Tag: Mary Compton,

Cole County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Green ruled that Amendment 1, known as Clean Missouri, dealt with "two different and extremely broad purposes," which violates the Missouri Constitution. Attorney Chuck Hatfield, who represents the Clean Missouri campaign, said in a statement that the campaign will appeal the ruling immediately. "We have always thought that this legal matter would be decided at the Appeals Court level," Hatfield said. The petition would have amended the Missouri Constitution to: Drastically change the process and criteria for drawing state legislative districts. Require state legislators to wait two years after they have left the General Assembly to become paid lobbyists. Require state legislators to be subject to Missouri's open-records law. In Green’s ruling, he said that the proposed changes to the Missouri Constitution covered two different purposes: "(1) the organization of the General Assembly; and (2) ethics or campaign finance regulation aimed at avoiding misconduct by public officials in multiple branches and levels of government." Two weeks ago, attorneys representing Clean Missouri and Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, whose office approves ballot measures, insisted that the proposed amendment dealt with one issue: accountability measures for the Missouri legislature. At the hearing, Green stressed that his judgment was not on the proposal's value, but whether it met the the requirements of the Missouri Constitution. While Conway said she was in favor of transparency, she couldn't support the petition's proposed redistricting process, in which "nobody’s interest is going to be served."