House committee passes new redistricting map

BY SKYLAR LAIRD

Missouri News Network

JEFFERSON CITY — With just over a week to go until the end of this year’s legislative session, a House committee passed a new redistricting map.

Rep. Dan Shaul, R-Imperial, said the new map was a compromise made to stand a chance in the Senate, where the previous map stalled. The newest version divides Boone County, though it no longer cuts through MU’s campus as a Senate map did.

The House and Senate have each passed their own maps, but when the House disagreed with the Senate’s version, the Senate refused to negotiate. To keep the issue from going to the courts, the bill will need to move through the rest of the legislative process before the session ends May 13.

Legislators must change district lines to reflect shifts in population once a decade, following the release of new census data. Rep. Jerome Barnes, D-Raytown, said the expedited process concerns him, since it will be another 10 years before the legislature can change the lines again.

“I just hate rushing into it,” he said.

The House Special Committee on Redistricting approved the map on a vote of 8-3. Next, it will go to the full House. If it passes there, it moves to the Senate.

The new version would divide Boone County through Columbia, cutting along Broadway within the city and Interstate 70 outside city limits. In the previous map, “Boone County was split basically through the Columns of Mizzou’s campus,” Shaul said.

The northern half of the county would join western counties in the 4th Congressional District, ending at the Kansas border, while the southern half — including MU — would join eastern counties in the 3rd District, stretching around much of the St. Louis area.

Nancy Copenhaver, a League of Women Voters member, said the new split was an improvement over the Senate map, but she would prefer to keep more of Boone County together.

“I think it would be helpful if there could be a little bit of adjustment in that regard,” Copenhaven said.

The state is facing three lawsuits over its delays in redistricting. In federal court, congressional candidate Paul Berry III filed a suit asking the court to update the map and keep his home county, St. Charles County, in one piece.

Another was filed in Cole County by a group of voters living in areas that need to be redrawn because of population growth, who are arguing their votes no longer carry as much weight under the old map.

The third, also filed in Cole County, makes a similar argument. It was filed by Republican staffers in the Capitol, including Sen. Lincoln Hough’s chief of staff, Patricia Thomas, listed as a plaintiff.

A case review is scheduled for the Cole County cases on May 23, after the session ends.

Rep. Chuck Basye, R-Rocheport, attributed the delays prompting these lawsuits to the Senate, which, after weeks of negotiations and filibusters, refused to discuss additional changes with the House.

“If we had had more cooperation from the Senate, we would not be faced with trying to rush through this process,” Basye said.

The bill includes an emergency clause, which requires two-thirds approval from both the House and Senate and would allow the new map to go into effect upon the governor’s signature, before the Aug. 2 primary election.

Shaul maintained that this map could make it through both chambers.

“I think the first map was built on some very solid foundation,” Shaul said. “I think this is a solid map as well, but I think this map is more built to survive the Senate, survive the process, and our goal is to get it to the governor’s desk by next Friday.”

Teghan Simonton contributed to this report.