A bill, pre-filled by Representative Caleb Rowden (r):

FIRST REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE BILL NO. 225 [pdf]

98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE ROWDEN.

0697H.02I D. ADAM CRUMBLISS, Chief Clerk

AN ACT

To repeal section 105.463, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof two new sections relating to

gubernatorial appointments.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:

Section A. Section 105.463, RSMo, is repealed and two new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 105.463 and 105.1420, to read as follows:

105.463. Within thirty days of submission of the person’s name to the governor and in order to be an eligible nominee for appointment to a board or commission requiring senate confirmation, a nominee shall file a financial interest statement in the manner provided by section 105.485 and shall request a list of all political contributions and the name of the candidate or committee as defined in chapter 130, to which those contributions were made within the four-year period prior to such appointment, made by the nominee, from the ethics commission. The information shall be delivered to the nominee by the ethics commission. The nominee shall deliver the information to the president pro tem of the senate prior to confirmation.

105.1420. The governor shall not appoint or offer to appoint any member of the general assembly to any position in an attempt to influence legislation.

[….]

[emphasis in original]

Because, you know, politicians are so political.

Couldn’t they just look up the really big contributions at the Missouri Ethics Commission? As if any single person’s $15.00 contribution would be a payoff.

And, at this point in time, aren’t campaign contributions free speech?

That’s some serious jeopardy.

A report by Progress Missouri on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC):

EXPOSED: ALEC’s Influence in Missouri

Progress Missouri today released a detailed research report exposing the influence of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in the Missouri Capitol. Through ALEC, corporations hand Missouri legislators wish lists in the form of “model” legislation that often directly benefit their bottom line at the expense of Missouri families. Behind closed doors, numerous ALEC model bills are crafted by corporations, for corporations. Elected officials who are members of ALEC then bring their model legislation back to Missouri, where they claim them as their own ideas and important public policy innovations without disclosing that corporations crafted and pre-voted on the bills at closed-door meetings with legislators who are part of ALEC.

[….]

Progress Missouri has identified more than 40 Missouri bills that directly echo ALEC models. ALEC bills in Missouri include so-called right to work laws, bans on implementation of the Common Core State Standards, resolutions supporting the Keystone XL pipeline, an act relating to wireless communication towers, voter registration hurdles, a “parent trigger act,” a “parents’ rights”resolution, purely political resolutions “reaffirming 10th amendment rights,” a “private attorney retention act,” an Anti-Affordable Care Act ballot measure, a resolution opposing food and beverage taxes, an “asbestos fairness act,” a resolution supporting the electoral college, a “castle doctrine” law,a resolution encouraging congress to undermine Social Security, and a “private property protection act.”

[….]

Participating legislators, who are overwhelmingly conservative Republicans, bring ALEC proposals back to Missouri and other statehouses as their own ideas and important public policy innovations, without disclosing that corporations crafted and pre-voted on the bills alongside legislators in closed-door meetings at fancy resorts. ALEC boasts that it has over1,000 of these bills are introduced by legislative members every year, with at least one in every five of them enacted into law. ALEC describes itself as a “unique,” “unparalleled” and”unmatched” organization.

[….]

[emphasis in original]

Go. Read the whole thing.

A film on (ALEC):

Previously:

ALEC’s corporate supporters in Missouri (May 6, 2012)

Finally, documentation of voter impersonation fraud in Missouri. Zero. (August 12, 2012)

Do you too wonder why Republicans think legislative ethics don’t “impact” Missourians? (April 14, 2013)