COLUMBIA, Mo. — The Missouri Senate, stalemated for nearly a week in search of a deal on a new congressional map, is moving on for the moment.
Senators will return Tuesday to tackle other legislation instead, Majority Leader Caleb Rowden said in a statement on Twitter late Saturday.
There was no compromise in sight as hard-right Republicans continued to fight GOP leadership in their push to split Kansas City's safe Democratic seat to deliver an additional district for the GOP.
"These Senators are also standing in the way of critical policies Missourians are asking for," Rowden said. "For the time being, we will step away from this debate on the senate floor."
For days, lawmakers have convened to be immediately met with filibuster from the Senate's Conservative Caucus that has been clamoring to pass the gerrymandered map in the hopes of helping the GOP win back a majority in Congress.
The map backed by Republican leadership is a "6-2" configuration that is likely to preserve the state's split of six GOP and two Democratic U.S. representatives.
"With all of the people that have an interest in this map, they're pulling in multiple different directions," Senate President Dave Schatz, a Sullivan Republican, said of closed-door discussions. "We're still trying to find that magic path that could lead us to a resolution."
After the Senate gathered for a rare Saturday session, Schatz said he still believes the map option with the fewest "hurdles and obstacles" remains the 6-2 plan that the House passed in January. That puts the chamber roughly where it started at the beginning of the week.
Five hours of filibuster later, Senators adjourned with no plans to return until Tuesday afternoon. A rally and truck convoy by hard-right activists and the Conservative Caucus to pressure Senators to pass a gerrymandered "7-1" map was scheduled in the Capitol for Monday.
Rowden said the caucus was "willing to send our congressional map to federal courts if they do not get districts that suit their ambition," referring to a likely lawsuit from Democratic groups if lawmakers gerrymander out Kansas City's 5th district representative, Emanuel Cleaver.
He also said the state's congressional delegation had begun weighing in on proposed maps in the past two days, a complicating factor. He did not elaborate.
"It is my hope that the congressional delegation will work to unify rather than divide, and be part of the solution and not just add to the problem," Rowden said.
While the Conservative Caucus pushed for a 7-1 map, some Republicans were negotiating for stronger Republican representation in 2nd and 3rd districts in eastern Missouri. St. Louis-area Democrats are hoping to increase minority representation in the 1st Congressional District.
Democrats have said they want a 5-3 map, but the Senators from Kansas City are likely to settle on a 6-2 plan that keeps the city intact. Candidate filing for the congressional primaries starts Feb. 22.
'Hardball politics'
The redistricting, which occurs once every decade, has consumed the Missouri Senate, forcing cancellation of two days of legislative hearings this week and prompting leadership to convene a rare session on both Friday and Saturday.
Senators started off the week with a 31-hour filibuster that ended shortly after midnight on Wednesday morning to allow Senate staff, who had been up for over 35 hours drawing maps, to rest. Since then, lawmakers have convened and adjourned each day without taking action.
An early attempt by the Conservative Caucus to enact a 7-1 plan was voted down Monday night. But for the rest of the week caucus members continued to demand that map, throwing up procedural blockades early in the day to prevent the chamber from moving formally to debate the map.
"This is hardball politics," said Sen. Denny Hoskins, a Warrensburg Republican and caucus member.
If the 6-2 plan is formally brought up, leadership could employ a parliamentary move to kill the filibuster and call for a vote. The maneuver is used commonly in the House to cut off debate, but rarely in the upper chamber where it is considered the "nuclear option."
To pass the time as they filibuster, the hard-line Senators have read aloud books by conservative authors, Shakespeare passages, pop song lyrics, emails from 7-1 map supporters and stories of famous historical Missouri dogs.
Sen. Bob Onder, a Lake St. Louis Republican and member of the Conservative Caucus, has accused GOP leadership of surrendering to Democrats and complained that he was shut out of negotiations.
On Wednesday he sought reassurance from Schatz and Majority Leader Caleb Rowden that they would not employ the move on members of their own party. They would not commit.
"I don't think anything's off the table," Rowden, a Columbia Republican, said.
Rank-and file Republicans have balked at the 7-1 proposal, citing the state constitution's provisions that districts remain "compact" and "contiguous" and concerns that those GOP districts would contain so many displaced Democratic voters that the seats could flip in future elections.
"We're not even talking about 7-1 maps behind closed doors," said Sen. Sandy Crawford, a Buffalo Republican, on Wednesday. "We're talking about a strong 6-2."
She criticized fellow Republicans for wanting to place parts of Kansas City and Jackson County with rural districts, arguing it would overshadow smaller towns' votes.
Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder, a Sikeston Republican, said Friday that Senators had floated near 100 maps during negotiations.
"Every time they strengthen one [district] it weakens another," she said. "I can see how problematic that is."
Fashion violation?
Meanwhile, tempers continue to fray.
Schatz berated Onder for making frequent quorum calls during the filibuster, forcing senators from their offices onto the floor. He called it "complete and total ridiculous nonsense" that was interrupting negotiations.
"If the people making quorum calls were seeking a solution, that wouldn't occur," Schatz said on Wednesday.
"I don't see an issue," responded Onder.
On Thursday, caucus member Sen. Mike Moon, an Ash Grove Republican, exclaimed on the floor that another lawmaker had accused him of a rule violation over his attire.
"Forgive me if I may be a little passionate; I've read the rules," said Moon, who was wearing overalls with a jacket and tie, as Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe assured him no one had lodged a complaint.
Around the same time, Sen. Mike Cierpiot, a Lee's Summit Republican, delivered scathing remarks on the floor about former senator and political consultant Jim Lembke, whom he called a "puppet master" of the 7-1 fight.
Sen. Bill Eigel, a Weldon Springs Republican and Conservative Caucus member, was outraged and confronted Cierpiot in a near-physical altercation, the Missouri Independent reported. Eigel the next day on the floor called Cierpiot's comments a "premeditated assault."
On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of female Senators briefly wrestled control of the floor away from the Conservative Caucus to decry the state of affairs.
The 11 women, the most serving in Missouri Senate history, have forged a collaborative relationship across party lines. They slammed the personal nature of the map debate, calling the week's events "self-serving," and insisted on compromise.
"I hope we can all move forward and get these maps taken care of even if it's not 100% to our liking," said Sen. Elaine Gannon, a De Soto Republican.
Crawford referred to the definition of insanity, "doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting a different result."
"That's what we've been doing this week," she said. "I'm kind of over it."
After about an hour of discussion among the female Senators, Eigel took the floor back.
"I appreciate those thoughts and words, but I've got some other thoughts and words," he said.
He continued his filibuster, reading from "The Conservative Heart," by the American Enterprise Institute president Arthur C. Brooks.
