Eric Greitens won.
The former Missouri governor who . The man hated by Republicans because he used to be a Democrat. The former Navy SEAL who had to leave his nonprofit over allegations that he misappropriated donor and membership lists. The married father of two who was the subject of a criminal and House investigation into whether he inappropriately took a photo of a half-naked woman tied up in his Central West End basement. The politician who took the use of dark money to new heights — er, lows — in an attempt to hide the source of his outside influence.
Having been in hiding from the public eye for several months, Greitens should be comforted in the fact that his influence lives in the darkest of ways.
This week, that a dark-money nonprofit formed in a similar fashion to Greitens’ A New Missouri, is spreading around campaign cash in an attempt to pass legislation that will weaken Title IX regulations on college campuses in Missouri. The legislation is an attack on rape victims, an attempt to make it harder for women to bring forward allegations of assault on campus. It is a rollback of strengthened rules passed down by the Barack Obama administration, pushed, sadly enough, by a trustee of Washington University.
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As the Kansas City Star , ºüÀêÊÓƵ billionaire David Steward, founder of World Wide Technology, is at least one of the funders of nonprofit Kingdom Principles Inc., which in turn is providing the money for Missouri Campus Due Process Coalition.
It’s no wonder Steward and his cohorts, if he has any, wanted to keep their efforts secret.
In this #MeToo era where the political, business and entertainment worlds have been called to task for historical mistreatment of women, where titans of industry have fallen over sexual assault and harassment allegations, where a new U.S. Supreme Court Justice diminishes allegations of high school assault with a smirk and a sentence:
Washington University should be downright embarrassed that somebody affiliated with the university would secretly push legislation that will make women on campus less safe. So, too, should the University of Missouri — where Steward was once a member of the Board of Curators.
Both universities oppose the legislation.
“This would have a chilling effect on students’ willingness to come forward with claims,†Washington University Wednesday.
Those backing the legislation, of course, say they’re just trying to inject more “due process†into the federal guidelines that were put in place to protect rape victims. As if powerful men of privilege actually need more protection when it comes to hoarding power over women.
Fine. Let’s have that debate. But only if you’ll put your names on the dotted line.
Secrecy undermines your argument.
That’s what a House committee said a year ago as it was investigating Greitens’ use of dark money.
When the committee’s work ended prematurely after the governor resigned his seat, its chairman, Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, wrote a fire-breathing letter outlining the committee’s findings, which, Barnes said, would have likely led to the governor’s impeachment.
In that letter, he referred to Greitens’ dark-money scheme as a
One year later, the Don has been metaphorically whacked, but his henchmen continue their work.
The Due Process Coalition’s domain name was purchased by the same Victory Enterprises political consulting company that at one time advised Greitens. On Monday, lawmakers gave a hearing to a bill pushed by secretive, dark-money sources without the blink of an eye.
That same day, city of ºüÀêÊÓƵ voters re-elected Lewis Reed to be the president of the Board of Aldermen. Reed was helped across the finish line by a late infusion of .
Perhaps it’s just coincidence that Steward has been one of Reed’s biggest financial supporters.
With dark money, that’s the point. We don’t know. We may never know.
It is as if we, Missouri’s voters, are blindfolded in the Capitol basement, kept there by powerful forces who don’t want us to see what they are doing.