Senate committee approves Todd Graves nomination to University of Missouri curators
Rudi Keller
Missouri Independent
Former Missouri Republican Party Chairman Todd Graves is one step closer to a seat on the University of Missouri Board of Curators following a Senate committee vote that saw bipartisan support and opposition to his appointment.
One Democrat Sen. Brian Williams of Ferguson joined six Republicans in the 7-4 vote in the Gubernatorial Appointments Committee to send Gov. Mike Parson’s controversial choice for the board to the full Senate.
Two Republicans Sens. Mike Moon of Ash Grove and Paul Wieland of Imperial joined with Sen. John Rizzo, D-Independence, and Sen. Angela Mosley, D-Florissant, in opposition.
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Clean Missouri, a liberal campaign committee, poured over $7.5 million into defending their 2018 victory. In the end, Amendment 3 passed in November undoing the coalitions’ groundwork in the redistricting fight.
The battle exposed a partisan tug-of-war over control of redistricting, which only occurs every 10 years. Even though redistricting reforms passed with 62% of the vote in 2018, the GOP-controlled legislature challenged the reforms in a new ballot initiative called Amendment 3, which reversed the midterm decision. Clean Missouri continued its coalition building with Black and brown activists at the beginning of the new election cycle.
“It came together from coalitions of Missourians identifying an issue, trying to find solutions, bring people in, and building an organic, people-powered campaign to get something done,” said Yurij Rudensky, a redistricting expert at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, a nonpartisan law and policy institute.
Support and opposition campaigns surrounding Missouri Amendment 3 raised $7 9 million in contributions houstonherald.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from houstonherald.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.