The Victors

Encouraging margins on the two hideous ballot initiatives, the one to kill ballot initiatives forever that you've already discussed, and the other one a blunderbuss directed squarely at the state budget.

From what I can tell, it was the realtors who dumped BIG money into the campaign to scupper Kehoe's income tax abolition. They (rightly) saw that the backfill, insofar as it didn't just amount to budget cuts to HHS and education, was going to come with fees for new construction in addition to new transaction/sale fees and filing fees on home and commercial real-estate sales.

Worried about the abortion measure this fall; the supreme court and Denny Hoskins are going to allow truly stupid language for that ballot item, and it's bundled with scary-sounding anti-trans stuff (banning surgeries that don't ever take place). Missouri voters have been pretty sensible on Amendments and ballot initiatives in recent years (RTW repeal, reproductive freedom, last night), though, so hopefully reason carries the day . . . even as the gerrymandered map coughs up another 65R/35D split in both chambers of MOLEG.