“…The people who believe in voter intimidation believe that the minute you make a political donation that you immediately need to turn all your information over to the government…”

Uh, that would be called “transparency”.

From two senators:

For immediate release
May 23, 2017
Senators to Gov. Greitens: Do You Really Want to Abolish the Missouri Ethics Commission?

Jefferson City, Mo. – State Senators Jason Holsman, D-Kansas City, and Scott Sifton, D-St. Louis, are calling on Gov. Eric Greitens to clarify or recant his recent comments disparaging Missouri voters’ support of campaign finance transparency.
“Recently, Gov. Greitens went on the radio and seemingly called for an abolition of Missouri’s voter-approved campaign disclosure laws. Even for a Governor who prefers to operate from the shadows, this new call for complete and total darkness for his big dollar donors is troubling,” Sen. Holsman said. “I cannot truly believe that a Governor who recently admitted to breaking campaign finance laws would have the audacity to call for dismantling the very system that exposed his wrongdoing. The Governor needs to clarify or recant his statements so that the people of Missouri know where Eric Greitens stands on laws that protect against corruption and pay-to-play.”
During his interview with St. Louis radio station KMOX on Monday, the Governor criticized Missouri’s donor disclosure laws, which were recently reaffirmed by Missouri voters, saying:
“The people who believe in voter intimidation believe that the minute you make a political donation that you immediately need to turn all your information over to the government. You need to turn over your home address and your contact information, so that the government can turn around and publish that,” Greitens said.
The ‘people’ to which the Governor was referring, are the nearly 70 percent of the electorate that voted for strengthening Missouri’s current campaign finance laws, which include the disclosure requirements criticized by the Governor.
“Missouri’s ethics disclosure laws have provided a bedrock of transparency for decades. The Governor is wrong to malign transparency and disclosure,” Sen. Scott Sifton said. “The people have a right to know who is paying for campaigns.”
On November 8, 2016, Missouri voters overwhelming approved Constitutional Amendment 2 with 69.95 percent of the vote, far surpassing Gov. Greitens’ 51.14 percent vote total in that same election. Among its provisions, Constitutional Amendment 2 states that: ‘The people of the state of Missouri hereby find and declare that excessive campaign contributions to political candidates create the potential for corruption and the appearance of corruption … (and) … the interests of the public are best served by limiting campaign contributions, providing for full and timely disclosure of campaign contributions, and strong enforcement of campaign finance requirements.’
During his 2016 campaign for Governor Eric Greitens in a radio interview on the Politically Speaking Podcast with Jason Rosenbaum made the following statement:
“What I have found is the most important thing is there is transparency around the money, we have already seen these secretive super PACs where they don’t take any responsibility for what they are funding. We saw secretive super PACs who were attacking Tom Schweich where people hide behind these organizations. There will probably be more (super PACs) because that is how the game has always been played. I am very proud to tell people that I am stepping forward and you can see every single one of our donors because we are proud of our donors and we are proud of our campaign.”
The existence of Governor Greitens’ secret 501(C)(4) PAC, A New Missouri, ensures that he will continue to play the game like a ‘career politician’.
“Perhaps the Governor is no longer proud of his donors and wishes them to remain in the dark,” added Sen. Holsman. “Either way, his reversal of position on transparency is disappointing.”
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Uh, the government is the people.