The House Independent Bipartisan Citizens Commission unanimously approved new state House district boundaries on January 19. Fourteen of the commission’s 20 members were required to approve the plan.
Two distinct politician commissions are responsible for state legislative redistricting in Missouri—one for the state Senate and another for the state House of Representatives. To form the House commission, the congressional district committee of each major political party nominates two members per congressional district, for a total of 32 nominees. From this pool, the governor appoints one member per party per district, for a total of 16 commissioners.
If the commission had been unable to agree on a redistricting plan by January 23, authority over the process would have transferred to the Missouri Judicial Commission for Redistricting. In a press release issued after the map was finalized, commission chair Jerry Hunter said, “I want to personally thank all of the commissioners for the hard work that was put in by the commissioners and, obviously, as all of you know, the supporting individuals that have been instrumental to helping get this map done on both sides – on both the Democratic and Republican sides.” Rudi Keller of the Missouri Independent wrote, “Of the 163 districts…, there are 38 where Democrats should have the advantage, 97 where Republicans are dominant and 28 districts with past election results showing less than a 10% advantage for either party.”
