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This sleaziness is not a result of the Supreme Court's disastrous Citizens United ruling. It's purely a Missouri problem.
In 2005, when Missouri politicians, Republicans and Democrats, started pushing to get rid of campaign donation limits in the Show-Me State, their main argument was that it would bring transparency to campaign finance in the state.
If donors could give whatever they wanted, the logic went, there would be no incentive to launder money through multiple committees, as long had been the practice. The flaw in the argument was clear: There would be no transparency if lawmakers didn't also pass measures to ban committee-to-committee transfers, like the example above.
Now we have limited transparency and unlimited money. It's a dangerous combination.
Part of the problem lies with the federal government, which hasn't enforced rules that are supposed to limit certain nonprofit organizations, such as the inappropriately named Better Government for Missouri, from active involvement in electoral politics.
Because those rules aren't enforced, dirty tricksters can operate in the dark. In Missouri, this practice is widespread.
For instance, the organization trying to keep predatory payday loan rates high is funded by millions of dollars funneled through a separate nonprofit corporation run by Kansas City political consultant Patrick Tuohey. The assumption is that the money comes from predatory companies — who else would it be? — but voters can't know for sure.
Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/the-platform/editorial-trail-of-dirty-money-continues-to-pull-missouri-into/article_a553acac-a696-5cee-ad14-089b2f9f82c6.html#ixzz21AhZP2Ur
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