(PoliticMo Photo)

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — With less than 48 hours remaining in legislative session, lawmakers in the General Assembly moved through a slew of bills on Wednesday.

Late in the night, the Missouri House passed legislation aimed at keeping car sales in Missouri. The bill reinstates a local sales tax on out-of-state car purchases. The House passed legislation that was previously passed unanimously by the state Senate. It now heads to the governor for signature.

Throughout the day, the House of Representatives made a continually loaded bills with new amendments. The amendments all but guarantee the bills will go to conference committee with the Senate, and with the legislative clock winding down, that could bar many of them from passing.

Earlier in the day, the House passed legislation that would allow health care workers and medical centers to refuse to provide contraceptive care and perform other procedures that would violate their religious or ethical beliefs.

The bill was carried in the House by floor Leader Tim Jones, R-St. Louis.

“This is a comprehensive bill that goes far to protect religious freedoms and liberties and conscious rights of workers across this entire state,” Jones said. “Why you would not want to support this is beyond me.”

State Rep. Stacey Newman, D-St. Louis, one of the bill’s leading critics, said the bill represented a “war on women” in the Missouri legislature.

Science, not politics in an election year, should determine a woman’s private medical decisions,” Newman said in an email. “Mine and other women’s religious beliefs and moral convictions are no less valuable or important than Rep. Tim Jones, the House bill handler.”

The legislation has not yet passed the Senate.

Also on Wednesday, the Senate passed legislation that would lower the cap on the historic preservation tax credit. The measure is likely dead on arrival in the House.

Lawmakers have until 6:00 p.m. on Friday to pass bills before, the constitutional requirement for adjournment of session.

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Legislators in both chambers are in Washington this weekend in hopes to work out a deal to raise the nation's credit limit. (Getty Images photo via DayLife)

— The U.S. Senate voted down five budget proposals Wednesday, including one proposed by President Barack Obama and four proposed by Republicans.

Republicans essentially forced votes on the measures, hoping in this election year to highlight the fact that the Senate, controlled by Democrats, has not passed a budget in three years.

“Instead of fulfilling the Senate’s legal requirement to pass a budget for more than 1,110 days, the Democrat-led Senate has once again blocked Republican attempts to pass a responsible federal spending blueprint,” said Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, a member of Senate Republican leadership.

Democrats contend that the senate has essentially passed a budget. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat up for reelection this year, said the federal government is acting under a budget based on caps established during the debt ceiling fight last year. McCaskill opposed all five measures — including the president’s — calling them “each more extreme than the last.”

“These people,” McCaskill said, referring to the Republican bills, “need to drop their obsession with dismantling Medicare, Social Security, and Pell Grants, and instead turn their focus to putting more folks back to work with new job opportunities, and balancing the budget in a responsible way.”

John Brunner, one of the Republicans vying for their party’s nomination to replace McCaskill, said McCaskill has “failed Missourians” in not passing a budget.

“It’s simply disgraceful that Senator Claire McCaskill refuses to offer a budget resolution or, at least, vote in favor of one,” Brunner said.

Brunner, however, along with his rival Sarah Steelman, has not endorsed a budget proposal. The two have both said they would support measures to cut and balance the budget, but have not signed on to any specific proposal.

U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, a third Republican hoping to challenge McCaskill, has supported the budget proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan.

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Sen. Roy Blunt (Getty Images photo via DayLife)

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt has some advice for Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney: Focus on the economy.

Speaking with reporters Wednesday afternoon, Blunt suggested Romney should not get sidetracked by some of the social issues that have emerged from time to time on the campaign trail.

“I think that voters are most focused on the economy,” Blunt said. “In all likelihood, jobs and the economy will be the decision drivers this year.”

Blunt noted that according to most recent public polling, voters have indicated that their top issue is the economy, and said that Romney’s public speaking time should be split accordingly.

“I would divide my time like that: two-thirds of my time talking about jobs and the economy, 10 percent on federal seeding, and the tother 25 percent among the other issues,” he said. “This election is two-thirds about the economy.”

Anytime the discussion switches from the economy, Blunt said, that is a good time for President Obama.

“I think that anytime the president can change the discussion to any other topic besides the economy, that’s good for him,” Blunt said. “He’s not going to win the discussion on the economy.”

Blunt was an early supporter of Romney. Earlier this year, he lobbied fellow members of Congress to give their support to Romney while was engaged in a tough primary campaign.

