Zoom TONIGHT!

Zoom TONIGHT!

join me on zoom!

The Missouri Freedom Forum is held on Zoom every SUNDAY night from 8:00 - 9:00pm 

We host different guests each week and discuss a couple of hot topics related to current issues in Missouri legislation.  And we always leave time for Q&A.  

Tonight's guests are:

  • Senator Jill Carter
  • Ron Calzone, Director of Missouri First
  • Bev Ehlen, veteran Missouri activist
Tonight's Topics:  

  • Initiative Petition Reform & Concurrent Majority Ratification
    • These issues address the way we amend the Missouri Constitution, such as how Amendment 3 passed in November allowing marijuana to be legal for recreational purposes.
  • The Week Ahead
    • The Safe Act - Banning hormones, puberty blockers & gender surgery for kids
    • Education - Local control schools & open enrollment
Please join us tonight & invite other Missouri patriot friends!


Meeting ID:  985 7944 0085
Password:  freedom

Phone In:  US: 646 876 9923 or  669 900 6833



Legislative Overview for The Week Ahead (2/13/23)

Legislative Overview for The Week Ahead (2/13/23)


Apologies for my late publication of my focus for the week.  I'm blaming the Super Bowl.  I hope you were celebrating the BIG WIN, as well and enjoying the break for the crazy world of Missouri politics for a few hours.  

YAY for the WIN... now back to reality.

monday, feb 13th

mo senate hearings

1:00 pm in Senate Committee Room 2

There are several bills being heard on the topic of Initiative Petitions and constitutional amendments.  

I'm most familiar with Senator Carter's SJR 28 which includes language that would require a concurrent majority in order to pass amendments to the Missouri Constitution.  This means when we have a ballot measure and there is a potential change to the MO Constitution a majority of MO House districts would be required to vote in favor of an amendment IN ADDITION to having the majority of the popular vote.   The result of concurrent majority requirement is that the rural areas of Missouri would be represented vs the urban areas alone determining the changes to our constitution.

This issue is VERY important.  We expect there will be an abortion related amendment on the ballot in 2024.  We want ALL Missourians' voiced to count. 

There may be other good bills being presented in the hearing as well.  I'll do my best to share what I learn.

CALL TO ACTION

Request a YES vote from the committee members.

Senator Elaine Gannon, Chair  - 573.751.4008
Senator Sandy Crawford, Vice Chair - 573.751.8793
Senator Jill Carter -  573.751.2173
Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman - 573.751.1492
Senator Andrew Koenig - 573.751.5568
Senator John Rizzo - 573.751.3074
Senator Barbara Washington - 573.751.3158

Email Addresses (copy & paste):


THIRD READ & PASS

Subject: Parent's Rights & Transparency
This bill is perfected and will come before the body of the senate for a yes/no vote.

CALL TO ACTION:
1.   Call  & email your Senator and let them know what your concerns are with this bill.  Ask for a no vote.  Senator Eigel has a better option!  Nothing at all is better than this.  Legislator Lookup Tool

2.  Copy the link to this post & send it to a conservative friend!


SENATE BILLS FOR PERFECTION

Subject:  Medicaid Expansion.  Covers care for 12 months after pregnancy.
My Opinion:  Yes IF they amend the bill to prohibit funds for post-abortion care.

CALL TO ACTION:
1.   Call  & email your Senator and let them know what your concerns are with this bill.  Ask for language that would prohibit post abortion care.  Legislator Lookup Tool

2.  Copy the link to this post & send it to a conservative friend!


tuesday, february 14

hearings

8:15 in the Senate Lounge

Subject: Modifies provisions relating to workforce development in ELEMENTARY and secondary schools.
My Opinion:  NO.  You very well may disagree with my position.  I DO believe our kids need to be proactive and have a plan for their futures.  It's smart.  It's wise.  As a mom, I help my kids think through their options after high school.  That said, although I do believe it's wise, I do NOT believe it should be mandated by the State government.  My 14 year old 8th grader does NOT need to be worried about choosing a career or where he's going to college.  He needs to learn to love learning.  He needs to learn to love exploring and experiencing new things.  He needs to be a kid.  I even believe that's true of my 12th grader.   Wise?  Absolutely.  But mandated?  NO. NO. NO.    

