Moroni, Southeast Missouri's representative on House redistricting, confident of deal

The 20-person panel appointed by Gov. Mike Parson charged with redrawing Missouri House legislative districts in light of population realignment in the 2020 U.S. census, has come up with two tentative plans — a Democratic version and a Republican alternative.

A final unified plan is due by Jan. 23. If an agreement cannot be reached by that date, the Missouri Supreme Court will appoint appeals court judges to resolve the matter and draw the boundaries.

The boundary map did end up in the hands of judges in the last two redistrictings — in 2011 and 2001.

Michael Moroni of Advance, who is in the private practice of law in Bloomfield, is the only member of the House Independent Bipartisan Citizens Commission from Southeast Missouri.

He said he is not worried about the outcome.

"It is true that there are two different plans, but they are in accord on everything except for four counties, and I feel confident we'll reach an agreement on those," Moroni said Thursday.

The contested counties, Moroni said, are congregated around Missouri's four most populous regions: Jackson (Kansas City); St. Louis County; Boone County (Columbia); and Greene County (Springfield).

"Everybody is negotiating in good faith and I think everybody wants to get an agreement," he said.

The panel continues to meet virtually and in person, and the commission will hold a public hearing on the two plans at 10 a.m. today in Jefferson City to get input, Moroni advised.

The Missouri League of Women Voters asked the commissions in both the House and Senate not to prioritize citizens of voting age in setting district boundaries.

Moroni said the House commission "counted everybody."

The Senate Independent Bipartisan Citizens Commission, acting independently, was not able to come up with a boundary map — and stopped its work.

Judges will be tasked with the responsibility of redrawing Missouri Senate districts before the 2022 elections.

Local changes

Since the GOP and Democratic maps for the Missouri House agree for most of the Show Me State, here is the plan for redrawing districts in Southeast Missouri.

• Perry and Ste. Genevieve counties would be joined into a new District 145, now represented by Rick Francis of Perryville. The current 145 is made up of Perry, Madison and Bollinger counties.
• District 146 — now represented by Barry Hovis — will take most of the rest of Cape Girardeau County. The southwestern portion of the county will become part of District 151 and be joined with southern Bollinger County and all of Stoddard County. District 151 is currently represented by Herman Morse of Dexter.
• District 147, which as of today will be temporarily unrepresented because of the resignation of Wayne Wallingford, who is the new Missouri Department of Revenue director, will continue to comprise just the City of Cape Girardeau.
• District 148, now represented by Jamie Burger, will be comprised entirely of Scott County.

Mississippi County, currently part of 148, will be joined, according to the tentative plans, with New Madrid County and the northeast portion of Pemiscot County in a reconfigured 149th District, now represented by Don Rone of Portageville.

Process

A constitutional amendment approved Nov. 3, 2020, placed a priority on keeping counties and municipalities intact in districts — also rejecting a nonpartisan state demographer in favor of bipartisan commissions for both chambers of the General Assembly.

The proposed commission maps are available for examination by the public at https://redistrictmo.maps.arcgis.com/apps/CrowdsourceReporter/index.html?appid=2c396eef2f414867b91374bf8dcbac69.

When prompted, select "Proceed as a Guest" to be taken to a page where each plan may be selected for viewing.

The commissions are not responsible for redistricting Missouri's eight U.S. House seats — a job to be done only by state lawmakers when they convene their annual session beginning Wednesday.

Missouri, with 6.15 million residents, will retain its eight representatives in the U.S. House but Matt Hesser, Missouri's state demographer, told Parson's office the 30-county District 8 — represented since 2013 by Jason Smith — will need an additional 50,000 people to balance the state. Hesser said population losses in southern Missouri since 2010 necessitate a new boundary.