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Amendment 1 is designed by one liberal Democrat, supported by radical billionaire George Soros, and allows one partisan person to gerrymander the entire state all while taking away the privacy of Missourians.
This Ballot Question proposes to amend the Missouri Constitution to change the process for redrawing legislative districts that is done every 10 years following the U.S. Census. After the next census in 2020, new legislative districts would be redrawn for the 2022 election cycle.
READ THE ACTUAL BALLOT LANGUAGE HERE.
Despite its diabolical deception, at first glance, Amendment 1 looks appealing. Until 2016, Missouri was the only state in the nation without limits on campaign contributions for state legislative races and lobbyist gifts. But Missourians had a fix for that. In 2016 voters passed Amendment 2 which put a limit on campaign contributions to state and judicial offices.
The problem with this year’s Amendment 1 is the reduction in the limit on campaign contributions from an individual is nominal–just a $100 reduction in donations to state Senate races and $500 in contributions to State Representative races. Proposed limits on lobbyist gifts to legislators or their staff is much more significant in Amendment 1.
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Legislators would be banned from accepting any gift with a value of more than $5. That would be a dramatic change that many observers welcome with lobbyists having spent a combined total of more than a million dollars on gifts to legislators in recent legislative cycles.
One person will redistrict the entire state
If the above changes were the extent of Amendment 1, the Metro Voice might recommend its support. However, the real agenda of Amendment 1 is an attempt by liberal Democrats to change the process for redistricting every 10 years.
All power in the process would be put into the hands of one unelected demographer who would be appointed by the Missouri State Auditor. The current State Auditor is Democrat Nicole Galloway, who was appointed by former Democrat Governor Jay Nixon following the death of former State Auditor Republican Tom Schweich in 2016.
Galloway is the sole Democrat that currently holds a statewide office in Missouri with all other statewide officeholders being Republicans. Amendment 1 was developed by Democratic campaign operatives, most notably Sean Nicholson, who is seen as the chief architect of Clean Missouri.
A longtime Democratic strategist and operative, Nicholson currently works as the Senior Content Strategist and Research Director of GPS Impact, a campaign consulting firm devoted exclusively to support Democratic candidates and campaign initiatives, like Amendment 1. This ballot initiative is liberal Democratic political engineering at its worst, but is brilliantly designed to create smoke and mirrors to hide its true liberal Democratic agenda.
Nicholson formerly worked for Progress Missouri, Fired Up! Missouri and Kennedy Communications in Washington, D.C.−all partisan campaign, communications and research shops that support liberal Democratic candidates. They support pro-abortion candidates and oppose other social causes embraced by Christians with a Biblical worldview and traditional family values outlook.
Despite the token and misleading wrapping of Amendment 1 as campaign finance reform−which would be nominal, while placing major limitations on lobbyists’ gifts−this constitutional ballot question is really a partisan attempt by Democrats to regain seats in the Missouri House and Senate. Democrats lost their majorities in the Missouri House and Senate in 2002.
Since that time Republicans, with the blessing of voters at the polls, have increased their majorities in the Missouri House and Senate to the point that they have supermajorities in both chambers. Democrats have deceitfully crafted Amendment 1 to change the redistricting process held every 10 years to favor their liberal agenda and seek to regain seats in the legislature.
Invasion of privacy rights over constituent emails
Missourians right to privacy is also threatened by Amendment 1. It would require all legislative records and proceedings to be subject to the state open meetings and records law (Missouri Sunshine Law). Again, at first glance, that looks like a good thing in the name of government accountability and transparency.
The problem for Missouri citizens is that any email, letter, note or communication that they might send or have sent previously to legislators on a confidential basis could be subject to Missouri Sunshine Request law and be accessible by anyone making such a request, even if for malicious purposes.
Confidential personal, family or work issues which constituents might have already corresponded about with their legislators or might do so in the future could be lawfully accessed under Amendment 1. This represents an outrageous and egregious invasion of Missourians’ right to privacy. It could also lead to a flood of lawsuits, but not before countless Missourians lives could be destroyed by the unintended consequences of this ill-conceived and bomb-throwing ballot initiative.
Opening the door to false attacks
False political attacks against legislators could also be made with impunity. Political opponents could simply email any kind of outlandishly false and slanderous accusations and allegations against a legislator, then request those emails under the Missouri Sunshine Request law, if Amendment 1 passes. Then they could use those false allegations against legislators. If you are sick and tired of false and negative attacks in politics, Amendment 1 would be all of that and more on steroids.
The potential and tragically unintended consequences of CLEAN Missouri to violate the privacy of Missourians on a personal, familial and professional basis are ominous. This ballot question could also give political operatives another tool to seek the personal and political destruction of state office holders.
If Amendment 1 passes, the constitutionally mandated ability to invade the privacy of Missourians and attack them, as well as state officeholders, would be unabated under the provisions of this disastrously designed ballot question.
Who supports Amendment 1?
The Amendment 1 Clean Missouri initiative is financially supported by Planned Parenthood, the Sierra Club, NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) Pro-Choice Missouri, George Soros, various union groups and others that traditionally support Democratic candidates.
For these reasons, the Metro Voice Editorial Team passionately recommends a NO vote on Amendment 1.
–Metro Voice News Editorial Team
