JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Many top pro-business priorities of Republican Gov. Eric Greitens passed during his first legislative session, but campaign promises to ramp up ethics laws failed.
Greitens’ biggest legislative successes of the annual session that ended Friday were on labor issues and changes aimed at making the state’s legal climate more business friendly. But none of his proposals for stronger ethics laws passed.
Lawmakers say that’s in part because of a nonprofit that pushes Greitens’ agenda and can receive money from secret donors.
Republican Rep. Justin Alferman sponsored a ban on lobbyist gifts to elected officials that Greitens supports. Alferman said attack ads against a fellow Republican senator by nonprofit A New Missouri “emboldened senators to kill” a gift ban.
Greitens on Friday stood by A New Missouri.