Eric Greitens Plan for Missouri Legislative Reform Hits the Mark

By B.W. Durham

After a year infamously noted for sex scandals, suicides and political shell games, Missouri’s legislature is now finally starting to address ethics reform.

In late January Missouri’s House passed four ethics bills and sent them for debate in the Senate. If passed and not vetoed, the bills will ban legislators from investing campaign donations in stocks; accepting gifts from lobbyists; and prevent legislators from becoming lobbyists within a year after they leave office.

Another bill would require legislators to report their personal finances twice a year. But all that legislators need do is report extra employment that gains them more than $1,000 – they need not reveal how much more than $1,000. They don’t have to state the actual amount be it one penny or thousands of dollars.

But the big issues – such as limiting campaign donation dollar amounts and applying term limits for political office holders -- are being ignored. Wonder why?

Given the self-congratulatory rhetoric among legislators about ethics reform, it is meaningful to note that gubernatorial candidate Eric Greitens, the former Navy Seal who earned a doctorate as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, began demanding ethics reform last year when he announced his candidacy.

“Missouri’s policies are shaped by corrupt insiders, well-paid lobbyists and self-serving politicians who maximize their own personal profit, yet continue to fail to serve the people,” he stressed last year in speeches and on his website.

“It’s time for strong, robust, common sense ethics measures that will help to restore trust, and return government to ‘We the People.’” Us!

Greitens’ call for reform was amplified by media and his supporters because 2015 was a particularly awkward and embarrassing year for Missouri legislators.

Early last year, Missouri State Auditor Thomas Schweich, a candidate for governor, committed suicide after an anti-Semitic whisper campaign was launched against him.

Schweich was Episcopal.

Then, one month later, Robert Jackson, who had served as Schweich’s media director, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

In May, Republican House Speaker John Diehl resigned in disgrace because he had shared sexy email messages with a 19-year-old legislative intern from Missouri Southern State University. Not long after that scandal, Missouri Democrat Senator Paul LeVota resigned in shame after several former interns alleged that he had sexually harassed them.

Sure, sexual escapades are now fairly common in all levels of government but double suicides are not. What is it about Missouri that makes our state so different from others?

This may be a clue: The Center for Public Integrity (http://www.publicintegrity.org) gave Missouri’s government a D-minus grade for its integrity – lack of it – and, also, for lack of commitments to maintain systems that deter corruption.

The Center, based in Washington, D.C., publishes an annual assessment of state government accountability in 13 categories. The nonpartisan, nonprofit entity assesses abuses of power, corruption and betrayal of public trust. Missouri’s government has never scored well on the Center’s annual assessment, and its results for 2015 reveal a state government lacking integrity and respectability.

For example, in 2015 Missouri got an F in these six categories of assessment:

· Public Access to Information

· Political Financing

· Electoral Oversight

· Legislative Accountability

· State Civil Service Management

· State Pension Fund Management

And in four other categories – Judicial Accountability, State Budget Processes, Procurement and Ethics Enforcement Agencies – Missouri earned a D-plus, a D or a D-minus.

What a track record. No wonder Eric Greitens demanded more ethical reform in Missouri government long before legislators finally approached the thorny issue. But there’s more.

In a survey analyzing 13 key metrics ranging from student-teacher ratios to standardized-test scores to dropout rates, the state of Missouri also earned poor grades. Of the 50 states Missouri ranked 28th overall, 27th for school system quality and 38th for school safety -- well below the rankings of North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Arkansas and Tennessee.

Greitens formally revealed his priorities for ethical reform the week of the legislature’s opening session in early January when he declared:

“The first step to a more vibrant and hopeful Missouri full of great jobs and providing every child with a world-class education is creating an open, honest and ethical environment in Jefferson City. Career politicians have taken us in the opposite direction. When I’m governor, with this ethics package, we will change the course.” Here is Greitens’ ethics reform plan with his commentary:

#1: Term Limits for Every Statewide Office Holder

“Every statewide office in Missouri should be subject to term limits. This includes the offices of Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, and State Auditor. Missouri needs proven leaders, not career politicians.”

#2: Ban all Gifts from Lobbyists

“The culture of corruption in Jefferson City must end. Since 2004, politicians in Missouri have taken approximately $10.9 million in gifts from lobbyists. This game of trading lavish gifts and high-dollar steak dinners for special favors must end. Today in Missouri, legislators dine out, and when it comes time to pay the bill, they call in the credit card of a lobbyist. Public office is about service. Not free meals. Not free tickets. Not free trips. When I am governor we will ban all gifts from lobbyists.”

