This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Feb. 24, 2010 - After two hours of detailed debate, the Missouri Senate approved Wednesday night a stripped-down ethics bill that primarily targets the Missouri Ethics Commission and money transfers between campaign committees.
The measure's chief sponsor -- Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph -- blocked or ruled out of order a number of attempted amendments, including efforts to restrict legislators who become lobbyists or take other lucrative state posts after they leave office.
The approved bill does require political action committees to donate only to candidates and bars most committee-to-committee transfers that critics say often are used to mask the identity of the real donor. It also sets up an investigative unit for the commission, with restrictions on some investigative actions.
The measure also requires elected officials or their challengers to report any donations received during the five-month legislative session, and to do so within 48 hours for contributions of $250 or more. The reporting requirement for governor and gubernatorial candidates also applied to "anytime legislation is pending gubernatorial action,'' which generally would mean the 60 days after the session ends.
But prior to Wednesday's debate, Shields had tossed out many other provisions approved earlier by a Senate panel, including restrictions on former legislators. Shields told his colleagues that he was limiting the focus of the ethics bill and would rule out of order any proposed changes that failed to deal directly with campaign donations or the Ethics Commission, state government's chief agency for monitoring campaign finances and enforcing the state's campaign-finance laws.
And with the help of Senate Majority Leader Kevin Engler, R-Farmington (who repeatedly raised "a point of order"), Shields did just that. The duo knocked out a series of amendments proposed by state Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, that were aimed at legislators or recipients of state tax credits. One failed proposal, for example, would have barred tax-credit recipients from donating to legislators.
In addition, Shields led the opposition against an amendment by Sen. Joan Bray, D-University City, to restore Missouri's campaign donation limits. At Shields' behest, the chamber also shot down a proposal by Sen. Minority Leader Victor Callahan, D-Independence, to restrict Missouri donors to giving no more than $40,000 in total contributions during an election cycle.
Shields contended that campaign-donation limits, in place in Missouri from 1995 to 2007, had actually helped drive up the cost of elections by making it more difficult to track campaign money. Bray blamed the "corporatization of campaigns'' and noted that Missouri is now among only a handful of states that have no donation limits.
Shields' opposition signaled that campaign-donation proposals being considered by the Missouri House will likely be killed if any of the House proposals make it to the Senate.
Other successful amendments included a quest by state Sen. Tim Green, D-Spanish Lake, to reduce the time limit for Ethics Commission investigations and to make it more difficult for delays. He got some legal assistance from state Sen. Luann Ridgeway, R-Smithville, who made some revisions and offered some successful amendments in line with Green's aims during Wednesday night's proceedings.
Green withdrew several more detailed amendments, after explaining to his colleagues that most of his proposals were aimed at curbing the activities of former state Rep. Elbert Walton, a St. Louis lawyer who has been at the center of controversies involving several St. Louis County fire protection districts and communities, most recently the Northeast Fire Protection District.
"I have dealt with this person for 20 years,'' said Green in disdain, contending that Walton was a master of "delay, delay, delay'' when ethics complaints were filed.
