This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, March 31, 2011 - U.S. Reps. Russ Carnahan and William Lacy Clay, both St. Louis Democrats, have jointly condemned a congressional redistricting proposal that is expected to be approved by a Missouri House committee next week.
The two said in a statement the map -- which, in effect, does away with Carnahan's district and dramatically changes Clay's -- "emphasizes partisanship over fairness."
The map was unveiled Wednesday by a House committee in charge of redistricting, and puts the political fate of Carnahan in serious jeopardy. The panel is slated to vote on the map next Tuesday, after leaders opted to delay initial plans that called for a Monday vote.
The proposed map would put the city of St. Louis totally within one congressional district, instead of its current status as the base of two. Carnahan's district would be divided between those currently represented by Clay as well as U.S. Reps. Todd Akin, R-Town and Country, and Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau.
In their joint statement issued Thursday, Clay and Carnahan said, "The population of the St. Louis metropolitan area clearly justifies three congressional districts. We are surprised that the committee chose to weaken representation for our region, which is the economic engine that drives Missouri's economy."
"This proposed map ignores vital historical and cultural considerations which should be taken into account in this process," they added. "The current proposal is unfair and it ignores the best interests of the people of Missouri and the entire St. Louis region."
The Missouri General Assembly is responsible for drawing congressional boundaries every 10 years, after the national census. This time, legislators must compress the home bases of nine lawmakers into eight, because Missouri is losing a congressional district.
The House redistricting committee's chairman -- state Rep. John Diehl, R-Town Country -- has said for months that the new congressional map would be much different from the current configuration. And he is right.
Such is the case for the St. Louis region, where the entire city of St. Louis would be included in what is now Clay's 1st District. Before, St. Louis city was split between Clay, D-St. Louis, and the 3rd District represented by Carnahan, who also lives in the city.
Democratic sources say that Clay, who is African-American, does not want the revised 1st District to include predominantly white, Republican-leaning areas in south St. Louis that now are in Carnahan's district.
Under the proposed map, if both Clay and Carnahan ran for re-election in 2012 with their respective current residences, they would be in the same district and have to run against each other in a Democratic primary.
If Carnahan decided to move to St. Louis County and run in what is now the 2nd District of U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Town and Country, he would have to run in an area that includes GOP strongholds such as western St. Louis County and portions of St. Charles County.
Carnahan does have several options. By law, a member of the U.S. House does not have to reside in his or her district.
The rest of Carnahan's current district is split between those currently represented by Akin and U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau. Emerson's 8th District would now include much of Jefferson County and all of Ste. Genevieve County, which now is in Carnahan's district.
Under the new map, Akin's new 2nd District would include much of south St. Louis County and a small portion of Jefferson County -- until now part of Carnahan's turf.
Jefferson County is actually split among three congressional districts, which is contrary to the wishes of the county's Republican and Democratic leaders.
The newly numbered 3rd District would take in some of the territory of the current 9th District, where U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth, resides. The new 3rd would include parts of St. Charles County and Jefferson, Franklin, Warren and Lincoln counties.
Northeast Missouri -- which has been part of Luetkemeyer's district -- would be entirely contained within the 6th District, now represented by U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio.
Luetkemeyer's new district would pick up Cole County, which includes Jefferson City and currently is in the 4th District. The latter's member of Congress -- U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Harrisonville -- would see her territory shift so that it would represent Boone County, which includes Democratic-leaning Columbia, Mo.
The new map also dramatically alters the 5th District, represented by the state's other congressman who is African American, Emanuel Cleaver, D-Kansas City. The new 5th appears to take in a lot more Republican turf. The 5th District is not protected by the same federal minority voting-rights law that protects the racial makeup of the 1st District in St. Louis.
Still, the new 1st District includes a lot of St. Louis area territory that Clay might prefer not be in his district. In addition to Carnahan, the new 1st also includes the residences of two other well-known Democrats who might be seen as Clay rivals: St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley.
Before voting, the House committee is slated to release more details on the demographics of each district. Each of the new districts is to have 748,816 residents, or close to it.
Diehl initially said that the map would be voted out of the committee by Monday, but a spokesman said Thursday that the plan now delays committee action until Tuesday. Assuming it's voted out, the proposed map then would go to the floor.
In an interview after the unveiling the map, Diehl said it was always unlikely that the city of St. Louis would be split like it was before.
"When you go through this, it's fair to say that every district has changed," Diehl said. "It's very, very significant. (Does) the city of St. Louis (have) a population base for two congressional districts? No, that's no longer the case. The city of St. Louis only has 320,000 people in it. It's pretty hard to justify the county that's decreased the most in population still being the population base for two of eight congressional districts across the state." (At left is a closeup of the proposed districts for the St. Louis area.)
The new map is likely not to be popular with St. Louis area officials and civic leaders who had lobbied for, at minimum, three congressional districts that primarily included St. Louis area territory -- which has been the case for decades with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd districts.
House Minority Leader Mike Talboy, D-Kansas City, said it's never a "fun proposition" to have a Democratic congressman as the "odd man out."
"I think it's obviously not going to be fun to talk to Congressman Carnahan about how his boundaries changed and having his district essentially split in two and have his actual residence drawn into a sitting congressman from his own party's district," Talboy said.
One ray of hope for Carnahan is that Akin's district becomes more Democratic, mainly because it now includes swing areas such as Lemay, Oakville and Webster Groves. It also includes parts of Jefferson County, which is traditionally Democratic-leaning, although it swung Republican last election cycle.
When asked if that made Akin's district more Democratic, Diehl said "I think it probably does."
And Talboy said that were Akin to decide to run for the U.S. Senate, instead of re-election in the new 2nd, next year's electoral dynamics could change.
UPDATE: Democrats arent't the only people unhappy with the proposed map.
State Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, sent out an e-mail this afternoon with a headline "IMMEDIATE ACTION ALERT" in red type. Crowell's message asked readers to call House members to protest the plan to include a big chunk of Jefferson County -- more than 100,000 residents -- in what is now Emerson's 8th District.
Crowell contended that including part of what he viewed as suburban St. Louis was "extremely harmful" to the district. Crowell is widely seen as a possible candidate for Congress in the 8th, should Emerson opt to step down.
"Shifting the center of the district from southeast Missouri to St. Louis is extremely harmful in how you are represented," said Crowell in the e-mail. "The issues important to St. Louis are not the same issues that are important to southeast Missouri."
Crowell cited, for example, the fact that Jefferson County voters overwhelming supported Proposition B, last fall's statewide measure imposing restrictions on dog breeders. Most southeast Missouri counties overwhelmingly opposed the measure.
Crowell wrote that he recognized that Missouri's congressional boundaries had to change dramatically because the state is losing a congressional seat. "However," he added, "this should not mean southeast Missouri's voice in the U.S. Congress should be sold out to St. Louis."
Beacon political reporter Jo Mannies contributed to this report.
Jason Rosenbaum is a freelance writer.
