This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, April 22, 2011 - The Missouri General Assembly is out until Tuesday after negotiations fell through overnight in the increasingly contentious fight between Senate and House Republicans over congressional redistricting.
The House went back into session this morning shortly before 11 a.m., after Republican leaders had caucused to decide how to respond. The House-Senate conference committee broke up with no agreement around 2 a.m.
State Rep. John Diehl, R-Town and Country and leader of the House redistricting panel, sought to win approval of a House substitute map. His proposal swiftly ignited complaints from legislators in Jefferson County, who objected because that county will be split among three congressional districts in the substitute -- which had been the county's complaint with the original House map.
Jackson County legislators said the substitute split several cities between congressional districts.
After spirited debate, the House approved the substitute map by a vote of 91-47, with dozens absent. Senate negotiators had objected to the House substitute during Thursday's late-night negotiations, indicating that the Senate likely will be cool to today's House action.
The House then adjourned until Tuesday afternoon.
A spokeswoman for the state Senate said this morning that it also was in recess until Tuesday afternoon because House negotiators had declined early this morning to accept a Senate substitute map. The Senate had last convened Thursday afternoon.
Because both chambers failed to reach an agreement by today, the Senate spokeswoman said it was unlikely that the General Assembly will approve a map in time to force Gov. Jay Nixon to act before the session ends May 13. As a result, if he vetoes the final map, an attempted override would have to wait until the scheduled veto session in September.
Complicating the situation now is the state constitution's language barring veto-override attempts during the last week of session, said Senate spokeswoman Farrah Fite. She explained that's why there was the legislative flurry of action this week.
If the governor vetoes a map and the legislature fails to override, the map-drawing task will shift to the state's appellate judges.
Diehl issued a statement this afternoon that faulted state Sen. Scott Rupp, R-Wentzville and the Senate redistricting chairman, for the demise of Thursday night's talks.
"The Senate conferees returned to the House Lounge with a conference report without notifying House conferees of their intent," Diehl wrote. "After publicly signing the report and leaving the House Lounge, Senator Rupp asked Representative Diehl to sign the report without having the opportunity to review it. The senator left without providing a copy of the report, contacted no other members of the House conference and made no attempt to acquire the two necessary signatures to allow the report consideration of the full body of the House or the Senate."
Diehl added in an interview this afternoon, "I'm not sure they (Senate negotiators) were seriously trying to resolve this last night."
House Vs. Senate
Rupp, today verbally jabbed Diehl but placed much of the blame for the continued stalemate on U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth.
Rupp said that Senate negotiators presented various compromise options, to no avail, and acquiesced to several House demands regarding various boundary lines.
Rupp asserted that Diehl was running all the conference committee's actions past the congressman and his staff, and that Luetkemeyer had opposed most of the Senate conferees' proposed compromises.
"Chairman Diehl promised Blaine Luetkemeyer that he would not pass a map that Blaine didn't like,'' Rupp said in an interview today. "Until they decide they don't have to make Congressman Luetkemeyer happy, that's when the logjam will break."
Replied Diehl: "That's just silly. ...The Senate negotiators last night appeared more interested in picking a fight with Congressman Luetkemeyer than in picking a map."
Rupp also raised legal questions about the House action today because the House had attached its redistricting map onto a bill dealing with other legal matters. Rupp said his committee's lawyer had advised against it because the courts might toss out the whole package because it deals with more than one subject. He noted that has been the case with the General Assembly's broad ethics package approved last year.
House Speaker Steve Tilley, R-Perryville, took exception to Rupp's assertions. Tilley acknowledged Luetkemeyer's concerns, but said they were shared by a number of mid-Missouri rural legislators who also don't want to be in the same district with most or all of suburban St. Charles County.
"It's more than just about Blaine," Tilley said. The House substitute approved today was fair and handled correctly, the speaker added.
Tilley asserted that the Senate was to blame for the delay in the legislature's actions. The House, he noted curtly, had approved its redistricting map well before the Senate did so.
The Senate then delayed calling for a compromise committee, Tilley said. "If they wouldn't have waited for days," he said, the General Assembly might have been able to reach an agreement much earlier -- thus giving time for any attempted overrides of a Nixon veto.
Tilley said he also was offended by Rupp's earlier comment that members of Congress should have no more input than average Missourians in the redistricting process.
In the Senate, said Tilley, "They're letting one or two senators put a kink in the will of the people."
On the conference committee
St. Louis area legislators make up five of the eight members of the House-Senate conference committee. Three of the five are Democrats who hail from St. Louis' 1st District, a possible sign of Republican leaders' efforts to woo city legislators who may seem most amenable to overriding a potential veto by Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat.
