The Democratic Insider: March 26, 2023

Friends,

This week, we saw Republicans issue the largest tax cut to the wealthiest Missourians. The vote aims to cut corporate, personal income taxes by $1 billion, slice the corporate rate in half, and exempt all Social Security benefits from state taxation.

Republicans insist the tax cut would “spur job growth,” when in actuality, the law would put the state into a potentially precarious financial position. Despite recent pay raises and incentives, state employees are still the worst paid in the nation and teachers are near the bottom of the pay scale, but yet, Republicans continue to line the pockets of the already wealthiest Missourians.

This week, we also saw House Budget Chairman Cody Smith, R-Carthage, proposed a $134.5 million for child care and pre-kindergarten education. According to the Missouri Independent, Smith also took aim at some smaller lines in the budget, targeting libraries because the Missouri Library Association joined the ACLU and the Missouri Association of School Libraries in a suit challenging a new state law limiting the materials available in school libraries. Smith wants to cut $4.5 million, the full budget for state aid to libraries, in retaliation for the lawsuit.

It’s also important to remember, Missouri has a massive budget surplus currently approaching $7 billion, with more than $5 billion of general revenue in the bank.

Attacks by Republicans are not going to slow down, and should we. Continue to support, organize and encourage your friends and neighbors. There is no such thing as a “Down Election” year.

Missouri Democratic Party Turns Page

Looks to Future Electing Russ Carnahan as New Chair

At Saturday’s State Committee Meeting in Jefferson City, The Missouri Democratic Party sent a strong message by electing Russ Carnahan as its next chair. “The encouragement from rural and urban party leaders on the State Committee and from many of our top Federal, State, and Local elected leaders has convinced me that together we can do this. My first job is to listen. And I’m a good listener. Then, begin to build our bottom-up organizing and networking to deliver the Democratic message from local candidates and leaders in every district. From the top down, we can put that organization to work and market it across Missouri and the country. I believe supporters will want to INVEST in a smart unified plan for the Missouri Democratic Party.” Carnahan immediately assumes duties as chair.

In addition to electing Carnahan as chair, the State Committee elected Yvonne Reeves Chong as the Vice Chair. The vice-chair position became vacant after the resignation of Michael Butler on March 1, 2023. Reeves-Chong is “We are a united party! I am ready to move our Party forward and will by decision and determination,” Reeves Chong said. “Our differences are our strengths.” Yvonne is a strong rural Democrat who lives in Pulaski County, near Fort Leonard Wood. She is a 35-year sales manager at a motorcycle dealership. Reeves-Chong smiled saying “she doesn’t ride, only sales!”

The 2024 Initiative and Referendum Petitions have been Filed

The Missouri Secretary of State page contains a list of all initiative and referendum petitions filed with the Secretary of State’s Office during the 2024 election cycle and the status of each petition.

Each petition is categorized as one of the following:

Accepting Comments: All public comments will be reviewed by the Secretary of State’s Office.

Rejected: The petition did not satisfy all legal requirements and is no longer under consideration.

Withdrawn: The petition was removed from consideration at the request of the petitioner.

Comments Closed: The petition is still under review, but comments are no longer being accepted.

Approved to Circulate: The petition has received final approval and signatures can be collected.

Initiative petitions restoring the right to an abortion in the State of Missouri have been filed! Click here to read the proposed constitutional amendments. (Scroll down until you see Missourians for Constitutional Freedom – the group who filed the petitions.)

Also on this page, you can submit your comments regarding any or all of the petitions to the Secretary of State’s page, and MDP strongly encourages you to do so!

Democratic Legislative Network!

We’re excited to team up with Missouri House Democrats to build a stronger Democratic Legislative Network!

We invite you to join us on Mondays at 7:00 p.m. to hear from legislators, get #MoLeg updates, and action items for you to take to make a difference. Sign up here

JOIN THE PARTY

Become a Missouri Democratic Party Member today!

We need you to invest in our Party! With your support we can build our county parties, foster relationships with community organizations, support our legislators in Jefferson City as they fight for us, and provide candidates with training and resources. Click here to join!

For more information, email Info@missouridems.org.

Chairman Carnahan Testifies in Favor of

Returning Missouri Presidential Elections Back to Primaries

The Missouri Democratic Party strongly supports returning to primaries, because caucuses are inherently undemocratic because they limit participation in the political process. While presidential primaries encourage voters to make their voices heard on who will best represent their party on a national ticket, caucuses only allow the most devoted party members to participate in the political process. “The national momentum has shifted away from caucuses for a reason,” said Carnahan. “Caucuses can create barriers for people to vote who may have additional circumstances to overcome. The fewer people who participate in our elections the more it decreases the confidence in our democracy.”

Watch Carnahan’s full testimony

Read more about HB 347 at: STL Today

The House Freedom Caucus’ Extreme Budget Proposal Hurts Seniors

The extreme MAGA Republican House Freedom Caucus has made their priorities clear: imposing devastating cuts that would hurt seniors and increasing costs for working- and middle-class families, all to protect and extend tax breaks skewed to the wealthy and big corporations. In fact, their tax cuts would be so expensive that their deep and harmful cuts would not reduce the deficit.

That’s in sharp contrast with the President’s Budget, which invests in America, lowers costs for families, protects and strengthens Medicare and Social Security, and reduces the deficit by $3 trillion over 10 years, while ensuring no one making less than $400,000 per year pays a penny more in new taxes.

Read the full fact sheet: White House

Biden-⁠Harris Administration Takes New Action to Conserve and Restore America’s Lands and Waters

On Tuesday t the White House Conservation in Action Summit today, President Biden announced major new actions to conserve and restore lands and waters across the nation, including by establishing Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in Nevada and Castner Range National Monument in Texas. The President will also direct the Secretary of Commerce to consider exercising her authority to protect all U.S. waters around the Pacific Remote Islands. These new commitments build on President Biden’s historic climate and environmental record, including delivering on the most ambitious land and water conservation agenda in American history.

Read the full fact sheet: The White House

Thank you President Biden and President Obama. The Affordable Care Act was signed 13 ago, “It hasn’t just survived – it’s stronger than ever,” said President Biden. Today, 40 million people have the peace of mind that comes with health coverage. “I’ll never stop fighting like hell to protect and strengthen it.”

Josh Hawley Faces ‘Intensely Negative Sentiment’ in Missouri,

Poll Finds Independents can’t stand him. Even some Republicans rate him unfavorably

Missourians are pretty evenly split on their opinions of Senator Josh Hawley. Just as many, if not more, voters view him unfavorably as favorably, according to a copy of a memo from Change Research obtained by the RFT.

The San Francisco-based polling firm compiled data from 1,267 Missouri voters, 43 percent of whom said they viewed the Republican senator unfavorably. Forty-two percent said they viewed him favorably.

That’s even with the poll being weighted to account for 2020 presidential votes. (Its stated margin of error is 3 percent.) In other words, measuring the same Missouri voters who gave then-President Trump 56.8 percent of the vote, just 42 percent like Hawley.

Read more about how horrible Josh Hawley is at: Riverfront Times

UPCOMING EVENTS

The St. Louis County Democrats Annual Gala

The St. Louis County Democratic Central Committee is proud to announce our 42nd Annual Gala. This year we’ll be holding it at the beautiful LiUNA Event Center, Saturday July 15, 2023.

Location

LiUNA Event Center

4532 S Lindbergh Blvd

Sunset Hills, MO 63127

Sponsorships

Be a sponsor! Sponsors will get special recognition on the Gala website and at the Gala.

For tickets, visit: St. Louis County Democrats