– Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon visited Kansas City on Thursday to announce his latest call for ethics reform and campaign finance limits.
Joined by a bipartisan group of lawmakers – including Sen. Will Kraus, R-Lee’s Summit, Rep. Jon Carpenter, D-Gladstone, and Rep. Kevin McManus, D-Kansas City – Nixon said there was a bipartisan consensus for the need to strengthen the state’s laws.
“Openness and accountability are bedrock principles of our democracy, so I am encouraged at the growing bipartisan consensus on the need to make ethics reform a top priority of the upcoming legislative session,” Nixon said. “Far and away the most important element to meaningful ethics reform is to reinstate real and effective contribution limits and end the corrosive flood of unlimited campaign money to candidates.”
More than 90 percent of Nixon’s own campaign contributions this year have come in the form of large checks.
Less than two weeks ago, Nixon’s own campaign accepted a $16,875 check from Michael Ketchmark, a Kansas City lawyer. It was the latest addition to more than $504,000 in contributions of more than $5,000 Nixon has accepted this year alone. So far this year, 90 percent of Nixon’s contributions have come in the form of large checks. Since taking office in 2009, Nixon has accepted more than $10 million in large contributions, an average of $21,400 a check.
Despite his willingness to accept large contributions, Nixon has been consistent with his calls to instate contribution limits. In his 2009, 2012, and 2013 state of the state addresses, he devoted paragraphs to the topic. In 2010, he issued a letter calling on lawmakers to take the issue up in 2011. As Missouri Attorney General, Nixon won a supreme court case in 1999 upholding voter-approved contribution limits.
Missouri lawmakers overturned the state campaign contribution limits in 2008, making Missouri one of the only states in the country with unlimited campaign contributions and unlimited lobbyist gifts. Nixon was nonspecific about the details of what kind of ethics reform he was seeking. In the past, Nixon has suggested returning to the 1994 limits and eliminating committee-to-committee transfers.
Now, however, lawmakers seem willing to budge. Five ethics reform bills have been pre-filed in the Senate, including ones by Sen. John Lamping, R-St. Louis, Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, and Sen. Paul Levota, D-Kansas City. All of them have called for strict limits. Lamping specifically calls for a one year ban on former lawmakers wanting to lobby the General Assembly, and Nasheed has called to entirely ban lobbyist gifts.