A panel of 20 Republicans and Democrats reportedly have agreed on a new map for the 163 seats in the Missouri House of Representatives.
It’s a proposed map that makes several changes for our area legislative district. The House Independent Citizens Commission voted unanimously to approve the plan, which needed support from 14 members to pass before Sunday’s deadline. The successful completion of a Missouri House map was the first by a citizens’ commission since 1991.
The proposed map to be effective for this year’s elections shows Grundy and four other counties to be placed in house district number two. Grundy would be joined by Caldwell, Daviess, Harrison, and Worth counties. The 7th house district is proposed to have four counties: Livingston, Linn, Carroll, and northeast half of Ray county. The third house district still has Mercer, Putnam, and Sullivan, and now most of Adair county.
The current 7th district representative is Rusty Black of Chillicothe. The current 8th house district is represented by Randy Railsback of Hamilton with a pending change in designation to the 2nd district. The current 2nd House district is represented by J Eggleston of Maysville who is term-limited. Representative Allen Andrews of Grant City also is term-limited with his 1st district in northwest Missouri to include Gentry county plus Atchison, Holt, and Nodaway. Danny Busick of Newtown is the 3rd district state representative. Subject to the elections this year, the state representative for Grundy county could change next year from Rusty Black to Randy Railsback IF both re-file for their house seats.
Of the 163 districts approved Wednesday, 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.
The current House makeup is 108 Republicans and 49 Democrats, with six vacancies. here are 17 members who are not eligible to seek re-election this year, 16 Republicans and one Democrat.
