Let’s just say it: Missouri voters were misled by out-of-state liberals with “Clean Missouri” in 2018.
Donations from Lobbyists: Amendment 3 simply prohibits ALL donations from paid lobbyists. Under “Clean Missouri” we’d have to bicker over whether a cup of coffee is worth $5.
Donations to Candidates: Amendment 3 simply lowers the previous cap for contributions to State Senator candidates to $2400 and keeps the cap for State Representatives at $2000. “Clean Missouri” has a complicated formula based on the up’s and down’s of the Consumer Price Index.
Who does the redistricting: Amendment 3 requires the governor to appoint 20 members (10 from each party) to bipartisan citizens commissions, one for the State House and one for the Senate. The members must be selected from lists submitted by the two major parties. The redistricting plans and maps must be agreed to by seven-tenths of the commissions. If either commission fails to present a plan within the time allowed, the State Supreme Court will appoint 6 appellate judges to do their redistricting. [Other states are adopting this method.] “Clean Missouri” has the State Auditor appoint a single “non-partisan” demographer to draw new district lines. [This does NOT remove the “politics”. Everything would depend on how much political pressure this one person can stand up against. And, what do we do now that no qualified demographer has been appointed?]
Redistricting criteria in their order of importance:
(1) Equal population is the top criteria for drawing districts. Amendment 3 is based on citizens with one person/one vote and allows variations up to 3% so political subdivisions can stay united – see (4). “Clean Missouri” includes illegal aliens in the count.
(2) The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is second in importance. Amendment 3 ensures no district can deny or abridge a citizen of the right to vote based on race or color and no district can give any community of citizens less opportunity than others in the political process. But “Clean Missouri” goes on to say no district can diminish the ability of racial or language minorities “to elect representatives of their choice, whether by themselves or by voting in concert with other persons.” [Wait! “Clean Missouri” does not limit the ability to elect representatives to people eligible to vote. And, will ballots have to be printed in every language spoken in the district? This wording really needed to be clarified! Or – was this actually what the outsiders who paid for “Clean Missouri” wanted it to say?]
Amendment 3 moves “Clean Missouri” requirements for districts to be evenly split between the parties to the end of the list making it subordinate to compactness & political subdivision unity and allows up to 15% difference in “electoral performance.” “Clean Missouri” requires “partisan fairness” (half Democrat / half Republican) and “competitiveness” (representatives should reflect statewide shifts in party preferences). The state demographer has complex instructions for determining “electoral performance” (based on statewide votes for governor, U.S. Senate and President) and “wasted votes” (votes cast for losing candidates + votes beyond the 50% level for winning candidates). The demographer must simulate statewide shifts in voting and create districts so races will be as tight as possible. [I always thought the purpose of our representatives was to represent the needs and views of their constituents in the political arena. Apparently, the “Clean Missouri” purpose of a representative is to cause as much division as possible.]
(3) Shape of districts is third in importance: Amendment 3 restricts thin lines and disconnected areas by saying we should make districts compact “to the extent permitted by natural or political boundaries”. Both “Clean Missouri” and Amendment 3 say districts should be contiguous and parts of a district should not meet only at points. However, by listing contiguity after the “partisan fairness” and “competitiveness” it requires in (2), “Clean Missouri” allows districts to extend as thin lines from Democrat areas in cities to Republican areas in out-state Missouri and could even allow disconnected areas.
(4) Amendment 3 gives clear guidance for how to avoid breaking up political subdivisions like cities & counties. “Clean Missouri” leaves it largely to the [so far, unidentified] demographer’s imagination.
Prepared and paid for by Roselee Hogan
