‘Not the right thing to do’: Missouri redistricting against the people’s good | Opinion

It was almost a foregone conclusion that the Missouri House would more likely than not approve rigging the state’s congressional districts. And lawmakers in the state’s lower chamber did exactly that on Tuesday, greenlighting a new map that splits Kansas City voters into three GOP-leaning congressional districts.

Missouri House Speaker Jon Patterson, a Republican from Lee’s Summit, was one of 12 House members who broke ranks and voted against the proposal. Tuesday morning, Patterson told a member of our board that he was concerned about the lack of representation that Kansas City would have if the new map is approved. Ultimately, the measure — and another to drastically curtail citizen-led initiative petitions — easily passed the House and moved onto the Senate floor for debate.

We’d call on the Senate to reject the new map, but that would almost certainly be an exercise in futility. But we still encourage all Missourians to contact their state senators and voice their concerns.

“There are a lot of benefits in the new map,” Patterson said. “However, for Jackson County, splitting it in half, I didn’t think it was the right thing to do.”

The absurdity of it all would be laughable if the consequences weren’t so dire. So let’s just call this new congressional map what it is: a direct attack on democracy and an attempt to silence minority voters. And Kansas Citians will pay a steep price for this political power play ordered by Gov. Mike Kehoe to appease President Donald Trump’s desire for Congress to remain under Republican control next year and beyond.

Under this gerrymandered map, Kansas City would be carved up in so many different ways that there is a strong possibility that the city would not have true representation in Washington D.C. And that should worry all of us, no matter our political affiliations.

Missouri has eight congressional districts in the U.S. House of Representatives. Republicans already hold six of those seats. In a GOP-controlled state that has a Republican in every elected office statewide, a 7-1 split would further weaken Democrats’ influence here and elsewhere.

But then again, the Republicans’ stated goal is to make it difficult for current 5th District Rep. Emanuel Clever — a true champion for everyone in our region — to remain in office. So there’s that.

“It’s very difficult to think they would not have a congressperson from Kansas City in U.S. Congress,” Patterson said.

Initiative petition restricted, too

The redistricting proposal came during a special legislative session called by Kehoe at Trump’s behest, but Republicans also approved a new law that changes the way voters could directly affect democracy by making it much more difficult to create an initiative petition. Now, voters in just one congressional district would have the power to veto an amendment, even if the rest of the state votes yes.

The Missouri State Conference of the NAACP filed a lawsuit challenging Kehoe’s redistricting and initiative petition plans. In a statement, the civil rights organization described the proposals as deliberate attacks on Black and urban voters around the state, and a play to silence the people’s voice at the ballot box.

We simply cannot in good faith believe this isn’t true.

“Gov. Kehoe called a special legislative session to redistrict Missouri, not because of a court order, not because of an emergency, but because Donald Trump told Republicans to redraw the map,” the statement read. “This is a direct attack on Black voters, Kansas City, St. Louis, and the very idea of democracy.”

Troost is the dividing line

In Kansas City, the new congressional map would use Troost Avenue as a dividing line. Splitting residents who live on either side of the street between two districts and two representatives is a nonsensical approach to governing.

The split is rooted in racism, the Urban League of Greater Kansas City’s Gwen Grant told The Star.

“By drawing the line at Troost, this map weaponizes and further perpetuates Kansas City’s deepest racial divide — splitting and silencing Black voters while cementing inequality into our congressional boundaries,” Grant told The Star’s Kacen Bayless.

Residents living on the west side of Troost would be placed in the 4th Congressional District, which stretches to southern Missouri. Those on the east side would live in a new 5th District that would extend to the central part of the state. What sense does any of these changes make?

Yes, we know Republicans wanted to make it easier for a Republican to unseat Cleaver, who has vowed to fight this undemocratic power play. But that doesn’t make any of this right.

Fran Marion, 45, of Kansas City, lives near 89th Street and Troost Avenue in the south part of town. Marion is a fast food worker and a member of workers rights group Stand Up KC and the Missouri Workers Center. She represents the people most likely to be silenced by this rigged map.

“Thery are trying to silence us a community so that we don’t have any voice in Congress,” Marion said.

Citing Missouri’s official state motto — “The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law” — Marion said Republican Missouri lawmakers “were not worried about the welfare of the people.”