Dem
47
GOP
53
During the midcycle redistricting festival, Missouri redrew its House map to change the balance from 6R, 2D to 7R, 1D. Naturally that led to lawsuits. On Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the state Constitution required the legislature to redraw the map after every census but did not prohibit it from redrawing at additional times, as it wished.
The court decision was 4-3, with all four judges in the majority having been appointed by Republican governors. One Republican sided with the two Democratic appointees in the minority. The key word in the case was "when." The sentence in question in the state Constitution directs the legislature to draw new maps "when ... the census of 1950 and each census thereafter is certified by the governor." The legal opinion said: "Simply put, 'when' does not mean 'only when.'"
The new map broke up the D+12 MO-05 district of Rep. Emanuel Cleaver and absorbed enough Democrats in Kansas City into surrounding districts to make it virtually impossible for him to win anywhere. The MO-01 district of Wesley Bell in St. Louis is D+29, so the legislators tried to stuff as many Democrats into it as they could.
Expecting this decision, Democrats pursued another route as well. They are trying to put a referendum on the ballot to overturn the new map. State officials are doing their absolute damnedest to thwart this. However, on Monday, the group People Not Politicians announced that the secretary of state's office conceded that they had enough valid signatures to force a referendum. Secretary of State Denny Hoskins (R) has until July to decide when to hold it. Here are the 691 boxes of petitions and a petition-smelling dog. The dog has apparently been trained to sniff out invalid signatures:
The Missouri secretary of state gets to write the summaries of referendums that appear on the ballot. Naturally he did his best to discourage people from voting for this one. The supporters went to court again and won. The new language, written by the judge, is neutral: "Do the people of the state of Missouri approve the act of the General Assembly entitled 'House Bill No. 1 (2025 Second Extraordinary Session),' which repeals Missouri's congressional plan, and replaces it with new congressional boundaries that keep more cities and counties intact and are more compact?"
The next battle is whether the old map or the new map will be used for this year's elections. (V)