On October 26, 2011, the Illinois legislature passed a bill that authorized construction of a multi-billion-dollar smart grid and reshaped how utility companies seek approval for raising electricity rates. Consumer groups opposed the measure, saying it was a handout to utilities.

But the final blow for opponents came three months later when former state Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who had pushed the bill through the legislature only to resign after winning its passage, registered his own lobbying firm and signed his first clients. Prominent among them: Commonwealth Edison, one of the state’s largest utilities.

State Integrity news for Missouri and Kansas from SII partner KCUR:

In Missouri -- one of only four states without campaign contribution limits -- single donors have made contributions this year as large as $750,000.

Meanwhile, across the border in Kansas, the state does have contribution limits, but national groups like Americans for Prosperity are for the first time getting involved in primary races for Kansas Legislature seats.

Read and hear more from KCUR - Kansas City.

State integrity news for Missouri, from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

The Missouri Legislature's failure to replace an ethics reform law tossed out by the state Supreme Court earlier this year has left some wondering whether there will be a spike in questionable gifts and donations to elected officials as the campaign season heats up.

A month after the court threw out Missouri's ethics law, the state received a C rating on a project dubbed the "State Integrity Investigation."

Read the rest of the story at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

By Mike Mullen

Gov. Scott Walker survived his recall election. The same cannot be said for the integrity of campaign finance laws in Wisconsin.

Incumbents targeted for recall are freed from Wisconsin's normal fundraising limits, and can collect unlimited contributions from individual donors. With the election between Walker and his Democratic opponent, former Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett, seen as a battleground for national partisan politics, money poured in on both sides. But Walker exploited the seemingly infinite loophole to tremendous advantage: By election day, Walker's campaign had received more than $30 million in donations, a total that approached the $37.5 million spent by both sides during the 2010 election, according to the Center for Public Integrity.

Wisconsin received a grade of 'C-' from the State Integrity Investigation for its political financing laws and practices, with reporter Kate Golden finding proper measures on limits, enforcement, and transparency, while also documenting numerous exemptions and back-channels, including the recall election loophole. But in other states, the potentially polluting influence of unlimited, and sometimes unsupervised campaign financing is constant and permanent, borne out of state laws and practices -- or their absence.

State integrity news for Kansas and Missouri, from KCUR:

Open records are not fully “open” anywhere in Missouri, but ironically the National Freedom of Information Coalition is headquartered in the state. Ken Bunting, executive director for that organization cites a recent nationwide study by the Center for Public Integrity that gives Missouri a C- for overall opennes and accountability and an F for access to public information.

Doug Anstaett of the Kansas Press Association says records in that state are also far from open.

Read and hear more at KCUR - Kansas City.

Early last month, lawmakers in Iowa completed work on a new open records statute. Senate File 430 creates the Iowa Public Information Board, a nine-member commission charged with enforcing the state’s open records and meetings laws.

For good government advocates in the Hawkeye State, the new legislation was cause for celebration — sort of.

Indeed, there were smiles all around as Gov. Terry Branstad signed the law on May 3 in the ornate Capitol Building, surrounded by lawmakers and journalists — many of whom spent six years on the effort. And the law is undoubtedly a victory of sorts for open government in the state, where enforcement was spotty at best, divided among several local and state entities. If a citizen’s request for information was denied, the only option was to sue — a time-consuming and costly course of action. Now, the Board can investigate complaints and bring them to court on citizens’ behalf.

It all sounds good — except for the fine print.

State integrity news for Missouri, from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Former Missouri Gov. Roger Wilson, who last month admitted his role in a scheme to improperly funnel campaign contributions, won't know what penalty a federal judge has in store for him until sentencing this summer. But on Wednesday, the state Ethics Commission weighed-in, fining Wilson and another figure in the case, St. Louis lawyer Ed Griesedieck, $2,000 each.

Wilson admitted reimbursing Griesedieck's firm, Herzog Crebs, for a $3,000 donation to the state Democratic Party.

Read the rest of the story at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

State integrity news for Missouri, from Missouri Watchdog:

Missouri’s “open records” are effectually closed to the pubic. Missouri gets an "F" for transparency, according to a State Integrity investigation. The state’s report card is filled with red marks. Some old, some new.

The Missouri state auditor, meanwhile, found dozens of violations of the state’s open records law in a report released this spring. Show Me state? Not so much.

Read the rest of the story at Missouri Watchdog.

State integrity news for Missouri, from SII partner KCUR:

Missouri is the only state where someone could donate $1 million to a political campaign, cover it up, and not have broken the law. Before he was a member of the Missouri House, Jason Kander was in army intelligence in Afghanistan – doing anti-corruption work in the Afghan government. He said that taught him some lessons that resulted in disappointment after he returned home.

“Basically it was my job to figure out which bad guys were pretending to be good guys,” says Kander, “and when I came home and I ran for the legislature and I got to Jefferson City I found that it just, frankly, was not as different from Kabul as it should be."

Read and hear more at KCUR - Kansas City.

State integrity news for Missouri, from the Kansas City Star:

Once again, though, the legislature wants to fix a system that isn’t broken. Missouri’s selection system has consistently produced distinguished judges who have served the state and the public well. Recently, the Supreme Court passed rules aimed at increasing transparency in the selection process.

There is no reason to politicize judicial selection by giving the governor unilateral power to control the commission through his appointees.

Read the rest of the story at the Kansas City Star.