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It was Thursday, May 3, 2018, a day that will go down in Missouri history as the first time that the Legislature filed a petition to call itself for the purpose of impeaching a governor, in this case Republican Eric Greitens.

Schaaf, a Republican senator from St. Joseph, has been one of Greitens’ harshest critics, in part because the governor used a dark-money committee to place ads and billboards attacking the senator.

But that’s not what Schaaf was talking about on Thursday. Well, not exactly.

Schaaf rose from his back seat in the Senate chamber to announce that a bipartisan coalition known as Clean Missouri was to the secretary of state that afternoon to place an initiative on the ballot that will change Missouri ethics law forever.

The timing of those two acts — a move to impeach a governor who ran on a platform to fix the culture of corruption in Jefferson City that turned out to be a con job, and the filing of an initiative that will forever change that culture — was an accident.

But it was a serendipitous one.

“I think it is a prophetic coincidence,� Schaaf told me Friday. “The people of Missouri are making history, signing their petitions to do what the Legislature refused to do — clean up their own corruption — the same day the Legislature is making history signing their own petition to do what the governor refuses to do — clean up the governor’s corruption by removing him.�

Both petitions, as a matter of legislative process, are filed with Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft.

Ashcroft’s father, John, was the governor the last time there was a serious statewide push to get voters to enact a series of ethics laws. It was 1990, and Ashcroft’s “Yes on Ethics� measure pushed some of the same ideas contained in Clean Missouri.

The 2018 version of an ethics measure, if it makes the ballot and passes, would ban most lobbyist’s gifts. It would require a two-year cooling off period before lawmakers could become lobbyists. It would remove control of the redistricting process from the Legislature, reducing the possibility that lawmakers would draw gerrymandered districts that protect elected officials and leave some voters out in the cold. It would also open more legislative records to the public. For the past decade, the House and the Senate have acted as though the Sunshine Law doesn’t apply to them.

When Missouri lawmakers or voters have made progress in strengthening ethics laws, it’s always been a bipartisan affair. Ashcroft was one of the state’s conservative GOP icons, and he knew stronger ethics laws were a good thing. So did the previous secretary of state, Jason Kander, a Democrat who lately is fighting voter suppression efforts and auditioning for a possible presidential run.

When Kander was a state representative, he worked with Republican state Rep. Tim Flook of Kansas City, to push an ethics bill that also would have accomplished many of the same things the Clean Missouri effort would. That bill was hijacked by Speaker of the House Steve Tilley, a Republican who left his position to become a lobbyist. It passed in a weaker, more flawed version, and was tossed by the courts.

Before Kander and Flook there were Republican Joe Ortwerth of St. Peters and Democrat Doug Harpool of Springfield, who in 1991, after Ashcroft’s measure failed to make the ballot, pushed for the law that ultimately created the Missouri Ethics Commission.

It wasn’t strong enough, and that’s why Clean Missouri is back at it today, with a proposal supported by liberals and conservatives alike.

One of those conservatives, former state Sen. Jim Lembke, R-Lemay, offered a bit of a mea culpa the other day. In that supported the Clean Missouri effort, Lembke, who was known for taking lobbyists’ gifts during his time in the Legislature, wrote this:

“I saw things go off the rails in 2017, with lobbyist gifts reaching an all-time high: over $1 million worth,� wrote Lembke, currently a legislative aide to Schaaf. “Looking back, if I got the opportunity to serve again, I’d do it differently, and it’s time for Clean Missouri to reform the system once and for all.�

When he ran for office, of course, Greitens — the guy with a degree in ethics from Duke University — was telling voters that he was the guy to clean up Jefferson City.

He wasn’t. Instead of draining the swamp, he adopted all of the worst characteristics of its most obscene creatures, crawling around in the mud, hiding behind the cloud of dark money, taking donor lists from nonprofits and other candidates, and, according to the House investigation, lying to that ethics commission created by Ortwerth and Harpool in 1991.

On Thursday, lawmakers said: “Enough!�

Voters will get their chance in November.