LITTLE CHANGE, BUT CLOSELY WATCHED

After several millions were spent on both sides, overall there will be very little change in the makeup of the Missouri General Assembly that will convene in January. As was the case last year, the House will consist of 86 Democrats, 76 Republicans and one Independent. The Senate will see a change as Republicans gained one seat, to 16 members in the 34-member chamber -- within one seat of a tie. Rolla investment adviser Sara Steelman, a Republican, decisively defeated longtime Democratic Sen. Mike Lybyer, the powerful chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

In the House, where overall there is no change in the partisan divide, individual races nonetheless bear mention. Look at maps of Missouri legislative districts anytime during the 1980s and today and you will see a startling trend: the ongoing, slow partisan realignment of outstate Missouri, from Democratic to Republican. Nowhere is this clearer than in the 8th Congressional District. As recently as 1982, there was only one Republican state representative inside the 8th. Today, there are nine GOP House members whose districts are entirely inside the 26-county congressional district. These include, amazingly, the narrow Republican victories in Bootheel districts won by Peter Myers of Sikeston and Lanie Black of Charleston. Those victories, you may be sure, got the attention of statehouse veterans from both parties.