CALL TO ACTION:
Contact committee members to express your views.  I'll be asking for a NO vote.
Andrew Koenig, Chair  573.751.5568
Rick Brattin, Vice-Chair. 573.751.2108
Lauren Arthur. 573.751.5282
Doug Beck. 573.751.0220
Elaine Gannon. 573.751.4008
Denny Hoskins.  573.751.4302
Greg Razer.  573.751.6607
Nick Schroer. 573.751.1282
Curtis Trent. 573.751.1503


10:00 am in Senate Committee Room 1

SB 49- Senator Mike Moon
SB  164 - Senator Jill Carter
SB 236 - Senator Denny Hoskins

SUBJECT:  These 3 bills ban puberty blockers and gender transition surgery for children under the age of 18.  
MY OPINION:  YES!

All three of these bills are great.  They are written to protect our kids from the abuse of the left wing agenda that is targeting kids.

CALL TO ACTION:
1.  Pray!!  Last week, a whistleblower released the truth about the gender clinic that has been operating at St Louis Children's Hospital in partnership with Washington University.  It has gotten the attention of our Attorney General and even national news outlets.  I suspect the response to Tuesday's committee hearing will be larger than anything we've seen with the trans hearings thus far.  Please pray for calm, safety and for God's will to be done.  Pray for Senators Moon, Carter & Hoskins...for 
their safety and their peace of mind as well as success.

2.  Contact committee members.  Request a YES vote.
Senator Justin Brown, Chair.  573.751.5713
Senator Mike Moon.    573.751.1480
Senator Elaine Gannon.   573.751.4008
Senator Nick Schroer.   573.751.1282
Senator Andrew Koenig.  573.751.5568
Senator Tracy McCreery.  573.751.9762
Senator Greg Razer.   573.751.6607

Email Addresses (Copy & paste):

HOT TOPIC: Changing the Missouri Constitution

HOT TOPIC: Changing the Missouri Constitution

amending the constitution needs to be more fair to rural missourians


Why?   

Well…. Did YOU want the marijuana amendment to pass?   

Chances are, if you live in any county outside of a metropolitan area, you did not.  The map below, which is provided by Missouri First, shows exactly which Missouri counties were in favor of Amendment 3 which was on our November 2022 ballot.  As you can see, only 16 voting districts approved.

So often, this is the case.  The general population of the cities is enough to out vote the rural areas.  You likely already know the big problem with this.

The cities are vastly different than the majority of Missouri.  Those of us who live in the beautiful Missouri farmland or near our gorgeous cold, spring-fed rivers in the southern Missouri hills do NOT want to share the way of life of our city dwelling friends.  Generally speeking, our needs are different and our values are different.

When it comes to changing our Missouri Constitution, the needs and voices of rural Missourians aren't being taken into account.  The Concurrent Majority Ratification legislation will help us fix that.

vocabulary to understand

Initiative Petition (IP)  

This is the process by which citizens are able to add measures onto our ballots on election day. The process is overseen by the Secretary of State and involves collecting hundreds of thousands of signatures to request the additional measure to the ballot.  It’s a very expensive process and it’s not easy to accomplish.  And that’s a good thing.  We don’t need it to be easy BUT we also don’t want to completely remove the people's ability to make a change when necessary.

IP Reform  

If you hear of IP Reform, it is referring to an effort to change the process of citizens being able to add an amendment to the ballot. Those who feel the Constitution is irrelevant these days would love for it to be easier.  People who don’t want any changes to the Constitution would prefer it be much harder or near impossible for the people to be able to accomplish the passage of a constitutional amendment.  

Citizens do need a way to change things if their elected officials aren’t representing the constituents well.  It doesn’t need to be impossible but it does need to be very challenging and that is the case as it stands.  If I were to update the IP process, I’d choose to make it even a little more difficult to do but I don’t believe this is the answer to our concerns.

There are a lot of initiative petitions that are filed each year and only a very few make it to the ballot.  In 2022, there were 89 IP filings and only 50 were approved for circulation to collect signatures.  Of those, only 1 actually made it onto the 2022 ballot and that was the the marijuana amendment.  The other ballot measures arrived on the ballot via joint resolutions passed by legislature.