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Brunner (AP Photo via KC Star)

On stage at the debate, Steelman blasted Brunner for not voting in 2004 during the election in which the state’s constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage was on the ballot. On stage, Brunner responded that “every vote I have ever taken has been in support of marriage.”

Off stage, the conversation elevated into a heated back and forth between the campaigns in dueling press releases. The Steelman campaign, for example, criticized Brunner for voting in only seven of the 12 major elections since 2000, and took a precarious jab at Brunner on the issue of religion.

“Only now that Brunner is running for Senate does he have an interest in issues that many conservatives and Christians have been fighting for decades,” said Steelman spokesperson Katie LaPotin. “The main responsibility of a United States Senator is to cast votes on issues critical to our economy, the defense and our families. If John Brunner didn’t care enough to show up and vote before, how can we count on him to actually show up and vote for us in the future?”

The Brunner campaign, in an aggressive response, said they are more than happy to have a discussion about missed votes. The campaign claimed that Steelman, during her term as state treasurer, missed nearly half of her votes while serving on the board of the Missouri State Employees Retirement System. Additionally, continuing their effort to frame Steelman as beholden to the interests of trial attorneys, the campaign said Steelman missed key votes on changes to the state’s tort laws during her time as a state Senator.

“In 2004 Sarah Steelman ducked — apparently Steelman skipped the tort reform vote to preserve her close relationship with the trial attorneys,” said Brunner’s communications director Todd Abrajano. “If Steelman’s history as an elected official is any predictor of future behavior, voters should have little doubt that she will be another career politician and unreliable voice for Missourians in the U.S. Senate.”

Todd Akin, the other Republican seeking the nomination, has been left mostly unscathed by most of the post-debate bickering. His campaign remained silent Tuesday, even after the Steelman campaign aimed new criticism in his direction over his use of earmarks.

The three are delving into what looks to be a heated primary battle over the summer. The winner will face Sen. Claire McCaskill in November.

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The legislation, a compromise on a key push by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, passed the House with bipartisan support.

“I think it will serve employees and employers well,” said House Majority Floor Leader Tim Jones, R-St. Louis.

The legislation now heads to the governor, who is expected to sign the bill later this year.

The Chamber said they were disappointed that other issues regarding workers compensation have not yet been addressed this year. The Chamber, for example, wants the law changed so that occupational disease treatment will be paid for by the workers compensation system.

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U.S. Rep. Todd Akin (PoliticMo Photo)

— Being a member of Congress has its perks, and one of those perks is close proximity to a slew of potential campaign donors.

Wednesday, less than two miles away from the U.S. Capitol, Rep. Todd Akin plans to take advantage of that. Akin, who is campaigning for U.S. Senate, has scheduled a fundraiser on Wednesday evening at the lobbying firm Wexler & Walker. Tickets for the reception range from $250 to $1,000.

The fundraiser will be hosted by three former Akin staffers, including: Former Akin chief of staff Rob Schwarzwalder, senior vice president of the Family Research Council; former legislative assistant Tom Carpenter, vice president of Wexler & Walker; and former legislative aide Ryan Bradel, an associate at the lobbying firm Greenberg Treaurig.

Akin, a five term congressman, has hosted eleven Washington fundraiser since last election, according to the Sunlight Foundation’s Party Time project. Sen. Claire McCaskill, who Akin is running against two other Republicans for the nomination to challenge, held eight in the same time period.

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The invite:

Reception for Todd Akin

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Former U.S. Senator Jim Talent defended Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney from an ad criticizing him over his former company’s failed deal with a Kansas City steel plant.

Speaking with reporters Tuesday morning, Talent denounced the Obama campaign’s new ad and web campaign focusing on Romney’s involvement in the failed GS Technologies steel mill during his time leading the private equity firm Bain Capital.

“[Voters] should think the ad is totally unfounded and invalid,” Talent said. “Mitt Romney has a strong record of creating jobs.”

Bain took over GST’s Kansas City facility in October 1993. In 2001, less than a decade later, the mill was closed, leaving 750 people unemployed, without severance, and pensions cut by $400 a month.

Talent said while the closure “is a heartbreaking thing for people involved in it,” the closure happened after Romney left Bain Capital. Talent also defended Romney’s performance at Bain, more broadly.

“Bain Capital takes over companies, many of which are in a very bad condition. It is like a doctor who specializes in treating patients who are ill — you can be a very good doctor, and you can save most of them, but you’re not going to save all of them,” he said.

