Previously: Campaign Finance: Voter Protection Alliance (April 14, 2011)
Yesterday, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:
CONTRIBUTION OF MORE THAN $5,000.00 RECEIVED BY ANY COMMITTEE FROM ANY SINGLE DONOR – TO BE FILED WITHIN 48 HOURS OF RECEIVING THE CONTRIBUTION
C111073 YOUR VOTE COUNTS! 5/26/2011
The Humane Society of the United States
700 Professional Drive
Gaithersburg, MD 20879
5/26/2011
$25,000.00
[emphasis added]
Apparently the “Voter Protection Alliance” which was formed in March to promote a constitutional amendment to make it more difficult for the General Assembly to overturn the results of ballot initiatives, this in reaction to the puppy mill initiative, has changed its name to Your Vote Counts!
As I wrote in April:
….However sympathetic to the original cause we may be, there is significant concern that an increasing reliance on governing by initiative petition institutionalizes this cumbersome process at the expense of direct representation. Just ask everyone in California how that’s worked out over the past few decades.
Maybe it’s a symptom of our collective laziness that we can’t be bothered to pay enough attention to what out representatives and senators do and how they vote in the General Assembly, but we’ll get outraged at the end result while still reelecting them anyway….
While it could be more difficult to individually go after the legislators who voted against the wishes of the voters in their districts I much prefer that political strategy over the proffered constitutional super majority. The potential for unintended consequences in the latter is too great.