$75 million pours into Missouri politics

Good morning, and welcome to The Weekender.

Roughly $75 million in large-dollar donations poured into Missouri politics this year.

That’s a lot of cash for an election year with no governor or U.S. Senate race.

Where did all that money go? More than $42 million flowed to committees fighting over constitutional amendments, referendums and other ballot measures. Amendments 4 and 5, the Republican-backed proposals that 80% of voters rejected earlier this month, consumed tens of millions before a vote was cast.

And there’s still more to come, with the November abortion fight already pulling in millions in donations and campaigns over congressional redistricting and the initiative process still fighting for a spot on the ballot.

Missouri requires contributions over $5,000 to be separately reported to the state ethics commission within 48 hours, creating a running record of the biggest checks. And no one has cut more than big checks this year than the Missouri REALTORS.

The trade association has put $7.3 million into Missouri campaigns this year, all but $25,000 of it aimed at ballot fights. That is more than twice the total from this year's biggest individual donor and nearly four times what retired investor Rex Sinquefield has contributed.

For years, Sinquefield was the name most closely associated with big political checks in Missouri. He has given $1.98 million this year.

But he is no longer No. 1 among individuals. Mike Rayner, a retired businessman from Town and Country, has given $3.1 million this year, making him Missouri’s largest individual political donor so far.

There is another difference between Rayner and Sinquefield and many of the biggest players on the list: We know who they are.

Roughly $23 million in large donations came through advocacy nonprofits that do not publicly disclose their donors.

Missouri Action gave $6.5 million. Secure Missouri gave $2.95 million. Missouri Promise Inc. gave just over $2 million. American Policy Coalition gave $2.05 million. The Fairness Project gave $1.75 million.

There are plenty more farther down the list.

Most of that anonymous money was concentrated in support of Amendment 5, the GOP-backed plan to overhaul Missouri’s tax code. But the dark money pendulum swings in the other ideological direction if you include donations late last year to the campaign seeking to overturn Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map. Well over $4 million came from groups that don’t disclose their donors.

Federal tax law generally allows these nonprofits to keep their contributors private. So a Missourian who gives $100 to a candidate can have their name and address show up on a campaign finance report. But when a nonprofit drops $1 million into a campaign, the trail may stop at the name of an organization and a mailing address.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the source of every dollar is unknowable. Sometimes you can piece together funding through tax records, grant disclosures or other public filings. Health Forward Foundation, for example, wasn’t counted here as dark money because the origin of its wealth, a legacy healthcare endowment, is a matter of public record.

But for much of the money, the public has no right to know who supplied it. In some cases, we may never know.

About one-quarter of the large contributions came from addresses outside Missouri. But even that number can be misleading. Missouri Action and Secure Missouri use Missouri addresses. That tells you where the check was mailed from. It doesn’t tell you where the money actually came from.

Missouri voters are increasingly being asked to settle some of the state’s biggest policy questions themselves. They just may never know who spent millions trying to persuade them.