MO Senate tries to break map deadlock, rejects gerrymander of Cleaver as lawsuits loom
The Missouri Senate on Thursday rejected a congressional map that would have turned the Kansas City-area district long held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver into a competitive seat as Republicans remained deadlocked over redistricting.
Senators returned to debating district lines for the first time since early February and immediately encountered the same divisions that mired the chamber in gridlock and animosity last month.
Republicans currently hold six of Missouri’s eight congressional districts. A hard-right faction called the Conservative Caucus wants Republican leaders to draw a gerrymandered map that would allow the party to pick up an additional seat in Congress. GOP leaders warn that would risk spreading Republican voters too thin and perhaps allow Democrats to make gains.
The stakes of the dispute have risen since the Senate last fought over maps six weeks ago as Missouri’s candidate filing deadline approaches next Tuesday. Some lawmakers believe court intervention to break the impasse becomes much more likely if new maps aren’t in place by then. Without new lines, candidates don’t know whose votes they’re seeking.
Two lawsuits — one by a statewide group of voters and another by a St. Louis-area candidate — have been filed asking judges to take action.
Missouri is one of four states that haven’t approved new congressional maps to adjust for population changes following the 2020 Census. Courts would be almost certain to impose new maps before allowing elections to proceed under the old districts.
With time ticking down to the filing deadline, the Senate took up congressional redistricting just before 7 a.m. Thursday. Sen. Mike Moon, an Ash Grove Republican and Conservative Caucus member, quickly offered what he called a “6-1-1” map that would result in six Republicans, one Democrat and one swing district, the 5th District in Kansas City.
“We want to do what the people want us to do as opposed to us just coming and listening to voices from a lobby or voices from congressional delegation,” Moon said.
Senators voted down the map in a 7-22 vote.
The Senate soon then settled into a Conservative Caucus-led filibuster, with Sen. Bob Onder, a Lake St. Louis Republican, reading from former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ memoir, “The Chief’s Chief.”
Onder frequently noted the absence of a quorum, forcing tired senators to the floor again and again. He also offered an amendment to an amendment – a way of tying the chamber in procedural knots that are difficult to loosen.
The filibuster and Onder’s amendment are preventing senators from voting on a new map proposed by Sen. Mike Bernskoetter, a Jefferson City Republican and chair of the Senate Redistricting Committee. The map would preserve the state’s 6-2 division of Republicans and Democrats.
“There’s so many moving parts to this and so at the end of the way we’re trying to figure out what is the best way to get a map across the finish line … and it doesn’t end up in the courts,” said Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz, a Sullivan Republican who is also running for U.S. Senate. “I think this is a pretty good start, if not where we would land.”
The Senate’s last attempt to pass a map ended with Republican senators unable to overcome a Conservative Caucus filibuster, despite holding a rare Saturday session. It wasn’t clear how long the latest effort would last – the Senate typically adjourns for the weekend on Thursday, but Onder suggested he was prepared to spend the next few days in the Capitol.
Conflict has gripped the chamber all year, as mainstream Republicans grow tired of the Conservative Caucus’ aggressive tactics, which have included trying to tack hard-right measures onto relatively uncontroversial legislation as well as filibustering congressional maps. The fights have veered from the serious to the absurd, with Moon temporarily stripped of committee assignments last month after he wore overalls onto the Senate floor.
This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 11:58 AM.
