Eric Greitens Under Fire For ‘Dark Money’ Political Donations
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Nathan Guttman May 4, 2017
Missouri governor Eric Greitens, who ran on a platform of ethic reform, is now getting a taste of his own medicine.
The Kansas City Star reports that lawmakers in Jefferson City are forcing a debate over a bill that would provide greater transparency in political donations from not-for-profit organizations including one that is backing Greitens.
The legislation would expose donors behind A New Missouri Inc., a nonprofit set up by Greitens’ supporters in order to advance the Republican governor’s agenda. Donors to the organization were not identified since under current Missouri laws nonprofits are exempt from providing names of their donors.
The group, A New Missouri Inc., waged war against lawmakers pushing for the ethics legislation, including by running ads disclosing one of the state senators’ cell phone number. But Republican and Democratic state senators used procedural meandering to overcome the leadership’s refusal and to force a debate on the “dark money” bill.
Greitens, who is Jewish, is viewed as rising star in Republican politics but since taking office this year he has been criticized for lack of transparency in his administration.
Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
