Local lawmakers react to new legislative districts

Posted: 12.01.2011 at 4:56 PM

New legislative districts could change politics in Mid-Missouri drastically.

For the past 10 years, Highway 54 has divided Jefferson City into two Missouri House Districts, but that will all change with the 2012 elections.

Most of Jefferson City becomes the new 60th House district. Jay Barnes is the only incumbent living within those new borders.

"I can't say I'm surprised, but I wasn't expecting this either. Anything they threw down, I was going to be prepared to deal with," Barnes said.

The southeastern corner of the capital joins most of the rest of Cole County in the new 59th district. Republican incumbent Mike Bernskoetter lives within those borders and says there is a lot of new ground to cover. On the upside, he won't have to challenge Jay Barnes in primary.

"There's a lot of state reps that aren't in that situation," he said. "I think somebody told me there are 58 state reps that have been combined in districts. So yah, that's a good thing."

Senator Mike Kehoe faces a signficant change, too. His 6th district loses Callaway County, but gains Osage, Maries and Cooper Counties, where Kehoe will need to become more familiar with the issues surrounding casino gaming. He no longer represents Ameren's Nuclear Power Plant in Reform, but says he is not abandoning the effort to change state law to facilitate the construction of a second reactor there.

"It wasn't a good project just because it was in my district, it's a good project period," Kehoe said.

You can find maps of the new legislative districts on the Redistricting website run by the state.

The commission responsible for drawing the new lines sent the maps to the Secretary of State's office on Wednesday.