Banning “dark money” is at the top of Elad Gross’ list of priorities in Missouri politics.
The constitutional attorney from St. Louis has his eyes set on the Missouri Attorney General race of 2020, and says his campaign will ‘not be taking any corporate money’. Gross served as an assistant to former Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, worked as a special public defender for the state, and currently directs the Education Exchange Corp in St. Louis.
Gross has introduced legislation to the Missouri House which would ban the practice of accepting “dark money,” a political term used to describe anonymous campaign contributions from certain organizations, such as nonprofits.
During a visit to the Cape Girardeau Public Library on Tuesday, Gross said he started investigating dark money in 2017, following a campaign by former gov. Eric Greitens. He said Greitens accepted nearly $13 million from one anonymous organization during the course of his campaign, and following his win created his ‘own dark money group called A New Missouri Incorporated.’
During a 2018 house committee investigation which looked into allegations against Greitens pertaining to sexual assault and domestic violence, Gross says they also looked at his ties to dark money activity. The investigation ceased after Greitens’ resignation in June, at which time Rep. Jay Barnes, who led the committee, wrote a letter to its members that A New Missouri, Inc. was a criminal endeavor from the start, ‘designed to illegally skirt donation limits and conceal the identities of major donors to Eric Greitens.’
Under Missouri’s nonprofit transparency laws, also known as ‘sunshine’ laws, Gross believed Greitens’ financial records still should’ve been released, despite the end of the investigation.
“Back then [during the election], we didn’t even have contribution limits,” said Gross. “You couldn’t see the names of the actual donors.”
Gross filed a lawsuit in Jefferson City to turn the records over. It was dismissed in a Cole County circuit court, which Gross said claimed he was only a member of the public, and the public couldn’t see the documents. This initially inspired Gross to run for attorney general.
In addition to the library, the 31-year-old made visits to several locations in Cape Girardeau and its surrounding areas, including Scott City High School and Southeast Missouri State University, where he discussed civics, state and local government with students.
Gross thinks education is foundational to a functioning democracy.
“If you’ve got folks who don’t have opportunity --and so much of our opportunity comes through education -- then you have so many people who check out of the system and don’t think it’s working for them, because its not working for them,” said Gross.
According to Gross, banning dark money would be a non-partisan action.
“Both parties need to get rid of it. We just need to ban it. We can do it. The people can ban it, and that's what we’re really working on,” said Gross. “And, the AG office should be as non-partisan as possible. We shouldn’t be favoring one party over another, and we should be making sure our justice system is working for everyone.”
He says dark money is ‘effectively banned’ on a federal level, but ‘some people are not abiding by it.’ At the state level, he says Montana, California, New Jersey, and Oregon have banned the practice, to some degree.