U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-St. Louis) will lose his seat as congressman in 2013 if the proposed map for redistricting Missouri’s congressional districts goes through.
The Missouri House Special Committee on congressional redistricting released its first proposed map on March 30.
Currently, Missouri has nine seats in the House. Because the Census 2010 results showed the state’s growth rate dropped two percent, 9.3 to 7 percent, while other states had high growth, the state will lose a seat.
The proposal puts the entire city of St. Louis and most of North County into the Democrat Wm. Lacy Clay’s First District. Carnahan’s Third district would be divided between Republicans Todd Akin, Jo Ann Emerson and Blaine Luetkemeyer.
Eight Republicans and four Democrats sit on the committee, including State
Rep.-elect Penny Hubbard (D-St. Louis) and State Rep. Jamilah Nasheed (D-St. Louis).
In a joint statement released by Clay and Carnahan, the legislators objected to the proposed congressional redistricting map for Missouri as “overly partisan, damaging to the St. Louis region, and unfair to communities of common cultural and historical interests.”
“We are extremely disappointed that the Missouri House Special Committee on
Congressional Redistricting has produced a map that emphasizes partisanship over fairness,” said Clay and Carnahan.
“The population of the St. Louis metropolitan area clearly justifies three
congressional districts. We are surprised that the committee chose to weaken
representation for our region, which is the economic engine that drives Missouri’s
economy.”
This proposed map ignores vital historical and cultural considerations which should be taken into account in this process, they said.
The loss of Carnahan would leave Missouri with six Republican congressmen and two Democrats: Clay and Emanuel Cleaver in Kansas City. Both are African American.
The chairman of the committee, state Rep. John Diehl, R-Town and Country, said in a press conference that with St. Louis declining in population over the past decade, it was “almost impossible to justify” that the City maintain two congressmen.