Governor Jay Nixon vetoed the new congressional districts map over the weekend, saying that it didn’t appropriately reflect the state’s various regions. The governor is hoping state lawmakers will give it another try before the legislative session ends.
Getting the map to the Governor’s desk wasn’t easy. But eventually the Republican-controlled legislature agreed on how to reduce the number of congressional districts from nine to eight. Governor Nixon said on Sunday in St. Louis that he vetoed it because it had too many problems.
“I think that compact, contiguous districts where the people of that district can directly identify regionally with their congressman is very, very important," said Nixon. "I wouldn’t want to pick apart any particular parts. I think there was a number of parts of it that could use some improvement.”
Nixon says he is confident the legislature will be able to make changes to the map over the last two weeks of its session. But Republicans say they may concentrate their efforts on overriding the veto, instead.
