Missouri’s state government and state legislature are not working like they should. State legislators and leaders are influenced by a small number of self-serving donors. Special interest lobbyists hold more power over the lawmaking process than citizens. Our whole system is designed to eliminate the opportunity for voters to hold their leaders accountable when they fail to do the right thing.
Year after year, politicians promise that this year will finally be the year that they clean up their own act, turn off the disgusting spigot of lobbyist gifts, and get to work on the things that will actually make life better for the families struggling just to get by. But every year, those promises prove to be empty.
What happens every year in Jefferson City, out of sight from most Missourians, is just obscene, often immoral and frankly just dirty. Records show that since 2004, there has been an average of $868,000 per year in lobbyist gift giving in Missouri. The big corporations and special interests paying for all those free meals, drinks, sports tickets and trips aren’t in the charity business — they’re filling the bellies of legislators because they know it helps them get what they want.
Scandals and accusations of pay-to-play politics have become the hallmark of Missouri state government — while individuals and families suffer under oppressive laws imposed by those who choose donors’ interests over people.
Justice requires three branches of government that are easily accessed by citizens. The revolving door of legislators becoming lobbyists, combined with special interest and self-dealing legislation, diminishes democracy.
This vicious cycle continues because the people in power all have a stake in protecting the broken system that put them there. When the rules are set up to benefit the entrenched interests already in power, we shouldn’t be surprised when that system rewards rich and well-connected candidates who cave to special interests.
We are proud to be part of a growing coalition of Missourians who have had enough of the status quo in Jefferson City — citizens who are tired of waiting on politicians to reform themselves, are ready to take bold action to take back our government from special interest lobbyists, and to increase integrity, transparency, and accountability in our government.
We support the Clean Missouri Initiative because it has the possibility of bending the arc of justice back toward the people of Missouri. It will lower campaign contribution limits for state legislative candidates, eliminate almost all lobbyist gifts in the General Assembly, require politicians to wait two years before becoming lobbyists, require that legislative records be open to the public, and ensure that that neither political party is given an unfair advantage when new maps are drawn after the next census.
Working together in the next few months, we can gather enough signatures to put this measure before voters next November. Working together, we can shut out the special interests to get our leaders focused on what truly matters for our families and our neighbors.
Every time we talk about this opportunity, we are amazed by the hunger and excitement for these reforms. We hope you’ll learn more about the details of the Clean Missouri initiative at www.CleanMissouri.org and join the fight to put Missourians first once again.
Rev. Cassandra Gould is pastor at Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church; executive director of Missouri Faith Voices; Religious Affairs director of the NAACP State Conference; and Faith co-chair of Jobs With Justice State Board Nimrod T. Chapel Jr. is president of the Missouri NAACP State Conference.
