#mo09

[redistricting-blog-blog]

The proposal on the table would place Columbia and Boone County in the 4th District, which is represented by Vicky Hartzler, R-Harrisonville. Hartzler defeated longtime 4th District Democratic Rep. Ike Skelton in the November 2010 election. As proposed, the 4th District would include all or parts of 24 counties, extending into south-central Missouri and all the way to Missouri's western border. Columbia and Boone County have been part of the 9th District, which also includes St. Charles County and the rural counties of northeast Missouri. The 9th District seat, held by Republican Blaine Luetkemeyer, would become the 3rd District in the new plan and would cede much of its northern territory to the new 6th District. House Redistricting Committee Chairman Rep. John Diehl, R-St. Louis County, said even though not everyone was happy with the result of the House vote, the redistricting process was fair and the map was the best proposal for the new districts.

[redistricting-blog-blog]

With major changes already in store, the time is ripe for a congressional district that combines the communities of Central Missouri, Robert Weagley of Columbia told the committee at a public hearing. Weagley, an associate professor of personal financial planning at the University of Missouri, was one of two people who spoke during the hearing. The other was Eric Morris, an instructor and debate coach at Missouri State University. Weagley said he moved to Columbia in 1984 after growing up in Clay County. In his time in the city, he said, it has grown both in population and as a center of influence in the middle of the state. “It is a city Missouri looks to for health care, education and technology,” he said. But Columbia is on the edge of the Ninth District, combined with affluent suburban St. Charles County and rural counties on the Iowa border. With population losses to the north, and a growing Central Missouri, Weagley said it is time to take the counties that are now on the fringe of several districts and combine them.

Senate redistricting panel seeks feedback | The Columbia Daily Tribune - Columbia, Missouri