JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The political action committee for Missouri Right to Life has come out in opposition to a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that is pushed as overarching ethics reform.
At the same time, the ballot question has also picked up support in the last week.
Amendment 1, as known as the Clean Missouri amendment, would impose gift limits for legislators, lower campaign contribution limits, change the length of time required before becoming lobbyists, and change the model for drawing districts.
Backers are touting the question as a way to clean up politics in Jefferson City and overhaul the ethics laws relating to the General Assembly, but Missouri Right to Life PAC is dissenting from the narrative.
The group is calling the Clean Missouri effort an “attempt to oust Republicans from conservative strongholds and increase the number of Democrat legislators.”
The Joplin Globe joined six other newspapers — Columbia Daily Tribune, Jefferson County Leader, Kansas City Star, St. Louis American, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Washington Missourian — in the Show-Me State that has come out in support of the measure.
Jennifer Lawrence, a well-known actress, and Ed Helms, a well-known actor, were featured in separate advertisements advocating for the amendment’s passage. Former U.S. Attorney general Eric Holder and former-U.S. Sen. John Danforth also endorsed Clean Missouri.
One of the more disputed provisions in the measure relates to the way legislative districts are drawn. Under the constitutional amendment, a state demographer would decide the boundaries of the area a lawmaker would represent.
Urging Missourians to vote “no” on the amendment, Missouri Right to Life PAC called the “true agenda” of the measure to “take away representative government by supposedly making legislative districts bipartisan.”
A coalition formed to opposed the measure, Missourians First, recently released polling that had 50 percent of voters in support of Amendment 1— which is down 13 points from 63 percent nearly two months ago. The poll, which has a +/- 3.5 percent margin of error, was conducted October 20-23, 2018 with 800 likely voters.
Clean Missouri has also been opposed by the Missouri Farm Bureau along with several elected officials.
Alisha Shurr was a reporter for The Missouri Times and The Missouri Times Magazine. She joined The Missouri Times in January 2018 after working as a copy editor for her hometown newspaper in Southern Oregon. Alisha is a graduate of Kansas State University.
