In Redistricting Battle, It’s Soros Vs. Missouri’s Jewish Governor

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By Nathan Guttman January 25, 2018

A $300,000 contribution from the Open Society Policy Center, George Soros’s lobbying operation, is fueling a local initiative in Missouri aimed at limiting political lobbying and changing the state’s redistricting process.

Soros’s money is going to a group called Clean Missouri in an effort to advance a ballot measure that would significantly limit the power of lobbyists by putting a cap on gifts they can give legislators and by imposing a two-year waiting period before moving from politics to lobbying.

The initiative will also take away the redistricting process, currently in the hands of Governor Eric Greitens who selects a bipartisan commission, and put a non-partisan expert in charge of redrawing congressional districts, under the supervision of a citizens’ commission.

Missouri Republicans have accused Clean Missouri of acting hypocritically, since they have blasted the GOP for receiving money from interest groups while taking massive donations from Soros and his liberal lobbying group.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.