From the Freedom Principle Missouri
As reported a few days ago, the Missouri state Senate Elections Committee has given first round approval to a bill that will finally give “voice” to rural Missourians when a proposed constitutional amendment is on the ballot.
It is commonly called Concurrent Majority Ratification, a form of “IP” or “Ratification” reform.
See https://www.mofirst.org/issues/ratification/CMR-Booklet.pdf to learn more about Concurrent Majority Ratification and how it gives more “voice” to more Missourians.
Since at least the middle of the 2023 legislative session, Concurrent Majority Ratification (CMR) has been the most popular tool to make sure our state Constitution was not at the mercy of primarily the urban areas. CMR requires that an additional condition, besides the current simple statewide majority vote, be met before the Constitution can be changed.
However, some legislators preferred using state House districts and other legislators preferred Congressional districts as the second condition, or “metric.” In either case, the idea is to prevent rural votes from being eclipsed by votes from the large population centers.
We believe that state House districts are much better for three main reasons:
- The finer granularity of state House districts does a better job of assessing the true will of the most people, and
- Because most of the congressional districts combine urban areas with vast rural areas that have less population than the urban areas, the rural voters would get “vetoed” if lumped with the urban voters, and
- Using state House districts empowers individuals and small groups to make a difference by working to “win” their own state House districts without a lot of money. Stopping bad ballot measures will no longer require huge amounts of money that never seems to be available.
SENATE REPUBLICANS COME TO AN AGREEMENT
You have probably heard that there has been a lot of contention among Missouri state Senate Republicans since the beginning of the 2024 legislative session. From my point of view, there have been a lot of mistakes made and inappropriate behavior on all sides.
To say there is very little trust in the Senate would be an understatement.
The new Freedom Caucus didn’t trust the President Pro Tem, Caleb Rowden to assign the IP/Ratification Reform bills to committees and then place them before the whole Senate to debate, so they resolved to prevent anything from happening until he did so. Senator Rowden said he would have assigned the bills if not for what he thinks is bad behavior by the Freedom Caucus.
Both sides dug in their heels, and most of the senators who aren’t part of the Freedom Caucus sided with the Pro Tem.
That’s why it was nice to see them all come to an agreement this week. Each side gave up something.
THE AGREEMENT
The Freedom Caucus wanted either SJR 61 (Moon) or SJR 83 (Eigel) to advance, but they also wanted one of their own to be the bill handler so the bill couldn’t be changed into something they don’t want.
The other side did not want a Freedom Caucus member to actually handle what almost everyone agrees is the highest priority bill of the session. Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman, who sides with the Pro Tem, wanted her bill to be the priority bill and she wanted to be the bill handler, and that was ok with the Pro Tem’s side.
Senator Coleman’s bill and the Freedom Caucus bill differed in only one way –her bill uses congressional districts as the second metric and the Freedom Caucus wanted to use state House districts.
The agreement that allowed the IP / Ratification Reform to move forward resulted in Senator Coleman’s SJR 74 being the base bill, but the other bills were rolled into it and congressional districts was changed to state House districts.
So, the Freedom Caucus gave up the idea of one of their own handling the bill in order to get state House districts as the second metric. Senator Coleman gave up congressional districts as the second metric in order to be the bill handler.
Cool. Everyone is happy, including me and thousands of my friends who wanted CMR with state House districts.
Here’s how you can contribute to this effort by sending two emails:
(1) Send Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman and email thanking her for her willingness to compromise and change congressional districts for state House districts. Tell her how important it is to you to make sure the voices of rural Missourians are heard by using state House districts.
MaryElizabeth.Coleman@senate.mo.gov
(2) Email the members of the Freedom Caucus and thank them for standing strong and insisting on Concurrent Majority Ratification with state House districts.
Rick Brattin Rick.Brattin@senate.mo.gov
Jill Carter Jill.Carter@senate.mo.gov
Bill Eigel Bill.Eigel@senate.mo.gov
Denny Hoskins Denny.Hoskins@senate.mo.gov
Andrew Koenig Andrew.Koenig@senate.mo.gov
Nick Schroer Nick.Schroer@senate.mo.gov
