HOUSE: DISTRICT LINES ARE FINALIZED

Final boundary lines drawn by a Missouri House Redistricting Commission leave most Southeast Missouri incumbent representatives with a broad base from which to launch re-election campaigns next year.

Although all districts were altered some by the redistricting process, required to be done in the year after the census is completed to reflect population shifts, most incumbents maintained a large part of their present districts.

The two exceptions to this are State Reps. Ollie Amick, D-Scott City, and Gene Copeland, D-New Madrid.

Amick's present 160th district was carved up into three districts, as commissioners were forced to adjust to declining population in the Bootheel by eliminating a district.

Copeland, who has represented all or the biggest part of New Madrid County during his 16 terms in the House, has about 16,000 people in his home county and a handful of others in Mississippi County that he represents in his present district.

Since an ideal House district has a population of 31,393, slightly more than half of the district is part of Copeland's base.

The base from his present 161st district, however, is considerably smaller than that of most other incumbent House members in the area.

The remainder of Copeland's new district is currently represented by Amick, who is considering whether to run against Copeland or to move to another part of Scott City to run against Rep. Dennis Ziegenhorn, D-Sikeston.

Copeland's district will continue to be the 161st and has a total population of 32,455.

Besides part of New Madrid County, the 161st district has 13,194 residents from Mississippi County and about 3,600 people in Scott County from Scott City Ward 2, a portion of Scott City Ward 3, and the towns of Commerce and Diehlstadt.

In Cape Girardeau County, State Reps. Mary Kasten and David Schwab, both Republicans, will continue to share the county, although population shifts will give Kasten a larger share of the city of Cape Girardeau.

Wards 9, 12, and 18, on Cape Girardeau's south side, will be shifted from Schwab's district to Kasten's. The only ward in Cape Girardeau that Schwab will have under the new map is Ward 17, in the northwestern part of the city, which is currently part of Kasten's district.

Schwab will have all of the out-county area, the city of Jackson, and will also move into a small part of Bollinger County. He will take over the Bollinger and Scopus precincts, with a total population of 1,111.

Schwab of Jackson will have a total population of 31,267 and his district number will change from 158 to 157. Kasten of Cape Girardeau will have a total population of 31,477 and her district number will change from 159 to 158.

Rep. Jim Graham, R-Fredericktown, will lose the Iron County portion of his present district. He will continue to have all of his home county, Madison, and five precincts in Bollinger County: Hurricane, Lixville, Patton, Sedgewickville, and Younts Store. Almost 18,000 of the 31,792 residents of his district will be from a portion of St. Francois County, which includes four Farmington precincts.

Graham receives the greatest number adjustment of the Southeast Missouri legislators. His present district number is 153 and his new one will be 106.

Rep. Herb Fallert, D-Ste. Genevieve, has a population of 30,489 in his new district, with the district number to change from 152 to 155. He has all 16,648 residents of Perry County and almost all of Ste. Genevieve County.

Rep. Marilyn Williams, D-Dudley, has most of Stoddard County in her 159th district, except for a small area that includes the city of Bernie. The large portion of Bollinger County in her present 156th district has been taken out to enable her to pick up more of Stoddard County in the Advance and Bell City area, and to move into Scott County.

Williams has the Scott County precincts that include all of the cities of Chaffee and Oran, Morley, Bleda, and Perkins. Overall, her 159th district has a total population of 32,321.

The part of Bollinger County now served by Williams has been moved to the district of Rep. Joe Driskill, D-Doniphan. Driskill's district number changes from 154 to 156 and includes the Bollinger County precincts of Marble Hill and Lutesville and the precincts of Drum-Dongola, Glen Allen, Greenbrier, Huxie, Sitze, Sturdivant and Zalma.

Driskill also retains all 11,543 residents of Wayne County and has the precincts of Cane Creek, Hill View, Neelyville, Twin Springs, and Walton Chapel in Butler County. The rest of his district includes the eastern part of Ripley County, as well as a part of Doniphan.

The total population of Driskill's district is 31,009.

Rep. Mark Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, has most of Butler County, including all of the city of Poplar Bluff. His other Butler County precincts are Brosley/Qulin/Fisk, Coon Island, Hendrickson, Kinyon, Lake Road/Oak Grove, Sale Barn, and Rombauer/Wappapello.

Richardson's new district, with a population of 31,222, is numbered 154. His present number is 155.

Rep. Dennis Ziegenhorn, D-Sikeston, has all of the city of Sikeston in his new district, including the just over 700 residents of Sikeston who are in New Madrid County.

Other Scott County precincts outside of Sikeston in Ziegenhorn's district are Scott City Ward 1 and a portion of Scott City Ward 3, Vanduser, Salcedo, New Hamburg, Benton, McMullin, Kelso, Haywood City, Crowder, Blodgett, and Miner. He also has Bertrand in Mississippi County.

Of his total district population of 31,099, Ziegenhorn has 1,248 residents in Mississippi County, 732 in New Madrid County, and the remainder in Scott County.

Ziegenhorn's district number will change from 157 to 160.

Rep. Opal Parks, D-Caruthersville, will retain her 162nd district number, and Rep. Larry Thomason, D-Kennett, will retain his 163rd district number.

Parks has a total of 31,455 people in her new district with 21,921 of them coming from her home county, Pemiscot. She also has 3,172 citizens in southern New Madrid County and the precincts of Arbyrd, Cardwell, Caruth, Hornersville, Rives, and Senath in Dunklin County.

Thomason has the rest of Dunklin County, including the cities of Kennett, Malden, Campbell, Holcomb, and Clarkton. He has 712 residents in a small corner of Butler County and about 3,500 people in Stoddard County that includes the city of Bernie.

Thomason's district has a population of 32,056.

Representatives will continue to serve their present districts through 1992. But if they file for re-election next year, they will run in the newly drawn districts.