#3: Close the Revolving Door Between Legislators and Special Interests

“To end the culture of corruption, the revolving door between legislators and special interests needs to be nailed shut. Too many politicians try to ‘cash in’ by becoming lobbyists as soon as they leave office. When I’m Governor, we’ll end the culture of cashing in with a simple rule: for every year you serve in office, you have to wait a year before you can do paid lobbying in Missouri. If you serve one year, you have to wait one year before you can lobby. Serve two, then you wait two. And if you’re a career politician who has been in office for twenty years, then you wait twenty years before you can engage in paid lobbying.”

#4: End Campaign Contributions while the Legislature is in Session

“Today, Missouri’s elected officials accept campaign contributions while the legislature is in session. This means that dollars flow from special interests to politicians at the very time that legislators are considering passing laws to benefit these contributors. When I’m Governor, we’ll establish a level and clean playing field so that no state elected official or candidate for elected office will be able to solicit or accept campaign contributions while the legislature is in session.”

#5: Stop Politicians from Pocketing Campaign Money

“Today in Missouri, a politician can raise money to run for office, drop out of the race, and keep the money. They can then turn around and use that money to fund a career as a lobbyist or a ‘consultant.’ When I’m Governor, we’ll make it law that if a candidate for office decides not to run they have to return all money to their donors within 30 days.”

#6: Report All Government Handouts

“When I’m Governor, all candidates and elected officials will report every penny of government tax credits, contracts, salaries, and special interest handouts that they, their companies and their families have received from the Federal and State government. Missouri is the Show-Me state. It’s time for politicians to be transparent with the people. If a candidate is in the business of taking special interest tax credits and contracts, then the people should know about it.”

#7: End Donations from Companies Under Investigation

“Our Attorney General takes money from the very companies that he is investigating. It’s a sad game. The companies contribute and the Attorney General does them favors. The companies and the politicians win; the people lose. When I’m Governor, no company that is subject to a state lawsuit or investigation will be able to make campaign contributions to any officeholder or candidate for office.”

#8: Stronger Ethics Enforcement

“The Missouri Ethics Commission should have more robust power to conduct independent investigations. There will be a prosecutor in the Ethics Commission with the authority to impose stiff penalties for knowing, willing ethics violations, and harsher consequences when public trust is breached.”

While the Missouri House passed one of Greitens’ recommendations – banning gifts from lobbyists -- it is too soon to know if his ethics plan will become a playbook for legislative reform. For one thing, he is not an elected official and, for another, he is running for governor and his opponents in Jefferson City may try to limit his exposure.

But Missouri voters are fed up with elected officials who do little while in office except cultivate lobbyists, special interest groups and campaign donors so they can keep getting elected and collect a state paycheck until retiring with a government pension.

Moreover, Greitens’ demand that Missouri’s statewide officeholders should be subject to term limits doesn’t sit well with those in the legislature who fit the category of “career politicians” as noted above; the same goes for Greitens’ demand for financial transparency for all candidates and elected officials.

And the fact is -- Missouri politicians are not historically known for policing each other, but for protecting each other with legislative loopholes and lax ethical standards.

When an honest, ethical, well-educated former Navy Seal such as Greitens, who is also a best-selling author and Senior Fellow at the Harry S. Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri, begins shining the light of reform in Jefferson City, career politicians start to worry.

As well they should: Greitens is a proven leader. He received nine decorations for valor, including the Purple Heart and Bronze Star Award, for his service as a Navy Seal commander. And when he left active duty he served as a White House Fellow, working at high levels in the federal government. He also founded The Mission Continues, a nonprofit organization that helps veterans adjust after they return from foreign battlefields by finding purpose in life as community leaders. And Greitens has written two best-selling books: “The Heart and the Fist” and “Resilience: “Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life.”

In 2013 Time Magazine named Greitens one of the 100 most influential people in the world. A year later, Fortune Magazine named him one of the 50 greatest leaders in the world. Tough, smart, fearless and compassionate, Greitens is a conservative Republican gubernatorial candidate for who inspires people.

And if he wins, watch out, Jefferson City.

***

YW