In November 2018, Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved [62% to 38%] a constitutional amendment\u2014dubbed \u201cClean Missouri\u201d\u2014that will impose campaign-contribution limits, restrict gifts to legislators, and change the way state legislative districts are drawn, to eliminate partisan gerrymandering.<\/p>\n

But almost before the last vote was counted on the Clean Missouri initiative, Republican Governor Mike Parson vowed to get behind a legislative effort to repeal it\u2014even though, he acknowledges, his support of a reversal doesn\u2019t look good to voters. [This isn\u2019t Parson\u2019s first screw-the-voters effort: After Missouri voters approved a 2011 initiative that would have shut down inhumane \u201cpuppy mills,\u201d Parson\u2014then a state legislator\u2014led a successful legislative drive that put puppy mills back in business even before the new law could take effect.]<\/p>\n

Rumor has it that one Republican legislator is preparing to pre-file a bill in the 2019 Missouri legislative session that would undo Clean Missouri immediately. And within days of Clean Missouri\u2019s decisive victory, a new group\u2014with the Orwellian name \u201cFair Missouri\u201d\u2014began raising money for a new ballot initiative that would erase what voters had just approved.<\/p>\n

Missouri is not new to this game. The state has a sordid recent history of undermining, invalidating and\/or sabotaging voter-approved initiatives. Here are a few examples:<\/p>\n