by Pa Rock
Missouri Voter (of the pissed-off variety!)
The GOP dominated Missouri Legislature pushed through a gerrymander of the state's congressional districts in September at the command of Donald Trump. The elderly entertainer's White House staff told him that with some devious juggling of congressional district lines in Missouri, one more Democratic seat in Congress could be eliminated and gifted to the Republicans. The fact that particular seat was held by a black man only served to make the change even more appealing to Trump and company.
The GOP Missouri Legislature rushed to do Trump's bidding and eliminated Kansas City's voice in the next Congress.
Several court challenges were filed, and there was also a citizen's movement organized to fight the injustice through an initiative (petition drive) to stop the new gerrymander law from going into effect. It will take about 110,000 valid signatures of Missouri voters to place the question on the ballot in 2026, and yesterday a group called "People Not Politicians" turned in 691 boxes of signed petitions to put the measure on the ballot and let the voters decide if they want the gerrymander or not. The petitions contain about 305,000 signatures, enough to make it very likely there will be plenty which are valid.
The Secretary of State for Missouri, a Republican named Denny Hoskins, is now in charge of going through the petitions and verifying the signatures. Once he is done, if there are the number of valid signatures required, Hoskins will put the matter before Missouri voters.
In the past when petitions were submitted that would change or stop a law from going into effect, the law was put on hold until after the signatures were counted and the follow-up election - if there was one - was held. Hoskins, however, said that on advice of his own attorney and the state's attorney general, another Republican, he would not halt the implementation of the gerrymander and that it would go into effect tomorrow.
That high-handed maneuver by the state's Republican Party will be heading to court as well.
I live in Missouri, I vote in Missouri (every election), and I understand the basics of Missouri politics. The Republican Party in my state resists democracy. They are still smarting over voters lifting the GOP's abortion ban in the state a couple of years ago - and before that voter's rejecting the "right to work" legislation passed by the state legislature. The Republican Party in Missouri is even trying to change the "initiative" process in Missouri to ensure that voters are never again able to change the will of the GOP legislature.
The Kansas City and St. Louis urban areas - and Boone County where the University of Missouri is located - are the state's three Democratic strongholds, and Republicans are constantly on the lookout for ways to manage those areas and control their voting power. The latest affront to democracy in the "show me" state (the gerrymander) not only deprives Kansas City of a congressman who will be attuned to the voters' needs of a major American city, it also strikes a strong racist chord by denying the state and Congress itself of fairer representation for a racial minority.
And racism is a big part of the gerrymander movement, both nationally and in Missouri.
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