This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, April 4, 2011 - Jefferson and St. Charles county officials might be a bit happier with the initial Senate version of congressional redistricting, reflected in a map approved today by the Senate panel in charge.
The Senate map puts most of Jefferson County into a refashioned 2nd District, with just a smidge assigned to the 8th District, which otherwise covers all of southeastern Missouri. The House map split Jefferson County into three different districts.
As for St. Charles County, most of it would go into a new 3rd District that would largely be the current 9th District now represented by Republican Blaine Luetkemeyer. The new 3rd would stretch from Luetkemeyer's home in St. Elizabeth, Mo. -- west of Jefferson City -- east to St. Charles County.
The eastern portion of St. Charles County, including 58,000 people, would go into the 2nd Distrct. That section includes a sizable chunk of the Democrats in the otherwise GOP-leaning county. In the House map, St. Charles also was split into two districts, but it was a smaller portion of each. In the Senate version, St. Charles appears to represent a significant portion of the new 3rd District.
State Sen. Scott Rupp, R-Wentzville and chairman of the Senate redistricting panel, said he didn't ask officials in his home county (St. Charles) what they thought of the map.
But overall, Rupp said, he said he believed that the Senate map meets the legal requirements of making the eight Missouri districts "contiguous, compact." He said it also reflects his aim to craft a map representing "what was fair, what was right."
Rupp also believes his map gives the St. Louis area a strong presence in three congressional districts -- the 1st, 2nd and 3rd -- although the city would no longer be split between two districts. Like the House map, Rupp's proposal puts St. Louis entirely within the 1st District, now represented by Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis.
Like the House map, Rupp's version also effectively does away with the current 3rd District, now represented by Democrat Russ Carnahan of St. Louis, and puts Carnahan's home in Clay's district.
However, since a chunk of Carnahan's current district would be placed in the redrawn 2nd District, the Senate map might be deemed friendlier to the congressman's political future.
The new 2nd District appears to remain Republican-leaning but would have far more Democrats than it does now. The 2nd District's congressman, Republican Todd Akin of Town and Country, is still mulling over a possible bid for the U.S. Senate in 2012.
Rupp said that he has no idea when the full Senate would take up the map. The House is expected to vote on its version later this week.
