A tentative agreement has been reached on a new redistricting map for the Missouri Senate.
A bipartisan commission appointed by Governor Jay Nixon (D) to draw a new map negotiated for more than 13 hours Wednesday, and reached a consensus after 12:00 this morning. The "Tentative Plan" map can be viewed here. Marc Ellinger is the top Republican on the 10-person commission.
“You take a look at a state that has shifted population across the state, and it makes it difficult to come up with simple, easy solutions because of that migrating population," Ellinger said. "You can pretty quickly look at a map and figure out where the state has grown and where the state has shrunk.”
The map passed 8 to 2, with one commission member from each party voting “no.” It will be filed with the Secretary of State’s office for a 15-day period, and the Office of Administration will accept public comments during that time. After that, the commission will hold a final vote on the proposed Senate map.
Democrat Doug Harpool chairs the commission, and says he’s confident it will win approval.
“It would take something completely unexpected, if somebody finds something in the map that we completely missed, then I would certainly reconsider," Harpool said. "But absent that, it would be very difficult to get me to change my mind.”
A State Senate map drawn by a six-judge panel last year was tossed out by the Missouri Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the filing period for those wanting to run for State Senate and other offices is set to begin next week.
