JEFFERSON CITY — Republicans in the Missouri Senate returned to debate Monday on a plan that would require conservative congressional districts to sign off on changes to the state constitution.
Democrats last week blocked a vote on the plan for two days before the chamber adjourned for the week on Tuesday, a day before the parade in Kansas City to celebrate the Chiefs’ Super Bowl win.
Numerous senators attended the festivities in Kansas City, which ended with a mass shooting that injured more than 20 attendees and left one woman, Lisa Lopez-Galvan, dead.
When they returned to action on Monday, before beginning debate on the measure that would change the state’s initiative petition process, senators held a moment of silence for the victims of the Kansas City shooting.
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And when senators returned to the proposed initiative petition changes, Democrats held the floor, stalling a vote.
Sen. Tracy McCreery, D-Olivette, pushed for closing the state’s domestic violence loophole. Federal law already bars those convicted of domestic violence from carrying guns, and a change to state law would align Missouri with federal statutes.
When Republicans enacted permitless carry requirements in 2016, opponents feared the measure would put guns into the hands of those denied permits in the past, such as domestic abusers.
“I feel like that’s something that we could do that can help keep our first responders safe,†McCreery said, referencing a domestic incident Sunday outside of Minneapolis in which officials said a man .
The measure under consideration would require constitutional amendments to win a simple majority statewide as well as majorities in five of eight congressional districts.
This would mean voters in heavily Democratic areas of the state, such as the congressional districts covering ºüÀêÊÓƵ and Kansas City, would wield less influence than voters in Republican-leaning districts when it came time to amending the state constitution.
Voters would get the final say on any move to make constitutional amendments more difficult.
Republican proponents of initiative petition changes want the measure on the Aug. 6 primary ballot, hoping that enacting the higher threshold would complicate passage of an abortion-rights measure that could appear on the Nov. 5 ballot.
In addition to the higher threshold, Democrats have accused Republicans of injecting “ballot candy†into the proposal to ease passage of the measure.
The initiative petition proposal would ban foreign interference in initiative petitions as well as limit participation in voting on ballot measures to U.S. citizens.
Voting in Missouri is already limited to U.S. citizens.
Federal law already prohibits spending by foreign governments and nationals in U.S. elections, according to the Campaign Legal Center. But the nonpartisan group also says state governments additional actions to address foreign activity in elections.
The Senate measure would also ask voters to limit future constitutional amendments, including ones that would legalize lobbyist gifts to lawmakers. (Voters already outlawed lobbyist gifts to state lawmakers in 2020.)
The foreign interference and voting limits, as well as the restriction on lobbyist gift questions, would appear in a Republican-drafted ballot summary before the proposed higher threshold for constitutional amendments.