JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri Senate on Tuesday gave initial approval to a plan that would require voters in heavily Republican congressional districts to sign off on citizen-led constitutional amendments for them to take effect.
The voice vote to advance the measure followed a Republican amendment to remove language that Democrats had derided as unrelated “ballot candy†meant to trick voters into supporting the proposal later this year.
But a hard-right faction of Senate Republicans, members of the Missouri Freedom Caucus, denounced that move. In the end, a coalition of nine Republicans and nine Democrats voted to strip the extraneous provisions from the measure.
The measure that won initial approval would only ask voters if a statewide simple majority as well as majority of congressional districts should be required to approve constitutional amendment initiative petitions and amendments proposed through a constitutional convention.
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Such a plan, if voters approve it later this year, would block ballot initiatives that fail to win in a majority of districts — Missouri currently has eight congressional districts — even if a majority of voters statewide support the amendment.
Senate President Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, who supported the bipartisan amendment, said it “keeps the bill going.â€
“We had an impasse and we had to figure out a way to get it to the House,†Rowden said. “We’re gonna see what the House does to it and we’ll probably have another bite at the apple.â€
The House, meanwhile, approved its own version of the initiative petition changes Tuesday.
Sen. Karla May, D-ºüÀêÊÓƵ, said she was able to support the bipartisan Senate amendment because it removed the “trickery†that was set to appear before voters.
“The amendment made the bill truthful. See, the original bill was trickery,†she said.
May was among Senate Democrats who launched a filibuster Monday afternoon to delay the measure, holding the floor for about 20 hours and forcing the cancellation of nearly all Senate committee hearings on Tuesday.
Senate Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina, said before the action Tuesday that the Republican caucus had “differing views†and that “every major issue is leveraged and this makes solutions quite difficult.â€
“The Democrats use this to their advantage,†she added. “We are working to find a path forward. Negotiations are ongoing.â€
The initial Republican plan on the Senate floor included three provisions unrelated to the highest-profile proposal making constitutional amendments more difficult to approve.
Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold, later proposed abandoning one of the provisions: a series of bans on future constitutional amendments. The ban would’ve barred questions proposing sales taxes hikes on food, to defund the police, legalize lobbyist gifts to state legislators, and more.
But two unrelated provisions remained: restricting voting on constitutional amendments to U.S. citizens and prohibiting foreign funding of constitutional amendments. U.S. citizenship is already to vote in Missouri and federal law already foreign spending in U.S. elections.
But the amendment the bipartisan coalition ultimately supported, sponsored by Sen. Mike Cierpiot, R-Lee’s Summit, only included the provision raising the threshold for amendments.
“Once again, not all Republicans are really interested in moving these big red priorities,†said Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, after the vote. Eigel, who is running for governor, is a Freedom Caucus member.
The push to make it more difficult to change the state constitution comes as a coalition of abortion rights groups, called , is gathering signatures to put a measure on the November ballot that if passed by voters would enshrine the right to an abortion in the state constitution.
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