A 10-member, bipartisan Senate apportionment commission selected by Gov. Jay Nixon has finalized its plan for the state's 34 Senate districts, which encompasses changes to districts in the Springfield area.
The
commission - which includes Chairman Doug Harpool, a partner with Springfield-based law firm Baird, Lightner, Millsap & Harpool PC, and Nick Myers, an independent certified public accountant in Joplin - submitted the plan March 12 to Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, taking into account population estimates from the 2010 Census, according to a news release.
According to documents on the
secretary of state and
Office of Administration Web sites, local districts have been marked for changes in the apportionment's submitted plan. Among the highlights:
- District 20, which formerly consisted of a large portion of Greene County and all of Christian, Webster and Douglas counties, was reapportioned to just Christian County and the majority of Greene County, except the Springfield area, which is in its own district, District 30, which was unchanged. Douglas and Webster counties would now fall into District 33, along with Howell, Oregon, Ozark, Ripley, Texas and Wright counties.
- Ozark County formerly resided in District 29, which was otherwise unchanged and holds Barry, Lawrence, McDonald, Stone and Taney counties.
- Laclede and Henry counties were added to District 28, which is home to Polk, Dallas and Cedar counties, among others.
"This action provides more clarity to state Senate candidates who were waiting to file or intended to file in one of the Senate districts created after the 2000 census," Carnahan said in the release. "All state Senate candidates have the option of withdrawing and refiling in one of the districts approved by the reapportionment commission."
After a senatorial apportionment commission failed to reach agreement in late 2011, the process was passed to a panel of appellate judges. In January, the Missouri Supreme Court invalidated the senatorial map approved by that commission. Nixon's appointments came later that month.
“I greatly appreciate the members of the bipartisan apportionment commission for completing their work in a thorough, thoughtful and expedited fashion," Gov. Jay Nixon said in a separate news release. "The commission has brought certainty to this process, and has done so quickly enough to give sufficient time for those considering filing for office to make their decisions."
Following the unanimous approval of the Senate redistricting by the commission, opponents of the redrawn districts, who had filed a lawsuit earlier this month, dropped their legal complaints, according to an
Associated Press report.
The Missouri Constitution requires that the state's legislative districts be reapportioned every 10 years.