The conference panel is charged with hashing out the differences between the maps drawn and approved by the state House and Senate for the state's remaining eight congressional districts. Tensions are high, in part, because the state is losing a congressional seat.
Both maps protect all six Missouri Republicans now in Congress, as well as the 1st District's Democratic congressman, William Lacy Clay Jr. of St. Louis.
Both maps also draw similar boundaries for western Missouri's 5th District, now represented by Democrat Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City, and eliminate the district now represented by Democrat Russ Carnahan of St. Louis.
The biggest differences between the two maps, as far as the St. Louis metro area is concerned, is how they treat St. Charles and Jefferson counties -- two fast-growing suburbs. Those differences have sparked an intense Republican battle, which Carnahan referred to in a statement today as "a political knife fight."
Republican-dominated St. Charles County is split between two districts in the House map, while Jefferson County -- swing territory but now ruled by Republicans -- is split among three districts.
The Senate map puts St. Charles County within one district, while Jefferson County is split between two districts. Both counties' Republican leaders are more amenable to the Senate map, while a majority of Missouri's GOP members of Congress prefer the House version.
Senate Majority Floor Leader Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, is among the leaders of the St. Charles contingent who have been dead set against the House map.
Bipartisan Alliances, Splits Emerge
The members of the conference committee include state Sen. Robin Wright-Jones, D-St. Louis, whose district spans congressional turf represented by Clay and Carnahan. She said in an interview Thursday afternoon that she had proposed a map to restore much of Carnahan's district.
Wright-Jones said she unsuccessfully sought to get discussion of her proposed map during the Senate's Thursday morning session. She was unable to present her amendment, she said, "but the map was circulated."
Her map also puts St. Charles County largely within one district -- a move that indicates how some St. Louis area Democrats are seeking to forge an alliance with the St. Charles County Republicans.
Democratic sources say that drawing most or all of St. Charles County into one district is the best way to to craft the neighboring districts so that the city of St. Louis remains split among two districts.
Publicly, Clay has been mum about the GOP maps that put all of the city of St. Louis into his 1st District. However, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay has been outspoken about the need to retain the split. Slay now resides in Carnahan's district but would be shifted into Clay's under both Republican maps.
Some area Democratic activists disgruntled with Clay are privately circulating rumors that Slay or other prominent city Democrats might challenge Clay in the 2012 Democratic primary, if either of the state House and Senate maps prevail.
Slay was circumspect in an interview earlier this week, focusing instead on the importance for the entire St. Louis region -- which includes St. Charles County -- to have three congressional districts.
The House map splits the St. Louis region up into several districts, with only two districts -- the 1st and 2nd -- remaining wholly within the St. Louis area.
The Senate map does retain three regional districts.
Wright-Jones reaffirmed her desire to see a final compromise map that reflects a 5-3 split between Republicans and Democrats, rather than the 6-2 split in the House and Senate maps. The Senate earlier defeated such an amendment.
The St. Louis Democratic Party issued a statement Thursday afternoon that called on Nixon to veto any map with a 6-2 partisan split.
"The Republicans in Jefferson City have never been shy about their disdain for the people of St. Louis," the city party said. "But now, they're going too far. Republicans in the state legislature are trying to force through a new congressional map that would eliminate a district in St. Louis -- a move that would hurt our local economy and weaken our representation in Washington, D.C.
"It's a partisan power grab, and we cannot let them get away with it," the city party asserted.
St. Louis Legislators Could Play Key Role
If the conference committee develops a compromise map that is approved by the state House and Senate, it will then go to Nixon, who can sign it, veto it or allow the measure to go into law within his signature.
If he vetoes the final map, both GOP-controlled chambers will attempt to override the governor. If they fail to do so, the map-drawing will become the task of appellate judges.
The General Assembly needs to get a map to Nixon by April 28 to require him to take action on it before the session ends May 13. But the map needs to get on the governor's desk earlier if Republicans want time to organize votes for an override. That effort has apparently failed.
Democratic sources tell the Beacon that Nixon will veto a map only if he is assured he will not be overridden.
Republicans in the Missouri House need four Democrats to vote to override. Two Democrats on the conference committee -- Reps. Penny Hubbard, D-St. Louis; and Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis -- earlier voted for the House map. Both reside in the 1st District.
Another legislator from the 1st District who earlier backed the House map -- state Rep. Karla May -- is not in Jefferson City at the moment because of a death in her family.
Besides Diehl and Rupp, others on the conference committee include state Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau. Crowell who earlier had threatened to filibuster the House map because he opposes its inclusion of a large chunk of Jefferson County in the 8th District that takes in southeast Missouri.
Crowell has said little publicly in recent days, however, as behind-the-scenes negotiations have intensified.