Concurrent Majority Ratification (CMR)

According to Webster, the definition of concurrent majority is,  “a political majority created out of divergent interest groups and temporarily united by general agreement especially in protecting a minority right”

In this case, the divergent interest groups are the rural areas.  Rural Missourians have a different interest than residents of our biggest cities.  We need to protect rural Missourians' interests. 

Specifically, we will be looking at the Missouri House Districts to do that because they are the smallest political subdivisions of Missouri voters.

Ratification is the official consent to the changing of the constitution.

Concurrent Majority Ratification means that it would take the popular vote AND the majority of House districts approval in order to officially change the Missouri Constitution.

Popular Vote
The results of individual votes cast.   

the american standard

The standard for creating public policy in America IS by way of concurrent majority.
  • States vote to ratify amendments to the US Constitution.  We don't change it by a national popular vote.
  • The Electoral College.  We don't elect the President by a national popular vote.
  • We have 2 US Senators per state, regardless of population size.
  • Members of the House of Representatives (both MO & US) represent geographic districts
  • Our legislature consists of 2 chambers - House & Senate.  Passing legislation requires a concurrent majority
In truth, amending the Missouri Constitution by way of a statewide popular vote is the exception not the rule.  It causes a problem in that the cities of Missouri are able to control any ballot initiative and our rural citizens are disenfranchised.  It needs to change.

current legislation to support

Each of these are Joint Resolutions.  If passed by the legislature, they will not be added to statute. They become ballot measures brought before the people for a vote.

SJR 28 by Senator Jill Carter
SJR 33 by Senator Mike Moon
HJR 30 by Representative Ed Lewis

The key point in each of these three pieces of legislation is that in order to amend the Missouri Constitution, it would require more than 50% of the popular vote AND more than 50% of the vote in each Missouri House District.

If this had been the statute prior to our November 2022 election, the marijuana amendment would NOT have passed because although the popular vote was more than 50%, there were not nearly enough Missouri House districts that approved.

take action

  • Call and email your Representative &. Senator regarding this issue.  Keep it respectful, short & sweet.  Tell them you support the CONCURRENT MAJORITY RATIFICATION language in SJR 28, SJR 33 and HJR 30 and you are requesting they support these at any opportunity available to them.
  • Watch for committee hearings and participate by attending or submitting testimony as often as possible.  I'll keep you updated as to when & where those are happening.  The first House hearing is Tuesday, 1/24 at Noon in House Hearing Room 6.
  • Call and email committee members individually to express your support prior to any hearings.
  • Share this information with your friends and family.  If this legislation passes, it will then be added to the ballot and we need educated voters.

tools to help you take action

Don't know your legislators or their contact info?    Legislator Lookup Tool

Legislator email addresses follow the following templates.

Committee members


Peggy McGaugh, Chair (R)   573.751.2917
Dan Stacy, Vice Chair (R)  573.751.8636
Joe Adams, Ranking Minority Leader (D).  573.751.4265
Brad Banderman (R).  573.751.0549
Donna Baringer (D).  573.751.4220
Tricia Byrnes (R).  573.751.1460
Jeff Coleman (R).  573.751.1487
Bill Falkner (R).  573.751.9755
Roger Reedy (R).  573.751.3971
Alex Riley (R)   573.751.2210
Adam Schwadron (R).  573.751.2949
David Tyson Smith (D).  573.751.9753
Justin Sparks (R).  573.751.0562
Cheri Toalson Reisch (R).  573.751.1169
Ken Waller (R)  573.751.4451
Kevin Windham (D).  573.751.4726
Eric Woods (D).  573.751.2199


Elaine Gannon, Chair (R).   573.751.4008
Sandy Crawford, Vice Chair (R).  573.751.8793
Jill Carter (R).  573.751.2173
Mary Elizabeth Coleman (R).  573.751.1492
Andrew Koenig (R).  573.751.5568
John Rizzo (D).  573.751.3074
Barbara Washington (D).  573.751.3158

upcoming hearings

House Committee Hearing
Tuesday, January 24, 2023 @ 12:00 Noon in House Hearing Room 6
Submit Written Testimony - Support HJR 30.  Be sure to check your email and click to verify your submission.



 
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