CLEAN Missouri's anti-corruption crusade backed by big bucks from unions

JEFFERSON CITY — An effort to combat corruption in Missouri politics has benefited from large checks from labor organizations that represent teachers and service workers.

CLEAN Missouri is targeting the 2018 ballot with a laundry list of changes to how the state does politics, specifically by changing ethics rules for lawmakers in Jefferson City. The petition's changes include:

• Lowering the allowable campaign contribution limits for state lawmakers and candidates
• Banning "almost all" gifts from lobbyists to legislators
• Forcing politicians to wait two years after leaving the legislature before becoming lobbyists
• Declaring legislative records to be subject to Missouri's open records law
• Prohibiting senators and representatives from political fundraising on state-owned property
• Changing how Missouri's political maps are drawn.

The initiative's organizers are gathering signatures, and if they are successful in their efforts, Missouri voters will decide in November 2018 whether to change how the General Assembly works.

"We've been overwhelmed by the support for the Clean Missouri initiative," said Sean Soendker Nicholson, a spokesman for the movement. "Voters from across the political spectrum are disgusted with the way a small group of big donors, lobbyists, and special interests control our state government, and they've been thrilled to sign petitions and help get these desperately-needed reforms on the November 2018 ballot. From Springfield to Hannibal, Missourians are ready for a state legislature that listens to their voices and their votes."

The initiative may be in opposition to the large checks being cut to state lawmakers, but it has no problem itself accepting big donations.

According to the Missouri Ethics Commission, the political action committee for the CLEAN Missouri initiative received $250,000 on Monday from the National Education Association in Washington, D.C. This follows another $250,000 from the state NEA in May.

Other big donations to CLEAN Missouri include $100,000 from the Eastern Missouri Laborers Educational and Benevolent Fund; $100,000 from Planned Parenthood affiliates; more than $50,000 from a group called "Our Missouri" with an address in Morgan County; and $25,000 from an arm of the Service Employees International Union.

Nicholson did not answer directly when asked whether he was worried that the initiative's mission of reducing the impact of big money in politics might be undercut by CLEAN Missouri's acceptance of large contributions, instead focusing his response on the anti-corruption aspects of the petition.

He also said CLEAN Missouri volunteers were "collecting signatures across the state every day, with great feedback and piles of signatures."

"One canvasser told me Monday he's collected about 1,000 signatures so far this year, with only two people declining to sign because they oppose the reform proposals," he continued, "and one of those was a Jeff City lobbyist."