HOUSE PLAN WINS TENTATIVE APPROVAL

A late amendment to a Missouri House redistricting plan to put more of Sikeston in the district of State Rep. Dennis Ziegenhorn has resulted in State Reps. Ollie Amick and Gene Copeland being placed in the same district.

Prior to Tuesday's meeting in Kansas City, it looked like Ziegenhorn of Sikeston, and Amick of Scott City would end up sharing a district. But after Ziegenhorn expressed concern about having Copeland representing parts of Sikeston that were in Scott County as well as in New Madrid County, the two commissioners from the Eighth Congressional district agreed to review the map.

John Lichtenegger of Jackson, the Republican on the commission, said the change was made to satisfy concerns raised by Mel Weems of Bonne Terre, the Democrat on the commission from this district, in order to get his vote for the overall plan.

Both commissioners stressed that there was no effort to protect Ziegenhorn, but rather to improve representation for Sikeston. "When we decided to keep more of Sikeston together, running Copeland along the river and splitting Scott City was unavoidable," said Weems.

"As a result of having to make that adjustment we put Amick in Gene's territory," said Weems. "We weren't exactly happy with that but we got into a bind and there was not much else we could do. We certainly weren't trying to protect Ziegenhorn."

Lichtenegger added, "It made a lot of sense to me and Mr. Weems that Sikeston should not be carved up three ways."

Under the new plan, Copeland, the senior member of the General Assembly, has only the part of Sikeston in his district that is in New Madrid County, while all of Sikeston in Scott County, which makes up most of the town, remains in Ziegenhorn's district.

But to compensate for the change, Copeland's district had to be extended along the Mississippi River. Copeland has part of New Madrid County, all of Mississippi County, and his district runs into Scott County to include Commerce, Diehlstadt and two wards out of Scott City. One of the Scott City wards is where Amick resides.

Amick's present district includes north Scott County and most of Mississippi County.

Ziegenhorn, besides Sikeston, has the rest of Scott City, Benton, New Hamburg, Chaffee, and half of Oran.

Rep. Marilyn Williams of Dudley gains western Scott County that includes half of Oran, and Morley and Vanduser. She also has most of Stoddard County in her district.

Rep. Joe Driskill's district was also finalized Tuesday night prior to the meeting. Driskill retains a small part of Butler County west of Poplar Bluff where he resides, has all of Wayne County, and parts of Ripley and Bollinger counties.

Driskill loses his home base of Doniphan, but gains the better part of Bollinger County, including Marble Hill.

Driskill, Williams, and Ziegenhorn flew to Kansas City Tuesday night to attend the commission meeting.

Neither Amick nor Copeland could be reached for comment Wednesday about the new map.

But Ziegenhorn said his only concern was to get more of Sikeston in his district, not to avoid a race with an incumbent.

"My concern was Sikeston. Of course, it was nice that it threw me into not having a race, but my concern is having a representative for most of Sikeston and not have the town split up," said Ziegenhorn.

"I'm looking for a compact district I can take care of and not be rude to people who have problems and say you need to call somebody else."

Ziegenhorn said regardless of where Sikeston was put in the redistricting process, everyone would be calling him anyway when they had problems. "I like taking care of constituents, but sometimes the demands are so great that you have to say I'm not your representative. These people in Sikeston think I'm their representative," he observed.

Weems said prior to Tuesday's meeting he was unsure whether there would be enough votes to pass a plan. There are nine Democrats and nine Republicans on the commission and it takes 13 votes to approve a plan.

"We spent some time negotiating and it looked like we came up with the best plan we could get without going to the courts," said Weems.

Lichtenegger said the changes in the Eighth District helped get Weems' support for the plan. When the final vote was taken, all nine Republicans voted for it and five Democrats votes yes. Lichtenegger said that was one more than he had anticipated.

"I'm very pleased that we were able to work together and come up with a plan," declared Lichtenegger. "From a Republican standpoint, had a plan not been adopted last night we were finished and ready to let the courts draw it."

Weems added, "I'm real happy to get it over with. With the loss in population we had in the Eighth District, it is impossible to make everyone happy because there are not enough people to go around. We had to make some adjustments that we did not want to make, but we had to do it.

"I think we've got a workable district plan and I feel most people will be happy with it."

Lichtenegger stressed he tried to work with Democrats but added, "it is just impossible to please everybody and draw compact and contiguous districts. I was very sorry to see Mr. Amick be the one pitted against another state representative, but that had to happen somewhere."