Friday Night Lights

With the Ozarks entranced with the case of a 9-year-old girl found dead and two people under arrest, here's your Friday night political bullet points:

• A Smart Decision? Democratic Attorney General candidate Margaret Donnelly is calling on Governor Matt Blunt to restore state funding for MoSMART, a grant program for law enforcement to fight meth. "The state was shortsighted in cutting funding for MoSMART," Donnelly said. "Investing in local law enforcement is the most important action the state can take to fight meth," Donnelly said. Donnelly also announced she will file legislation next session to implement an electronic log book system to track illegal purchases of pseudoephedrine purchases.
• Cillizza Says . . . Gov. Matt Blunt is the most vulnerable Governor up for re-election in 2008. Now this whole Scott Eckersley mess is sneaking into the national print press. And the AP reports that a memo shows Eckersley did challenge the Governor's e-mail policy before he was fired. Icky.
• Waffling on Contributions? Attorney General Jay Nixon's campaign first told us they had "expected" to return contributions received over the limits. Is this kind of like Sen. Larry Craig "intending" to resign? It hasn't happened, and they are now taking the hit for it. The Missouri Republican Party sent out a release chiding a "Befuddled Nixon Seeking Governor's Leadership on Contributions." “Returning over-limit contributions is not a hardship, and our campaign is ready to start putting checks in the mail tomorrow if Matt Blunt agrees to do the same," said Nixon spokesman Oren Shur. “Jay Nixon’s inability to make decisions on his own is just another example of why his candidacy scares so many Missourians," replied G.O.P. spokesman Paul Sloca.
• Harris Hits Koster Again . . . Chris Koster is getting double-teamed by his two primary opponents in the race for Attorney General. Both Margaret Donnelly and Jeff Harris have been taking turns at knocking the former Republican who's now running as a Democrat. Today, Harris hit Koster for failing to return his contributions over-the-limit campaign contributions and taking nearly $100,000 connected to Rex Sinquefield. Is the fact that Koster is taking all this fire this early mean his opponents are considerably worried about him? And how soon will it be before Donnelly and Harris engage each other?
• Social Services Question Dem Medicaid Numbers . . . The Communications Director of the Department of Social Services told me she has concerns with numbers used in a recent release by Democrats citing the 2005 Medicaid cuts. "According to the Department of Social Services, restoring coverage to 2005 levels would have cost the state $155.8 million in general revenue for the current fiscal year," read the release. Ana Margarita Compain-Romero (our favorite spokesperson name by far;) replied, "The numbers this group provided don't match what they're saying or what we have. In order to cover 118,000 adults, parents, elders and people with disabilities, who live at or below 100% of the federal poverty limit, would cost $218 million," said Compain-Romero.