JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — While most other states have finished work on new congressional boundaries, Missouri is one of just four without a map, as lawmakers here remain mired in personal feuds and disagreement over the lines.
The acrimony within the Missouri Senate became even more pronounced in recent days as the small group of GOP senators opposed to party leadership worked to block bipartisan bills such as a sexual assault survivors bill of rights.
Lawmakers, some frustrated by the intraparty squabbling, headed out of the capital city Thursday for a weeklong spring break.
They come back to the Capitol on March 21, eight days before candidate filing for the Aug. 2 primary election ends. All 163 seats in the House and half in the 34-member Senate are up for grabs in November.
Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, said Thursday the candidate filing deadline is “on the radar” and didn’t shoot down the possibility of moving against his fellow Republicans to force a vote on the blueprint.
“Everything is on the table,” Rowden said. “We’ll find a path and I want the path to be as smooth as possible.”
While the Senate has traversed a rocky road with little to show for its efforts, the House has sent more than 35 pieces of legislation to the other chamber since the session began in early January.
To date only one measure, a supplemental budget bill, has received final approval in what has been a muddled, fractured Senate thus far.
GOP leaders spoke to Gov. Mike Parson last week about various options for congressional districts, Rowden told reporters as the Senate took its break. He said he wanted to get a map to the governor’s desk to avoid having the courts draw congressional boundaries.
Such a scenario could turn U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner‘s suburban St. Louis 2nd Congressional District more competitive, putting the Republican seat in “jeopardy,” Rowden said.
Another thing he dislikes about not approving a congressional map: “It makes us look bad.”
A lawsuit calling on the courts to intervene in the stalled redistricting battle has already been filed, adding to the tension that has enveloped the debate.
Dysfunction
Dysfunction among Senate Republicans was on full display last week as the GOP faction blocked the sexual assault survivors bill of rights. The sponsor of the bill, state Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder, R-Sikeston, held a press conference to excoriate the group of men.
“These guys need to halt their campaigning and work for the job that they are currently elected to do,” she said.
State Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, had introduced an amendment to Rehder’s bill dealing with “obscene material” in schools. Rehder said both Democrats and Republicans had concerns and that Brattin should have worked through them during the committee process.
Brattin is running for Congress in what is currently the 4th Congressional District. The incumbent, Republican U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler, is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Roy Blunt.
The press conference, in which Rehder was flanked by 12 Republicans and nine Democrats, didn’t calm tensions.
State Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, said the Democrats were eager to exploit the rift within the GOP caucus.
With a mandatory adjournment date of May 13, Democrats’ best weapon to kill bills they don’t like is to run out the clock on the legislative session.
Democrats haven’t had to filibuster much this session; the GOP faction is doing most of the heavy lifting for them.
“I would expect you (the Democrats) to be there any time there’s a fracture or a rift within the majority caucus,” Eigel said after Rehder’s press conference.
Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, D-Independence, chided Republicans for the fissures, saying Democrats are unified.
“I imagine if we went to dinner we could all sit at the same table,” Rizzo said. “We’d like to have a functional Senate.”
‘My own playground’
While the Senate spent much of Thursday morning conducting no business, the House rammed through more than a dozen pieces of legislation, sending a variety of bills to an uncertain fate in the Senate.
House members have expressed frustration with the bottleneck, but a top GOP leader said he has no plans to intervene in the fighting.
“We can only worry about what we can control,” said House Majority Leader Dean Plocher, a Des Peres Republican who is set to become speaker of the chamber next year.
Plocher said the House has worked to send the Senate some high profile legislation that will benefit Missourians, including a bill that would prohibit hospitals and nursing homes from limiting the number of visitors during a pandemic or other emergency.
“We’ve had some good debate on the floor. We’ve had some good priorities that I think reflect the values of Missouri citizens,” Plocher said. “Hopefully the Senate will get to work on those in their due time.”
Despite concerns that the Senate will continue to flounder, Plocher said he does not plan to personally urge senators to set aside their grievances.
“I choose to play in my own playground and I’m not going to play in someone else’s sandbox,” Plocher said. “It’s their purview to handle their business. They’ll do their job.”
It’s an election year, meaning individual lawmakers seeking higher office are angling for attention from voters on hot button issues, including GOP talking points on abortion, anger over pandemic restrictions and education issues.
House Republicans think they’ve done their part to get their members’ voting records lined up for the August primaries.
“Our members have worked hard during these first months of session to address the issues the people of Missouri care about deeply. We’re extremely proud of what they’ve been able to accomplish and we’re hopeful the Senate will be able to take up many of these measures and pass them into law in the final eight weeks when we return from break,” House Speaker Rob Vescovo, R-Arnold, said in a joint statement with House leadership.
Senate Republican leaders have had less success in the party discipline category.
Rowden, addressing a lack of decorum in the upper chamber, said, “We can do better and we should do better.”
Rowden gave the Senate a grade of C for its first half.
“We salvaged a little here at the end,” he said.
Exchanging words
The Senate pushed through several bills Thursday after Rehder and Onder exchanged words on the Senate floor.
The priorities included legislation boosting the amount of money Kansas City has to direct to the Kansas City Board of Police, and a bipartisan measure promoting literacy in Missouri schools.
Rehder said she held the press conference to push back against the “pontificating” taking place in the Senate.
“You mean like your press conference?” Onder asked.
“My press conference was far from pontificating,” Rehder said. “It was calling (out) the three, four angry men’s caucus.”
Members of the faction in question include Onder, Eigel, Brattin, as well as state Sens. Denny Hoskins, R-Warrensburg, and Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove.
State Sen. Eric Burlison, R-Battlefield, who some hope can act as a bridge between the regular Republicans and the faction, called for peace on Thursday.
He said he hoped “we can have a week where we can cool off.”
Like Brattin, Burlison also is running for Congress. He wants to take over for U.S. Rep. Billy Long, a southwest Missouri Republican who is seeking Blunt’s Senate seat.
The Legislature comes back to town March 21.
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