OPINION|
You would think Republican lawmakers in Jefferson City would be giddy about their chokehold super-majorities in the Missouri Senate and House of Representatives.
A super-majority means Republicans hold 111 of the 163 House seats and 24 of the 34 Senate seats.
But no. Some now want to have — in pro wrestling parlance — a submission hold on voters, a way to gut the majority-rule provision on citizen initiatives in Missouri.
I think it would be something like an Iron Claw hold, the Cobra Clutch or the dreaded Sleeper Hold. Call it the GOP Hammerlock.
The focus for many of our state GOP legislators in recent years has been to make it harder for voters to change state laws and the Missouri Constitution. In other words, they don't like it when voters conclude their elected representatives are unresponsive, often due to ideology.
Time of the essence because there might be a state vote on abortion in November
Missouri voters had to use the initiative petition to legalize medicinal and recreational marijuana, expand Medicaid benefits and to defeat the so-called right-to-work laws.
But none of those issues, in my view, are as important to many lawmakers as abortion.
People are gathering signatures through an initiative petition in an attempt to overturn Missouri's abortion ban, which was passed immediately after the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade.
At least 20 bills have been filed in Jefferson City aimed at altering the initiative petition process.
To be fair and circumspect, one problem with laws passed via citizen-led petition drives is that ballot propositions can occasionally can be poorly worded and not necessarily well thought out.
For example, Daily Citizen public safety and courts reporter Jackie Rehwald this month wrote about the incredible workload placed on circuit clerks throughout Missouri when citizens approved via initiative petition a constitutional amendment to expunge certain marijuana-related convictions.
I should also point out, with Exhibit B, a story written in August by government reporter Jack McGee, that makes the point that lawmakers themselves are fully capable of writing confusing legislation all on their own.
Counties throughout Missouri are trying to sort how to implement a poorly written law on freezing real estate taxes for seniors that was sponsored by Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, R-Parkville.
In other words, the problem with poorly written bills and laws isn't necessarily the initiative petition process. It's drafting them with a minimum amount of clarity.
Freedom Caucus in forefront of push
It's primarily the so-called GOP Freedom Caucus that wants to head 'em off at the pass before there's an abortion vote in November.
They want to make it harder in Missouri for an initiative petition — any initiative petition — to pass once it's on the ballot. The urgency is the abortion issue. The legislative session ends in May.
The Senate was at an impasse in January 2024 due to filibusters from Freedom Caucus lawmakers, who shut the chamber down because they demanded immediate action on changes to the petition-initiative process.
Here's my brief political analysis: In most of Missouri, if you are a political candidate and you have an “R” by your name, you are going to win.
After all, in 2020, Donald Trump carried the presidential election in Missouri with 57 percent of the vote. Apparently, the election wasn't stolen here in Missouri.
The exceptions to the GOP chokehold on politics in Missouri are the large cities of Kansas City and St. Louis.
On petition initiatives, there are no “Republican” or “Democratic” labels, which diminishes the partisan impact on the outcome.
That's why some Republicans want to shut it down, or at least make it more difficult.
It's not enough that Republicans have super-majorities. They want to close the back door, too, do away with that portal where frustrated voters, feeling disconnected, can flip the override switch.
Rural vs. urban: Here's the proposed change
In Missouri, there are requirements on how an initiative petition can be placed on a ballot, including a threshold number for how many signatures from registered voters must be collected in each of the state's eight congressional districts. Any petition needs to meet that threshold in six of the eight districts.
Then, once the matter qualifies for the statewide ballot and is voted upon, it passes with a simple majority. That's the way it's been.
It's a tool that has been used responsibly to pull government back toward the center.
But some lawmakers are now saying, “Hold on now!”
It's been a feeding frenzy for Republicans filing bills that would change the process.
The bill that seems to have risen to the top is one that would require something old and something new.
First, for a initiative petition to pass it must win a majority of the vote. That's the way it's always been.
But the suggested change would create a second prong. The initiative petition would also have to pass in a majority of the 163 Missouri House Districts.
In other words, it would create something like a mini-Electoral College.
This effort is intended to counter the large number of progressive and Democratic voters in densely populated urban areas.
Under the proposed change, in looking at that second prong, a House district in which an initiative petition measure was defeated by one vote would carry as much weight as a House district in which the measure won by 10,000 votes.
A Feb. 5 story in the Missouri Independent analyzed voting patters in Missouri and concluded that the proposed change would make it mathematically possible for as few as 20 percent of voters to determine the outcome of statewide ballot measure.
The change would almost kill a major measure in which Missouri voters can directly tell their representatives they're out of touch.
This is Pokin Around column No. 162.
