Missouri Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon brought legislators from both parties to a meeting with Kansas City reporters with a renewed call for curbing campaign contributions and ethics reform.
The governor said since 2014 is an election year, ethics reform should stand a better chance for bipartisan support. It will be more popular with voters. Similar measures have died in the statehouse in recent years.
Nixon called Missouri’s ethics laws among the weakest in the nation. He suggested moving beyond limiting campaign contributions to individual office seekers.
"We need to eliminate committee to committee transfers which undermine transparency and weaken contribution limits," Nixon said. "We need to prohibit office holders from taking money under the guise of political consulting and we need to close the revolving door between the legislature and lobbying.”
Nixon said he was encouraged by pre-filed bills for the upcoming legislative session. But he said one could have been more artfully drawn. Lee's Summit Republican Senator Will Krauss would prohibit all campaign contributions by school employees.
