REDISTRICTING PANEL TO CONSIDER CHANGES

Changes in the alignment of several Southeast Missouri legislative districts will be considered today when the Missouri House Redistricting Commission gathers in Kansas City for its final meeting.

The changes will primarily affect the new boundaries of Reps. Gene Copeland, D-New Madrid, and Dennis Ziegenhorn, D-Sikeston. The two worked out an agreement after Copeland complained that the new map took away too much of his New Madrid County base.

The proposed districts of Reps. Opal Parks, D-Carthersville, Larry Thomason, D-Kennett, and Marilyn Williams, D-Dudley, will also change slightly.

Copeland, the senior member of the Missouri House, said he had represented all or most of New Madrid County for 31 years and did not like the boundaries for his district in a plan that was given approval by the commission last month.

"This plan doesn't hurt anyone else because they've all got a base (of support)," said Copeland. "This new plan gives me at least a base of 16,000 people in New Madrid County."

The revised Copeland-Ziegenhorn plan, which apparently has the support of enough redistricting commissioners to win approval at today's 2 p.m. meeting, still places Copeland in the same district as Rep. Ollie Amick, D-Scott City.

Amick, whose present district includes most of Mississippi County and North Scott County, became the odd man out when the commission drew a new map to reflect population losses in the Bootheel from the 1990 census.

The plan still splits Scott City between the two districts; although he lives in Copeland's district, Amick could move into Ziegenhorn's district.

Commission Chairman John Cozad of Platte City suggested Wednesday afternoon that the plan approved in August would be the group's final plan and that another meeting would not be held before Saturday's constitutional deadline for the panel to complete its work.

But on Wednesday night, Cozad hinted he might change his mind and late Thursday morning a final meeting was scheduled for his Kansas City law office today.

Cozad noted that possibly 15 of the 18 members on the commission had informally agreed to three changes in the plan approved last month, including the one proposed by Copeland and Ziegenhorn.

The other changes would be minor ones involving black representatives in St. Louis and Kansas City.

Several weeks ago, members of the House Democratic Caucus, chaired by Copeland, threatened to challenge the plan approved last month in court because they believed it still needed a final vote. They also expressed concern over the plan because it combined Democratic incumbents in 10 districts, but Republicans in only one, and that it did not provide adequate representation for blacks and women.

Cozad said Thursday he wanted to meet again to increase Democratic support for the plan in case of future legal challenges. He noted the meeting would eliminate concerns of some Democrats that another session of the commission was needed to make the plan legal.

"We are willing to meet because we have an assurance the Democratic commissioners are not coming into the meeting proposing a bunch of changes or to undermine something previously agreed upon," said Cozad.

The Republican commissioner on Wednesday had suggested there was no reason to try and fulfill Copeland's desire to have more of New Madrid County. However, on Thursday, Cozad changed his tune and said he was willing to accommodate Copeland, in part because he is the senior member of the legislature.

Copeland said he did not plan to attend today's meeting and declared, "I'm going to let the chips fall where they will at this point."

Asked whether his role as Democratic caucus chairman might have influenced Republicans to call another meeting, Copeland said he did not want to speak for anyone else.

"I would assume they felt like they needed to vote," said Copeland. "Everyone knows the purpose of holding the public hearings around the state was to get input and then go back and look at any changes. I think they felt like they needed to vote again."

Copeland said voting again would at least eliminate one of the grounds for a lawsuit, but said some groups might still challenge it on the basis of representation for blacks and women and might also contend there was gerrymandering.

Last week, Copeland explained that he had written the 18 commissioners a letter expressing concerns over his district and offered a proposed new map. He noted that several commissioners said they would be receptive to a change in his district if it was one Ziegenhorn would accept.

Ziegenhorn said he had worked closely with Copeland, redistricting staff, and some commissioners to come up with a compromise. "I'm satisfied with what we worked out," he noted, adding that he was especially pleased that the new map gives him all of the city of Sikeston, including the small part in New Madrid County.

Copeland will continue to have Portageville, an area the earlier plan had designated for Parks. That shift moved Parks into some territory designated for Thomason and that then moved Thomason into a small part of southern Stoddard County. That shift then moved Williams into more of north Scott County that was previously outlined for Ziegenhorn.

Williams, who previously had a small part of Scott County that included half of Oran, will now have all of Oran, Morley, and Chaffee, and the Bleida and Perkins townships. Ziegenhorn has half of Scott City, Benton, New Hamburg, Vanduser, Miner, and Blodgett, in Scott County, and Bertrand in Mississippi County.

Although Amick has an option of moving into Ziegenhorn's district, the new plan shatters Amick's North Scott County base with what is shifted to Williams.

Under the new plan, if Amick were to run in Copeland's district, it would be about evenly divided population-wise between area in the present districts of Copeland and Amick.

Copeland admits the new district could leave him vulnerable to a strong challenger from Mississippi County, but he stressed the boundaries are certainly better than what had been proposed.

"New Madrid County is my base and that's where my strength is," declared Copeland. "But I have a lot of friends in Mississippi County and I'm satisfied with it in my district."