This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 13, 2011 - JEFFERSON CITY - Six appellate court judges tasked with reconfiguring Missouri's state legislative map for the next 10 years heard public testimony about how they should draw the lines.
Some, like Republicans, argued for maps with few changes; others, such as a bipartisan group from St. Louis, wanted maps to preserve the region's clout; another group argued for districts with more electoral competitiveness; yet another argued for districts that wouldn't dilute the influence of minority voters.
After a pair of gubernatorial-picked commissions failed to reach consensus, the Missouri Supreme Court appointed six judges to finish the job. Three of the judges -- Lisa White Hardwick, Nancy Steffen Rahmeyer and Robert Dowd -- were appointed by Democratic governors. The other three -- James Welsh, Roy Richter and Don Burrell -- were appointed to the bench by Republican chief executives.
On Thursday, the judges heard testimony from sitting legislators, former lawmakers, potential candidates and members of the now-dissolved redistricting commissions. It was the only public hearing the judges' panel has scheduled.
Some Republicans who testified expressed a desire to stay close to the current lines. In fact, Ann Wagner, who sat on the House Reapportionment Commission, dubbed the GOP proposal as the "minimal change" map.
"We avoided splitting communities of interest whenever possible and used natural boundaries as district lines as often as practical," said Wagner, a former Missouri Republican Party chairwoman now running for Congress in the 2nd Congressional District. "Our map kept 56 counties from being split... [they're] wholly contained in one district, far more than any Democrat map submitted."
"In addition, the GOP commission's minimum change plan avoided capriciously and punitively combining incumbents into the same districts to achieve any partisan political gain," Wagner added. "Incumbents were combined in the same district only when significantly population shifts dictated it."
Currently, Republicans hold overwhelming majorities in both the House and the Senate. And Joe Maxwell, a former Democratic lieutenant governor who served on the House redistricting commission, said statewide competitiveness should be considered when drawing state legislative boundaries.
Maxwell said that a 2002 Republican document noted that a more favorable state legislative map helped the GOP win majorities in the General Assembly. He added that GOP success after those lines were drawn may be the reason Republicans don't want wholesale changes.
"Perhaps that's the basis for the other testimony that was here today to have minimum change," Maxwell said. "If you were able to have such success in prior redistricting before the courts, then you surely don't want to change the success for pro-GOP redistricting that was held in 2001."
United Front
Two St. Louis-area senators from opposing parties presented a plan to the judges aimed at avoiding pitting incumbents against each other.
Sens. Eric Schmitt, R-Glendale, and Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-University City, said their proposal -- signed off on by nine senators from the St. Louis area -- would best serve the region.
"It was not easy for the nine of us," Chappelle-Nadal said during her testimony. "It was like pulling hair at times. And I don't want you to think at any time that we put this together we were solely thinking about our own interests in being re-elected. We were thinking of our communities of interest."
Notably, their map moves Eureka and Wildwood, currently represented by Sen. Brian Nieves, R-Washington, to a district represented by Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield. It also adds part of St. Louis County to the district currently represented by Sen. Joe Keaveny, D-St. Louis.
"It's really a bipartisan way of putting together a map that represents our areas, especially so the St. Louis region could be adequately represented in Jefferson City," Schmitt said in an interview. "When you have 44 percent of the state's GDP being derived from the region, we want to be able to represent our folks."
Springfield attorney Doug Harpool, a member of the dissolved Senate commission, proposed moving the 24th state senatorial district to southwest Missouri. That district is currently represented by Sen. John Lamping, R-Ladue. Democrats on the commission, such as Harpool, said the population growth in southwest Missouri and the decline in the St. Louis region warranted making that change.
But Schmitt doesn't see it that way.
"Case law has said you have to look at existing maps first so people have some continuity of the districts that they're in," Schmitt said. "And that's what we did. We started with the existing maps that court put together and worked from there in a bipartisan way."
'Let Missourians Decide'
Two former legislators took an even more dramatic approach to the redistricting process. Joan Bray and Bob Johnson -- two former lawmakers in a group called "Let Missourians Decide" -- presented a map that wasn't necessarily influenced about the wishes of incumbents. See a memo detailing the proposal.
Pitting incumbents against each other has been a particularly thorny issue. For instance, a Democratic proposal to redraw Senate lines placed Sens. Schmitt and Jim Lembke, R-Lemay in the same district.
"The point of Let Missourians Decide is to reflect the politics of the state ... which are 50-50," Bray said. "This is a very split state. So what we tried to do is create competitive districts as much as possible. It's not always possible. St. Louis is very Democratic. Southwest Missouri is very Republican. But we looked for areas where we could create ... competitive districts to better reflect the true politics of this state."
That included, Bray said, renumbering districts and drawing lines horizontally as opposed to vertically.
"It's a whole concept of trying to make the state legislature more reflective of the statewide voting patterns, which are 50-50," Bray said.
Also speaking before the judges was Adolphus Pruitt, the president of the St. Louis NAACP. Pruitt said in an interview that his group wanted to ensure that current districts with a majority-minority composition didn't get lost in the shuffle.
"Bottom line, we don't want to see the minority vote diluted," Pruitt said. "We want to see as much minority representation in both the House and the Senate before it's all said and done. And we want all of the game-playing and the posturing to come out of the process."
For instance, Pruitt was not supportive of a proposal that would place Reps. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, and Penny Hubbard, D-St. Louis, in the same House district. He also expressed a desire against shrinking the minority population in what is now state Sen. Tim Green's north St. Louis County district.
"It has no room for folks to determine on the outside how to draw a district to play with districts because they want to punish them or because simply because they want to get some gamesmanship done," Pruitt said.
'Open Books'
Hardwick -- a judge in the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District -- told reporters that at this point, the judges are not working off any particular map.
"We are here to get information," Hardwick said. "That is a decision the commission will make after this public hearing about whether we want to work from a particular map or draw our own map. We'll have to decide that. But we did not come into this public hearing with a map that we're looking at. We're not asking for feedback at a particular map at this point. We're merely soliciting public comment on the process and on any map that anyone wants to submit."
She said the judges got a "balanced view" of opposing visions for the redistricting process.
"We really didn't know what to expect," Hardwick said. "None of us have been involved in the redistricting process before. So we are open books as far as that's concerned."
The judges will have until mid-December to draw up House and Senate maps.
Jason Rosenbaum, a freelance journalist in St. Louis, covers state government and politics.
