The lines for electoral districts in Jefferson County have been drawn, after the state Senate spent months fighting over it.
According to the new Congressional map, Jefferson County will be split between two districts instead of three like it is now.
Every 10 years, after the federal Census, political districts are realigned to reflect shifts in population.
Weeks ago, all the lines concerning jurisdictions in the county were decided in anticipation of the August primary elections – except for the map outlining Missouri’s eight seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Election authorities around the state accepted filings for those seats based on the lines drawn a decade ago and hoped the Missouri Legislature could decide on a new map.
Facing the annual deadline to adjourn for the session, the state Senate, which had been the sticking point on a new map, finally approved one on the last day before the House of Representatives adjourned on May 13.
Missouri’s Legislature was the last one in the nation to approve Congressional redistricting.
Gov. Mike Parson signed the legislation approving the new map on May 18.
State Rep. Dan Shaul (R-Imperial), chairman of the House Redistricting Committee, said he’s gratified the work is over.
“I’m certainly glad to get it done,” he said. “I think we’re all happy it got done and that it didn’t get decided by the courts.”
Had the Legislature adjourned without approving a map that Parson could sign into law, the matter would have been decided by a panel of three federal judges.
In January, the House approved a map that Shaul’s committee had recommended, but all progress stopped once it got to the Senate.
The Conservative Caucus, a group of hard-line Republican senators, pushed for a map that would have redrawn a traditionally Democratic Party-held seat in the Kansas City area into a district that Republicans would likely win, giving Republicans an advantage in seven of the state’s eight congressional districts.
Republicans currently hold six of Missouri’s seats in Congress.
Another sticking point for the Conservative Caucus in the Senate was how to redraw the 2nd District, now held by Ann Wagner (R-Ballwin), to make it a more likely Republican win. Mixed in with that debate was whether St. Charles County should be placed in one or multiple districts.
How Jefferson County fared
Shaul’s original map that passed the House had all of Jefferson County in a single district, District 3, which is currently represented by Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-St. Elizabeth).
After the districts were redrawn following the 2010 Census, Jefferson County was split among District 2, District 3 and District 8 (now held by Jason Smith, R-Salem).
However, under the final version, the eastern part of Jefferson County will be in District 8 and the western portion will be in District 3.
“It may not look like it makes a lot of sense, until you know the reasoning why we did what we did,” Shaul said. “District 8 is the river district, as it runs along the Mississippi from Arnold to the Bootheel. There will be a lot of economic development issues in the coming years with rail, trucks and ports, so it made sense to keep that in a single district.”
Shaul said even more than having Jefferson County in one district, his top priority was ensuring that parts or all of the county wouldn’t be included in a district that included St. Louis County.
“I did not want the people who elected Sam Page as their county executive to choose a member of Congress for Jefferson County,” Shaul said. “I would have liked the county to be in one district, but I feel good at where we’re at. If we learned nothing else from COVID-19, it’s that St. Louis County and Jefferson County are very different in many ways.”
Eureka and Wildwood will continue to be in District 2, which now will extend westward to include Franklin and Warren counties.
“In the end, not everybody got what they wanted, but everybody ended up having to compromise,” Shaul said.
Gannon approves of final map
To protest the lack of progress in the Senate, fueled by filibusters by Conservative Caucus members, state Sen. Elaine Freeman Gannon (R-De Soto) and 10 other female members of the Senate, from both parties, staged their own filibuster on Feb. 10.
Gannon said she’s satisfied with the final product.
“We should have had a map taken care of in late January or early February, but we didn’t,” she said. “But I’m happy that we finally got it done. It’s not perfect. There are maybe some little things that could have been done to improve it, but in the end, we had to pass a map and we did. But it was a very dismal session.”
State Sen. Paul Wieland (R-Imperial) also said he was glad the process is over.
“I don’t think this should have gone the way it went, but a small group of senators hollered and wanted what they wanted for their district and held everything up,” he said. “I would have preferred the original maps that went out, but in the end, this was the best that we could do.”
No need to redo races
Jefferson County Clerk Ken Waller said the state Legislature “didn’t do us election authorities any favors” with the long struggle to reach consensus on a Congressional map.
“In the end, we will do the work to finalize the ballot, because we take this job very seriously,” Waller said.
Under state law, the final certification date for the August ballot was Tuesday, May 24. Absentee ballots must be printed and sent out to members of the military by mid-June.
“We have about three weeks to turn this around now,” Waller said May 19.
A spokesman for Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s office said there will be no need for Congressional candidates who filed in February or March for one seat but whose home now is in a different district to make any changes.
“There is no residency requirement to live in any particular Congressional district, other than the candidate must live in Missouri,” he said.
May 17 was the final day for candidates to withdraw from the ballot without a court order. No candidate running in Districts 2, 3 or 8 had done so.
“Now, if someone wants to get out of a race, they’d have to go to court,” the spokesman said. “But they would not be able to file for a different district because filing closed March 29.”