Speaking with reporters on Monday, Stephanie Cutter, Obama’s deputy campaign manager, said the issue is not private equity firms or Romney’s record as a businessman, but instead “about whether his business experience [at Bain] uniquely qualifies him to be president.”

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JOPLIN, Mo. — Gov. Jay Nixon said Monday that he believes many of the issues that have divided him and Republicans in the state legislature over changes to the state’s workers compensation laws have been resolved

Speaking with reporters in Joplin, Nixon said the biggest issue now is getting compromise legislation on his desk.

“I think that hopefully we can move forward this week to get some compromise on the co-employee section of the measure to give certainty to businesses out there for their workers compensation rates,” he said. “I think the issues are relatively worked out, it is a question of getting that measure to my desk.”

Republicans in the General Assembly have made changes to the workers compensation system a top priority in the final week of legislative session. Nixon and Republicans appear to have reached an agreement on closing a loophole that allows employees to sue coworkers for damages caused by on the job accidents.

They are divided, however, over a provision of the law that would Democrats believe does not offer enough protections for individuals dealing with diseases caused by toxic exposure. If that language is removed, it appears the Republican legislation could get a signature from the Democratic governor.

Nixon said his office has been working with state Senator Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, to reach an agreement.

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Mitt Romney (AP Photo via DayLife)

— While neither Barack Obama or Mitt Romney appear to be making a big play for Missouri in November, Romney’s previous work in the state is becoming a looming issue in the national political discussion.

As Romney’s Republican rivals did earlier this year, the Obama campaign is hoping to make an issue over Romney’s involvement in the failed GS Technologies steel mill during his time leading the private equity firm Bain Capitol.

Bain took over GST’s Kansas City facility in October 1993. In 2001, less than a decade later, the mill was closed, leaving 750 people unemployed, without severance, and pensions cut by $400 a month. The issue is the subject of a new web and ad campaign targeting swing state voters.

“While those hard working middle class Missourians lost their jobs,” said Joe Soptic, a former GST Steel employee, “GST Steel’s executives earned severance and pension.”

Stephanie Cutter, Obama’s deputy campaign manager , said the issue is not private equity firms or Romney’s record as a businessman, but instead “about whether his business experience [at Bain] uniquely qualifies him to be president.”

In a statement Monday morning, the Romney campaign said they “welcome” the Obama campaign talking about jobs and the economy.

“If the Obama Administration was less concerned with pleasing its wealthy donors and more concerned with creating jobs, America would be much better off,” said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul.

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(AP File Photo via DayLife)

— During a debate on Friday morning in St. Joseph, U.S. Senate hopeful Sarah Steelman defended her opposition to changes to the state’s tort laws.

In reaction to criticism from rival John Brunner over her vocal opposition to 2003 and 2004 tort reform legislation while in the state Senate, Steelman said she did actually support reform, just not the law at the time.

“I do support tort reform,” Steelman said. But the 2004 bill, she added, “would have had a protection for drunk drivers. I’m sorry Mr. Brunner thinks that’s okay.”

Steelman appeared to be making a subtle jab at Brunner, who, in 2004, had his license suspended after being pulled over for drunken driving (The charges were later dismissed).

Brunner’s campaign reacted swiftly Friday, accusing Steelman of manufacturing her reason for filibustering changes to the state’s tort laws during her 2008 gubernatorial bid.

“It appears it took Sarah Steelman five years to invent her excuse for filibustering tort reform legislation in 2003 and 2004. said Brunner spokesman Todd Abrajano. “Missouri voters can see past Steelman’s election-year stunts and know she decided to stand with her trial-lawyer campaign donors rather than Missouri small business owners.”

As Republicans have moved through through their extensive debate schedule, the heat of the campaign conversation is continuing to rise. It started in March with a strongly worded press release from Brunner attacking Steelman after their first debate, and has progressively risen to contentious exchanged on stage.

In recent debates, Steelman has made a point of asking Brunner questions hoping to put him in a bad light. During Friday’s debate, Steelman asked whether Brunner voted for the 2004 constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage, attempting to draw attention to Brunner for missing the vote.

Brunner answered by saying he has always for candidates who are opposed to same sex marriage, dodging Steelman’s question.

The heat between the candidates will likely continue to rise. To date, they have completed nearly a dozen debates, and will likely participate in more as the campaign drags through the summer.

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