim Jones
• Rep. Shelley Keeney
• Rep. Rob Schaaf
• Rep. Shane Schoeller
• Rep. Rick Stream
• Rep. Dwight Scharnhors
• Rep. Don Ruzicka
• Mattie Ransom for Liberty School Board
• Jeff Moore for Liberty City Council

Here's a pretty incredible constitutional amendment, introduced yesterday by Sen. Luann Ridgeway (R-Clay County).  She wants to disqualify any political subdivision from receiving state funds if they choose to participate in a still-undefined-federal-public option.

SJR 23 - Prohibits a political subdivision from receiving state funding if it provides health insurance to its employees through a public health insurance option plan

Steve Kraske reports in today's Star about the curious financial arrangement of Speaker Ron Richard's legislative director, Tom Smith.  Smith is a "key player" in the assigning of bills to House committees, and also happens to run a business that collected $500k last year from Republican candidates last year:

A top aide to the speaker of the Missouri House runs a political consulting business on the side that generated nearly $500,000 last year, records examined by The Kansas City Star show.

In his public job as legislative director, Tom Smith holds significant influence over the life or death of bills moving through the General Assembly. Critics said his political consulting business raises questions about the potential for a conflict of interest in one of the most powerful offices in state government.

Previous Fired Up! coverage of Smith's self-dealing can be found here.

Of course, Smith denies any hint of wrongdoing, and no Republican legislators remember an explicit demand from Smith.  “I think it’s absurd that someone could buy 1,000 pieces (of mail) and somehow have a level of influence,” Smith says. 

I think it's absurd to think that Smith's clients are only buying 1,000 pieces of mail.

You've gotta love GOP politics. Don Lograsso owes the porn industry big time for subsidizing his taxpayer salary with consulting fees via one of his PACs.

So when the porn kings asked Lograsso to get involved in the State Senate primary against Senator Matt Bartle, Lograsso had no choice but to oblige. And he did it with great vigor. Here's the letter he sent out just before the primary attacking Bartle and his campaign team.

So now, the entire Senate leadership has retaliated by sending a letter of their own, to all Republican members of the House.

Lucky for longtime Lograsso pal, Senator Luann Ridgeway, only the leadership was asked to sign so she didn't have to make a difficult personal decision.