What’s the deal?
It was a busy week for redistricting.
In Missouri, a group of conservatives filibustered for more than 30 hours against a congressional map that would likely keep the status quo of six Republican-controlled seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and two Democratic seats.
The group, which read passages of text from Thomas Paine, Josh Hawley and Canadian icon Carly Rae Jepson, was pushing their colleagues to gerrymander Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver out of his Kansas City district by creating a 7-1 map favoring Republicans (Cleaver said he’s staying out of the debate — “I know as much about what is happening in Jefferson City as someone in the Antarctic”).
The rest of the Republicans don’t like that plan for two reasons. One is they don’t want to end up in court. The other is packing that many Democrats into other districts has the potential to backfire — the district lines are in place for 10 years and rural (often Republican) areas shrunk .5% between 2010 and 2020 while cities (often Democrat) and suburbs (often mixed) grew by 8%.
In Kansas, deal-making unfolded into a Republican “agreement” to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of their congressional map. There were a lot of moving pieces over the course of the past two weeks, so I want to try and untangle the different threads.
For about a year and half, Sen. Mark Steffen, a Hutchinson Republican, has been under investigation by the Kansas Board of Healing Arts, which has the power to revoke and suspend the licenses of physicians.
He says he’s not being investigated for complaints made by patients, but instead because he has been vocal about his support of ivermectin, an anti-parasite drug, as a treatment for COVID-19. The FDA has warned doctors against prescribing ivermectin because it has not been proven to be effective and can be harmful in large doses.
The board does not comment on complaints or investigations, so we only have Steffen’s interpretation of the ongoing investigation.
Earlier this session, Sen. Richard Hilderbrand filed a bill that would require pharmacists to fill prescriptions for ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19. Neither treatment is recommended by the FDA. The measure also called for a review any actions the Board of Healing Arts took against the physicians who prescribed those treatments since March 2020. The bill was still in committee.
Over in the House, lawmakers were trying to send their own message to the Board of Healing Arts. First, they adopted an amendment to a budget bill that would prevent the board from spending money to investigate or discipline physicians who prescribe drugs off-label (like Steffen). One member said the amendment was in response to the board’s investigation into Steffen.
The House Appropriations Committee then swapped out the language defunding investigations, instead issuing a warning to the Board of Healing Arts to proceed with caution when investigating off-label prescriptions of ivermectin.
Meanwhile, Republican leadership needed to scrape together the votes to override Kelly’s veto of their congressional maps.
If Republicans failed to override the veto, that would mean starting over again on redrawing the maps. If they failed to agree, like they did in 2010, the maps would be drawn by the courts, taking away their control.
Steffen was among the group of lawmakers who they needed to support the map. He didn’t like it because of changes made to the “Big 1st,” which moved Lawrence out of the Second Congressional District and into the First Congressional District to make up for Democratic voters added to the Second to make the Third Congressional District more competitive for Republicans.
Steffen said he was concerned that adding Lawrence to the “Big 1st” would take away the rural identity of the district, because it would also contain Manhattan, home of Kansas State University.
He put those qualms aside on Wednesday and became one of the votes that helped the Senate override the veto. That same day, the Senate Health and Welfare Committee passed a bill that would weaken vaccine requirements in schools and would forbid pharmacists for refusing to fill prescriptions for off-label covid treatments.
Both proposals were championed by Steffen.
The bill still has not been brought to the floor for a vote. Steffen and Senate President Ty Masterson have denied that they cut a deal or made a trade — Steffen’s vote for advancement of the bill that would make it easier to get ivermectin scripts filled.
Instead, Steffen called it an “agreement.”
The House voted to override the veto the next day, setting up the next fight, which will be in court.
More from Missouri:
The state was using a third-party records database to find and drop Medicaid recipients who have moved away, but the process has wrongly flagged people who have never moved from Missouri and are still eligible for Medicaid. They’ve hit pause on the process.
Here are headlines from across the state:
Missouri pauses Medicaid cutoffs after reports of inaccurate address information, Jeanne Kuang
- Conservative caucus filibuster of congressional map tops 30 hours, Jeanne Kuang
- Parson says all state workers should get $15 an hour, Jeanne Kuang and Jonathan Shorman
Jason Smith is forgoing a run for U.S. Senate to run for reelection, Daniel Desrochers
- The Missouri Supreme Court tossed two laws they say blocked abortion rights activists, Jeanne Kuang
And across Kansas:
The Kansas legislature voted to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of their Congressional map this week. That will set up a legal battle. The National Democratic Redistricting Committee says they’ll file their lawsuit in state court.
- A national Democratic group says they’ll sue Kansas over its congressional map in days, Jonathan Shorman
- Sharice Davids isn’t saying much about redistricting but her fundraising emails are, Daniel Desrochers
- An Olathe Public Schools administrator is still on the job despite allegations of abuse, Mike Hendricks
Kansas is going to give an unidentified company more than $1 billion in tax breaks, Katie Bernard
- Kansas doesn’t have enough first responders to deal with a growing number of wildfires, Frank Morris, KCUR
The latest from Kansas City:
In Kansas City....
Mayor Lucas announces millions to support city workers, Anna Spoerre
- Sponsors dropped a proposed mask mandate for some Jackson County schools, Mike Hendricks
- There’s going to be a BBQ contest to decide which restaurant will go in the new airport, Robert Cronkleton
Have a news tip? Send it along to ddesrochers@mcclatchydc.com.
Odds and ends
Congressional delegation spat
Missouri Rep. Cori Bush, activist turned Congresswoman from St. Louis, told Axios she wouldn’t stop using the phrase “defund the police,” even though she’s been asked to stop by some of her colleagues who feel that it provides ammunition for Republicans. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley immediately swept in and shared the article, using it to criticize the Biden administration. The result? A Twitter spat between the two members of Congress.
Hawley and the RNC
The Republican National Committee voted this week to censure two Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump and joined the House Committee investigating January 6. The national group called the insurrection “legitimate political discourse.” Hawley told reporters the RNC vote reflected the views of most Republican voters and said “in my state, it’s not helpful to have a bunch of D.C. Republicans commenting on the RNC.”
More Hawley
One of the D.C. Republicans who commented on the RNC was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. He said this week the January 6 riot was a “violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, after a legitimately-certified election, from one administration to the next.” McConnell was instantly criticized by Trump (who calls him “Old Crow” which is a brand of bourbon). Hawley dodged when asked if he felt McConnell should step down as leader.
McCloskey’s license
The Missouri Supreme Court disciplined Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark McCloskey by putting his law license on probation for a year. Missouri’s legal ethics watchdog had asked the supreme court to suspend McCloskey’s legal license for six months after he pled guilty for misdemeanor assault after the highly publicized gun-incident during a Black Lives Matter protest that launched him to fame among conservatives.
A correction
Last week I wrote that the bill that would expand the definition of self defense in Missouri (called the Make Murder Legal bill by opponents) was approved in committee. It wasn’t. Lawmakers held a hearing for the bill last week and this Thursday it got voted down.
Happy Friday
Here’s a long read about how Amelia Earhart’s helmet ended up in a closet. This weekend, try this beer based cocktail called a Hipster BBQ. No, I have no idea if it’s good. You try it first. Here’s Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg with an (explicit) song for the road.
Enjoy your weekend.
Looking for more?
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This story was originally published February 10, 2022 at 8:50 PM.