This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, April 16, 2011 -Missouri's six Republican members of the U.S. House are expected to meet in Jefferson City on Monday to try to resolve a conflict in the GOP-controlled General Assembly over dueling maps redrawing the congressional districts.
Sources tell the Beacon that the extraordinary meeting is prompted by Republican concern that a battle between the state House and Senate could prevent the approval of a consensus map in time to force Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, to veto or sign the measure before the legislative session ends May 13.
Republican leaders want to have time to override any veto before the session ends. So time is now of the essence. It appears that legislative action needs to be completed by next week.
If the chambers fail to override a gubernatorial veto, the job of drawing the boundaries for the state's remaining congressional districts would fall to the state's appellate courts -- which Republicans see as dominated by Democrats.
The state constitution requires the governor to act within 15 days if a bill is placed on his desk with 15 or more calendar days left in the legislative session. After that, the governor has 45 days after the session ends to take action (or to simply allow a bill to become law without his signature).
Under the latter scenario, the General Assembly wouldn't be able to attempt an override until its veto session in September. Some Republicans fear such a delay might make it harder to amass and retain the votes needed to override. (Click here to read the constitution's provision.)
Technically, the General Assembly would need to have a bill on the governor's desk by April 29 to force Nixon to decide by 6 p.m., May 13, when the session ends. But from a practical standpoint, the bill would need to be sent to the governor much earlier for leaders of both chambers to round up votes and attempt overrides.
The Republican urgency stems largely from the fact that Missouri is losing one of its current nine congressional seats. The GOP fears that a judicially drawn map would be more likely to preserve the seats for the three Democrats in Congress, tossing two Republicans into the same district.
The Republican-drawn legislative maps all protect the six Republicans in the U.S. House by eliminating the district of U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis.
But some Republicans in both chambers are balking at one or both of the maps, each of which has been approved by its respective chamber. On Thursday, the state Senate recessed without acting on the House's request for a conference committee to resolve differences. Rebuffed House leaders countered by opting not to hold a regular House session on Monday.
The spat has apparently alarmed the state's six Republican members of Congress, who are believed to have agreed to the proposed boundaries in the House map. Some also have no objection to the Senate map. The exceptions include U.S. Reps. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth, and Todd Akin, R-Town and Country, who sources say dislike the Senate version for differing reasons.
Both reportedly object to the Senate's treatment of St. Charles County, which would largely end up in the new 3rd District, which would be represented by Luetkemeyer. He now leads the 9th District -- which currently splits St. Charles County with Akin's 2nd District.
Some Republicans believe that the new 2nd District would be too much of a political swing territory under the Senate version, in part because the 2nd would lose its St. Charles County turf and take in more of Jefferson County, which has more Democrats. Although Akin may run for the U.S. Senate instead of re-election, other Republicans have designs on seeking the 2nd District congressional seat and want to keep it as Republican as possible.
But sources say that St. Charles County Republicans -- led by state Sen. Scott Rupp, R-Wentzville and chairman of the Senate redistricting committee, and County Executive Steve Ehlmann -- would prefer to see most of the county in one district. St. Charles Republicans reportedly believe that their political clout is diluted, and sometimes ignored, under the current congressional boundaries. Some Republicans say that St. Charles also would like one of its own Republicans to hold a congressional seat, which is not now the case with Akin and Luetkemeyer.
Several sources said that the Republican members of Congress will lobby state senators on Monday to drop their own map and embrace the House's version, despite objections. One source asserted that the hangup was that several Republican legislators in the state House and Senate have "grand ideas'' of running for Congress themselves, so they are less interested in the preferences of the current six Republicans in the U.S. House.
So far, neither chamber was able to muster veto-proof majorities in their final passage of their maps, largely because of defecting Republicans. Sources say that Republican leaders in the state House and Senate also have said it could be difficult to win passage of the other chamber's map -- much less, a veto-proof majority.
Aside from the dispute over St. Charles County, there's significant discontent over the proposed boundaries for the 5th District, which takes in Kansas City. Both maps include rural territory in mid-Missouri, and a bloc of Republican legislators -- in the House and Senate -- oppose their counties' inclusion in the 5th. They want their areas to remain in the 4th District, now represented by Republican Vicky Hartzler of Harrisonville.
Meanwhile, some Republicans in southeast Missouri oppose the House map because it tosses a large chunk of suburban Jefferson County into the 8th District. Jefferson County officials are angry because the House map splits that county among three congressional districts: the 2nd, the 8th and the new 3rd (largely the current 9th).
State Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, has been an outspoken critic of the House map and earlier had threatened a filibuster. He contends the suburban Jefferson County voters may wield too much clout over the district's rural voters under the House's 8th District. The Senate's version of the 8th District includes just a small sliver of the county.
Sources say that the Republican members of Congress will tell state senators on Monday that they'd prefer to anger Crowell, and Republicans in Jefferson and St. Charles counties, rather than see the 2nd District become politically swing territory -- under the state Senate map or by judges.
